Taco Salad Boats with Avocado Dressing combine crisp flour tortilla boats with a beef Barbacoa taco salad and homemade avocado dressing.
Taco Salad Boats with Avocado Dressing
By Sue Lau | Palatable Pastime
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Today I am sharing a special recipe for both #MexicanRecipes week and also #FoodieExtravaganza which is a fun once a month event I like to take part in with my blogging friends. The food for #MexicanWeek is all about Mexican, Tex-Mex and southwest flavors for Cinco de Mayo of course, and #FoodieExtravaganza has salads for the food theme this month, so naturally I thought of a taco salad.
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There was a typical salad like this I used to love to get years ago at the Casa Gallardo restaurants around St. Louis albeit those were made in larger flour tortilla bowls. Those also had a smear of refried beans in the bottom, which while delicious, weren’t exactly going to fit in these with everything else.
I’d first gone to Casa Gallardo in West County around 1980- along with my parents for dinner, and also to see a movie (Blue Lagoon with Brooke Shields had just opened) (now doesn’t that just take you back to the stone age? LOL!). My Dad had heard about it and Mom, loving Mexican food so much wanted to try it. It was owned at the time by Ramon Gallardo who also used to work at the popular La Sala restaurant downtown.
A couple years later I had gone to the Casa in South Country a number of times, and the taco salad was one of my favorites. They had the avocado dressing like this. They also put the hard-cooked egg on top which you don’t usually see. But the dressing goes so well with it so don’t leave it out.
I hadn’t actually started making my dressing this way until one time I got a taco salad somewhere, pining for the old days, but they didn’t have the avocado dressing. I think they just had salsa and the usual dressings. So I had ordered the ranch dressing, and for some reason plopped some extra guacamole on top of that. And I realized it was almost there- much better than other guac or avocado dressing ideas either my own or from others, that I had tried.
And while I can’t ever be sure this is what they did (that chain is long since gone)- it goes by my rule of copying restaurant food that you always go for the simplest things, since they try to keep inventory uncomplicated, and it really needs to be something everyone can make, so you can control quality from one location to another. And having it basically be ranch dressing mixed with guacamole is a no-brainer. You can used bottled dressing, but I have shared my ranch dressing from scratch. You can find it here: Ranch Dressing. It’s mixed in the post page for BLT salad but don’t worry, it’s there.
For the beef in this I used a boxed pre-cooked barbacoa from Kroger. I’ll admit I wasn’t feeling great, my back had been hurting off and on for days. So while I had a chuck roast in the freezer I left it there instead of defrosting. I would have made my usual beef machaca with it. But I thought I would just run up to the tienda who carry some premade foods at their deli and grab some sort of shredded beef, but they were out. And I didn’t want to do chicken since I had just done the chicken tinga chalupas. So I popped into Kroger as I needed some milk anyway. Their chuck roasts were large and I really didn’t feel like dropping $12 just on the meat for this and have to freeze the rest so when I saw the barbacoa I took them up on it. It nukes fast and the amount of meat was perfect for far less money. But if you want to make machaca or barbacoa you should!
Join me tomorrow as #MexicanRecipes week continues and I post along with #FilltheCookieJar with my recipe for Mexican Chocolate Bizcochitos cookies. Friday I finish up #MexicanRecipes with my offering of Pico de Gallo.
Saturday will be fun as I group together with friends to post our #DerbyDayRecipes favorites. I’ve made a “ginormous” Hot Brown sandwich, a favorite from Louisville Kentucky, my Dad’s hometown.
And Sunday I’ll be posting with the Sunday Supper group again with another delicious salad recipe: BBQ Chicken Salad. I really do love eating salads this time of year as the produce becomes more abundant, don’t you? And there are so many different kinds we can make!
After that I’ll be sliding right into #BrunchWeek starting on Monday and running five days. I’ve got lots of good things planned for you, starting off with my cinnamon roll pizza. You won’t want to miss a single bite so make sure you drop in each and every day!
~Sue
Taco Salad Boats with Avocado Dressing
Ingredients
- 8 flour tortilla taco boats I used Old El Paso
- 8 cups shredded iceberg lettuce
- 2 hard cooked eggs
- 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
- 16 cherry tomatoes halved
- 1/2 cup sliced black olives
- 1 pound prepared beef barbacoa I used a prepackaged Kroger Cooked Barbacoa
Avocado Dressing:
- 2 ripe avocados peeled seeded and mashed
- 2 teaspoons lemon juice
- 3/4 cup prepared ranch dressing my Ranch dressing recipe
- 1/4 cup milk
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
- salt and black pepper to taste
Instructions
- Prepare the dressing: mash the avocado and lemon juice with a fork until fairly smooth.
- Add remaining dressing ingredients and whisk with a wire whip until smooth.
- Chill until needed.
- Preheat oven to 400°F.
- Place taco shell boats upside down in a baking sheet and bake for 5 minutes; turn right side up and bake another two minutes; allow to cool and crisp a little as they cool.
- Warm barbacoa and shred the meat with a couple forks or use your fingers, discarding extra liquid. You can use your own recipe for barbacoa or machaca if you like; my back was hurting so I lazied out with some pre-prep. Every cook needs a day off now and then!
- For each taco boat, add one cup lettuce, 1/4 cup barbacoa, 1/4 of an egg, 1 tablespoon of cheese, 2 sliced cherry tomatoes, and a few sliced black olives.
- Serve boats with avocado dressing on the side.
Notes
Nutrition
Happy #MexicanRecipes
Let’s have a fiesta of Cinco de Mayo inspired recipes all week long!
- Tropical Fruit Salad from A Day in the Life on the Farm
- Taco Salad Boats from Palatable Pastime
- Champurrado from Culinary Adventures with Camilla
- Shrimp Veracruz from the Tip Garden
- Tequila Lime Grilled Chicken from Cooking With Carlee
- Mexican Street Corn Salad from Caroline’s Cooking
- Cilantro Lime Rice from Books n’ Cooks
- Frozen Peach Margaritas from Family Around the Table
Check back each and every day for new recipes by following along with the hashtag #MexicanRecipes on social media.
Are you a food blogger interested in posting within our blogging community? Find out more by joining us online: Holiday Fun with Our Blog Friends.
#FoodieExtravaganza
salads, potato salads…whatever you want!”
Posting day for #FoodieExtravaganza is always the first Wednesday of each month. If you are a blogger and would like to join our group and blog along with us, come join our Facebook page Foodie Extravaganza. We would love to have you! If you’re a spectator looking for delicious tid-bits check out our Foodie Extravaganza Pinterest Board! Looking for our previous parties? Check them out HERE.
The Salad Smörgåsbord
- Avocado Egg Salad by Making Miracles
- Cilantro Lime Cucumber Salad by Cookaholic Wife
- Crunchy Salad by Sneha’s Recipe
- Lahpet Thoke by Culinary Adventures with Camilla
- Mexican Street Corn Salad by Caroline’s Cooking
- Taco Salad Boats by Palatable Pastime
- Tortellini Cesar Salad by Fearlessly Creative Mammas
- Tropical Fruit Salad A Day in the Life on the Farm
- Warm Steak and Sweet Potato Salad by Our Good Life
Join my recipe group on Facebook for more recipes from blogger friends around the world!
That dressing sounds amazing. Don’t you love when we can take care of two events with one post?
I have all of the ingredients for this in my fridge and I forgot to pull anything out for dinner. This is such perfect timing! And I need to join in on the Mexican Recipes next time!
It sounds like you have a LOT of delicious things coming! I can’t wait to see the cookies and I am really excited for BrunchWeek. I always love a good taco salad and yours looks delicious. I need to add them to my menu soon!
This is a great weeknight dinner- I didn’t know you could buy barbacoa ready cooked- that is a huge help during the week!