Taco Salad

There are many taco salad recipes out there. This one is mine.

This isn’t a light salad- it’s a meal in itself. But it’s delicious and fairly inexpensive.

• 1 small head of lettuce
• 1 pound ground beef
• 1 yellow onion
• 1 packet of taco seasoning OR 1/2 a recipe of Alton Brown’s Taco Potion #19 (https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/taco-potion-19-recipe-2115513)
• 1/3-1/2 cup water
• 1 can of kidney beans OR approx 1 cup cooked beans, drained
• 2 large tomatoes OR a couple dozen tiny grape tomatoes
• 1 cup shredded cheese

Dice the onion, set aside. Brown your ground beef, then drain the fat. Add the onion, your seasoning, and the water. Cook over medium-low heat until the onions are tender and no liquid is left standing in the pan.

Shred your lettuce into small pieces and place in the bottom of a large bowl. Stir the beans into the seasoned meat, then layer the meat and beans onto the lettuce.

Chop your tomato to your taste (I like small pieces, so I just get the grape tomatoes anyway), then add on top of the meat. Top with the cheese.

Serve with tortilla chips and a red dressing like Catalina. Personally, I don’t think it needs any dressing, but my dad always uses it if it’s available.

Simple Egg Salad

This is a base recipe. It’s good as it is, but you can always add more. The texture is nice on crackers or toast, or just eaten with a fork.

The typical egg salad has eggs, mayo, raw onion, and relish. I don’t care for raw onion in my egg salad, but I still like a little crunch. So I went with another solution.

• 6 hard boiled eggs
• 1 kosher (or garlic) dill pickle (or 5-6 “stacker” slices- the lengthwise ones)
• 1 rib of celery, washed and trimmed
• 1-3 Tbs mayonnaise

First, shell and slice the eggs. I slice mine lengthwise, then turn and slice across the width. Put them in a bowl.

Dice the pickle and celery finely. Add to the bowl.

Drop a tablespoon or two of mayo into the bowl and stir. The yolk of the eggs will mostly disintegrate into the mayo and turn everything yellow and creamy. If it’s as creamy as you like it, stop there. If not, add more mayo and stir again.

Easy tuna salad: Add one can (drained) or small pouch of tuna. Stir to combine.

Easy potato salad: Dice 3-4 medium potatoes, boil in salted water until tender. Drain, then add to the salad and stir to coat.

This can be easily  upgraded by adding in bacon, cheese, and/or fresh herbs.

Chef Salad

Like all salads, this is mostly just chopping and layering things. This was a common meal for my family when I was a kid- easy to make and relatively nutritious.

• lettuce, 1/2 a head or more (any kind will do, though Romaine tends to be tough to shred nicely)
• Several of your favorite salad veggies (suggestions: 2-3 carrots, peeled and sliced; a stalk of celery, trimmed and sliced; a handful of summer radishes, sliced; tomatoes, sliced or chopped; a cucumber, sliced; a summer squash, sliced; a handful of baby spinach) – Bowl shown has carrots, celery, and tomato.
• 5-6 slices of deli ham
• 5-6 slices of deli turkey or chicken
• 3-4 hard boiled eggs
• 1 cup shredded cheese, cheddar or colby or colby jack

Wash and shred the lettuce into a large bowl. Use your hands. For iceburg and other head lettuce, pull any wilted or damaged outer leaves off. Then, firmly grasping the head in both hands, smack it against a hard surface, stem side down. This will break most of the leaves free (except the bottom two or three), allowing you to remove the core by twisting it and pulling it out. Rinse by pouring some cool water in the newly made hole, washing it from the inside out. Don’t shred it one leaf at a time! Once the water is drained back out, grab the edge of your newly made hole and tear off a whole handful of lettuce at once.

The amount of lettuce should fill your bowl about halfway to two thirds.

Add your other salad veggies on top. Leafy things like spinach or other greens should go on the bottom, by the lettuce, but all the firm veggies can be in any order. I like tomatoes to go on top of the other veggies.

After this, dice your slices of deli meat and sprinkle the little pieces all over your veggies.

Then slice your hard-boiled eggs and distribute over that.

Finally, sprinkle the cheese on top.

You can eat this with your favorite salad dressing, but with all that meat and cheese and eggs, it’s good even without!

Zesty Cole Slaw

This is a recipe I’ve been trying for a while. It’s been hard to get the amount of heat right. A happy accident helped me get it all right. This is a creamy coleslaw with a good kick of spice.

• 1 medium cabbage (or 3/4 of a large one)
• 2 medium carrots
• 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• 1/2 cup Greek style yogurt, plain
• 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1 Tbs coarse brown mustard (the kind with horseradish)
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp celery seed
• 1/2 tsp caraway seed
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp chipotle powder
• 1/2 tsp Tobasco sauce

Divide the cabbage into quarters (cutting through the stem each time). Slice against the “grain” of the cabbage to shred.

Shred the carrots.

Mix all the other ingredients in a separate bowl and whisk until thoroughly combined. Pour over the cabbage and carrots and stir/turn until all the veggies are coated. Cover and chill in the fridge for at least an hour- even better to make it the night before.

As spicy as this is, it does very well when eaten Carolina style- piled on top of pulled pork in a sandwich.