The Day After Taco Salad

The "Day After Taco Salad"

Almost everyone loves tacos - aside from chopping a few vegetables, they have to be one of the fastest, easiest to make dishes that make a great lunch or dinner.  But how often are you left with weird amounts of leftovers, like one tortilla wrap but two helpings of beef?  Well take a look at this perfect recipe for whipping together a delicious taco salad with nothing other than your left overs. 

So you guessed it, the only things that we will make this delicious salad with are leftovers, making it not only a very cost effective dish but also a very fast dish to prepare as well.  If there is one thing a chef hates, its food waste. 

Ingredients You Need:

• Cooked Taco Meat leftovers, 
• Lettuce, romaine is best if you have the choice
• Leftover Soft Taco or Hard Taco shells
• Sour Cream
• Salsa
• Tomatoes
• Onions
• salt + pepper
• Extra taco meat seasoning, or some chilli powder
• Cheddar or Monterey Jack cheese

The Dressing

Every good salad has a great dressing.  This one is as easy as it is delicious. 

1. Get a small bowl.
2. Place two or three table spoons of sour cream in it
3. Next, get your salsa, if you used a taco kit, your salsa runny red sauce is probably not that excellent. I use La Costena's Salsa Verde. About 1 tablespoon. It's oh so delicious on so many things. 
4. Mix them together. 
5. I know I said only leftovers will be used, but; feel free to add a bit of chopped garlic, and a dollop of mayonnaise.  I find it just gives it a bit more depth, and balance.  You should be left with a ranch-type of salad dressing now. 
6. Give it a taste. Maybe add a bit more salt and pepper - remember you're not seasoning your lettuce, so add a proportionate amount of salt to how much lettuce you'll be tossing. 
7. This salad dressing may not have as much acid as your average salad dressing so if it doesn't quite have the 'bite' you're looking for, use a few drops of lemon juice, lime juice, hot sauce, more salsa, or even a teaspoon of brine from something like pickled peppers will be sufficiently acidic. 
8. Thats it. Your Dressing is ready.   

Tortilla Chips and Taco Beef

The Chips

I don't always go for a texture contrast in my dishes, and most times I find crunchy things get in the way of salads, however, these served a purpose, and tasted great. 

1. Take your leftover soft shell tortilla, cut into baby-finger-width strips. 
2. Hit with a little spray of some canola - one of those handy oil pressurizers are great for this. 
3. Toss some salt and pepper onto your lightly oiled tortilla slices, and in my case, I used some leftover taco seasoning, but chilli powder works great too. 
4. Place on a baking sheet and bake. 375F should be a good temp for your oven, hot enough to brown the tortilla, but not so hot it will burn in the blink of an eye. 
5. Toss the chips a few times while in the oven so they get an even toasting. 
6. If your oven has a Low-Broil setting, I actually used this. You'll have to keep a close eye to not burn. 
7. Pull them out of the oven when the majority of the pan is nicely toasted. 
8. If you don't have soft tortillas, you can skip this. If you have hard shells, you can just crumble them, and if you have no shells at all, you can crunch up some tortilla chips instead - heck - even Doritos could work.  But thats all there is to it, 

The reason I used chips is because of the taco beef - typically a little greasy, I don't want that hot taco grease to meet my nice crispy lettuce and make it all 'wilty'.  I used the tortilla chips as a barrier between the hot taco meat and the cool crispy lettuce. It soaks up all that grease, and keeps everything delicious. 

and voila ! Your fancy looking leftover feast. Great for lunch or dinner. 

Put it all Together

1. Now halve some cherry tomatoes, run a fine dice on some onions, and shred a bit more of your favourite taco cheese.
2. Take your lettuce, toss it with your dressing. Make sure to give it a taste.  When you're happy with the lettuce / dressing mix, add in your tomatoes and onions, and cheese.   Of course, you could add some other things like pickled banana pepper rings, sweet bell peppers, diced cucumbers, shredded carrots, some canned beans for extra protein, or whatever other veggies you want to use up. 
3. Plate your salad into bowls, top with a 'roof' of your tortilla chips, and then sit your pile of hot taco beef on that roof of chips. 

Dig in and enjoy!  Also, I use 'beef' a lot because thats what I made mine with, but this salad will taste equally great with chicken, pork, even fish!