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This easy ground beef salad uses, a quick salad kit with chipotle dressing and fresh cherry tomatoes, with avocado to create a quick taco salad. With crunchy tortilla strips and pepitas on top, it’s a favorite easy lunch that is the perfect go-to for days you don’t want to have to cook much.
Quick Look: Ground Beef Taco Salad
- Prep time – Ready in just 5 minutes! This recipe uses simple ingredients and pre-cooked ground beef.
- Main ingredients: Salad kit, cherry tomatoes, pumpkin seeds, tortilla strips, and creamy chipotle dressing.
- When to serve: You need a quick lunch or weeknight meal where you don’t have to think about it.
- Dietary information: This recipe fits a Mediterranean diet and high protein diet.
- Why you’ll love it: This easy ground beef salad is my go to when I don’t know what to cook and need a meal fast. You’ll love it for meal prep or a great work lunch recipe.
There aren’t many opportunities I can make recipes with store-bought items, so I loved combining this salad kit and fresh toppings to make this ground beef salad very quickly. It’s ready in 10 minutes with zero cooking required.
Table of Contents
An Easy Leftover Ground Beef Recipe
The idea for this salad came from The Fresh Air Retreat, which was started by two incredible food bloggers – Liz Della Croce from The Lemon Bowl and Lauren Grier of The Curious Plate. I had heard nothing but wonderful things about their retreats, and was very curious how it would differentiate from the typical food blog conferences I had attended in the past. It ended up being beyond what I could’ve imagined, with amazing brands like Mediavine, Church Brothers Farms, and SUNSET. Every day and every event was planned with such care and consideration for the smallest details, even having my ginger beer mocktail available as an option for happy hour.
At this retreat, Church Brothers Farms hosted a salad kit tasting. What I love about their salad kits is they use avocado oil and are sweetened with honey or agave, so fits well into my Mediterranean-style diet. They also make Mann’s, which has pre-cut vegetables that are amazing for anyone cooking with chronic illness.
After, SUNSET hosted a Tommalier tasting experience for us. I was surprised by how different the flavors were – normally I just pick up their regular cherry tomatoes. But through this tasting, I discovered I really loved the “Honey” and “Lolli” varieties, which have a little more sweetness to them, and they’re especially good when roasted. For this recipe, I combined everything to make this simple ground beef salad I’ve been eating every since the retreat!
Ingredients
- Salad Kit – I used Church Brothers Farms Little Gems Salad Kit in Creamy Chipotle. This already has pepitas, green onion, sliced carrots, cheese, and tortilla strips included, along with a a creamy chipotle vinaigrette. You can find these at Walmart.
- Ground beef – Pre-cooked or leftover ground beef will work, just simply seasoned with salt and pepper. I cooked this similar to my Big Mac bowls recipe where I let the beef sear first for 2-3 minutes to get a nice char on it, then break it into pieces. Store any leftovers in the fridge for topping on salad bowls like this!
- Cherry tomatoes – SUNSET® Honey Bombs work well to add some sweetness to the savory ground beef.
- Avocado – Freshly diced avocado adds a little more creaminess and works very well with the other flavors!
- Salad dressing – If you can’t find the same salad kit, just use mixed greens and pre-chopped, packaged veggies with this homemade ranch dressing or honey mustard ranch dressing.
- Additional toppings – Roasted corn, black beans, and tortilla chips all make great additional toppings, or you can keep it simple.
How to Make a Salad with Ground Beef
Step 1: Start with pre-cooked ground beef.
Step 2: Toss salad mix with dressings and cherry tomatoes, and avocado.
Step 3: Add cooked ground beef to the salad and drizzle with more dressing, as desired. Top with pepitas and tortilla strips.
Recipe Tip
Prep and cook the ground beef ahead and add it to salads all week. This cuts down on your prep time day of, and you can use the leftovers in things like ground beef nachos or beef protein bowl.
Serving Suggestions
This ground beef salad is really a full meal in one, but if you’d love some pairings that go well with it, you can make this Spanish brown rice and mozzarella queso for a taco salad. Or pair with this dense bean salad for a Mediterranean-style dish.
Storage Information
Since this salad with ground beef takes about 5 minutes to prep, it’s pretty easy to make on the same day. But if you’d like to prep it ahead, here are some tips.
- Ground beef – Can be frozen for up to 6 months and defrosted overnight in the fridge to use as needed.
- Salad mix – This will keep for about a week in the fridge if you store all the components separately. Once mixed with the dressing, it will start to get soggy. If you plan to have this for lunch, just mix all the ingredients except the dressing together, and store the dressing separately till you’re ready to mix.
More Easy Ground Beef Recipes
For more easy and fresh ground beef recipes, try these smash burger tacos, pizza quesadillas, sloppy joes without ketchup, and pumpkin chili.
For basic salad recipes, don’t miss this kale crunch salad, or bibb lettuce salad.
Love this recipe? Please leave a 5-star 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 review in the recipe card! Don’t forget to tag me @thedizzycook on Facebook and Instagram, and follow along on Pinterest for more great recipes!
Easy Ground Beef Salad
Ingredients
- 1 8.5 ounce salad kit, Church Brothers Farms Little Gems Creamy Chipotle recommended
- 1/2 pound lean ground beef, cooked
- 1/3 cup chopped cherry tomatoes, SUNSET recommended
- 1/2 small avocado, diced
- 1/4 cup creamy chipotle dressing, or homemade ranch
- Optional: roasted pumpkin seeds, tortilla strips, corn, black beans
Instructions
- In a large bowl, combine the salad blend, ground beef, tomatoes, and avocado. Add the dressing, tossing the salad till all the ingredients are coated.
- Finish with the tortilla strip and pumpkin seed mix, or your own additional toppings. Add more dressing on top as needed.
Notes
- Ground beef – If you don’t have leftover ground beef, heat 2 teaspoons of oil in a pan over medium high heat, then add raw ground beef. Flatten the beef out in the pan with the edge of a wood spoon and sear for 2-3 minutes until golden brown. Then flip and begin to break up the beef into smaller pieces.
- Pair with tortilla chips, queso, black beans, and guacamole for a taco salad.
- This homemade ranch is great as a homemade dressing substitute that pairs well with the ingredients.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
