For summer meals I do as little cooking as possible. That means dinner salads
are often on the menu. This one is a take-off on taco salads, but rather than
buy taco salad shells, we just use tortilla chips. I lay out
the prepared ingredients, and everyone builds theirs to taste. It's an easy to make
summer favorite.
Nacho Salad
- Ground meat or leftover chicken seasoned with taco seasoning (I brown mine with chopped onions and bell peppers.)
- Chili beans
- Chopped lettuce
- Grated cheese
- Chopped tomatoes
- Chopped avocado
- Tortilla chips
- Sauce: mine is ricotta cheese blended with salsa to taste
Start with the chips as the bottom layer and add ingredients to taste. Top
with sauce and enjoy!
Recipe notes:
- Obviously you can use any ingredients you want, these are just our favorites.
- For the sauce, sour cream or cream cheese could be substituted for the ricotta cheese. I use it because I make it from the leftover whey every time I make my goat milk cheeses.
Cooking outside, or not at all here. I have a small cast iron wok that fits perfectly on the camp stove, so have been doing quick stir fries with a bit of meat and a ton of random garden veg.
ReplyDeleteRosalea, that's a great idea. Both for cooking and for eating from the garden. Dan usually cooks a couple times a week on the grill, but that's about it. On the other hand, I have my summer kitchen which helps not heat up the house.
DeleteWe still do a fair amount of cooking thanks to an excellent exhaust hood, but we do significantly taper off the baking. Nachos using tortilla chips is in our rotation as well.
ReplyDeleteEd, good point about a good exhaust hood over a stove. That's something I don't have but wish I did.
DeleteI LOVE a good salad and we do use tortilla chips a lot in them for that crunchy but for some reason, never thought about the beans. Sounds wonderful!
ReplyDelete1st Man, we love the crunch too. Actually, I sometimes use tortilla chips with soup instead of crackers.
DeleteWe make this often (without the meat and use salsa for the sauce) and call it 'haystacks.' Great meal for a crowd!
ReplyDeleteMichelle, interesting. Haystacks makes me think of something made with chow mein noodles!
DeleteWe've been doing a lot of taco type meals here with all the tomatoes lately too. Yum. We used some leftover organic corn tortillas and crisped them up for tostadas. So good! I cannot wait to make us some fresh salsa soon.
ReplyDeleteKristina, as soon as I can my quota of pizza sauce, I'm going to take a page out of your book and make salsa!
DeleteThat salad looks scrumptious, Leigh! I know your outdoor kitchen is a godsend this time of year! We are finally completely moved to north Florida, and have the Kentucky farm up for sale. We still have a lot of work ahead, but it’ll all be worth it!
ReplyDeleteWyomingheart, is that you?!? I'm so glad to hear from you. I was going to respond to your Christmas card but mislaid the return address. So glad all is going well.
DeleteThat looks and sounds so tasty! I also do a lot of summer salad meals, with multibean salad usually being the star, day after day, and I never get tired of it. But this year with the heat and humidity and lack of rain has been a very grim gardening year, and there has been no bean salad at all.
ReplyDeleteQuinn, it seems like it's been a tough gardening year everywhere. Multibean salad sounds delicious. Do you have a favorite recipe you use?
DeleteThat looks yummy! I copied the recipe and Sunday I am making it! I got what ingredients this morn I didn't have. Wish me full and happy tummy!
ReplyDeleteKevin, it it yummy! It's a weekly favorite for us. I hope you enjoy it!
DeleteLeigh, we used to make this when I growing up. Like you, we used tortilla chips instead of taco bowls.
ReplyDeleteOne thing we did differently from this recipe is add kidney beans - which leads to an amusing story of our dog at the time, who got the leftover taco salad. He would happily eat the chips, meat, lettuce, cheese and tomatoes - but would carefully spit out the kidney beans to the side.
TB, that's so funny about your dog. I'm amazed he would eat the tomatoes! It reminds me of a cat we used to have. He would beg to taste anything I was working on. One day is was pinto beans. I told him cats don't like beans. He insisted. So I gave him some and I'm convinced he ate them all just to prove me wrong. :)
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