Healthy Taco Salad

Close up of a loaded taco salad with ground turkey and peppers over a bed of spinach, with salsa and avocado as toppings to the side.

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A healthy taco salad with ground turkey and peppers served over a bed of lettuce with all your favorite taco toppings piled on top. Perfect for a delicious, low-carb meal!

Prep Time5

Cook Time20

Total Time25

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 ½ cups chopped bell peppers (multi colored if you have them)
1 to 1.25 lbs. lean ground turkey (see notes)
2 tablespoons taco seasoning
5-6 oz bag chopped spinach or lettuce mix

Optional toppings:

Shredded cheese, salsa, Greek yogurt or sour cream, chopped tomatoes, sliced avocado, chopped green onions, chopped cilantro, pickled red onions, sliced jalapeños, hot sauce, tortilla chips, etc.

For serving:

See notes below for additional serving ideas.

Instructions

Heat olive oil in a large pan over medium heat. Add bell peppers and sauté for 5 minutes or until softened.
Move bell peppers to edge of pan and add ground turkey to the middle of pan. Cook 5-7 minutes, turning and breaking up with a spoon, until the turkey is crumbled and cooked through.
Sprinkle everything with taco seasoning, add 2-4 tablespoons of water and mix it all together.
Once simmering, turn the heat down to low and continue cooking for 4-5 minutes to let all the flavors meld together.
Divide the spinach or lettuce mix among the plates. Top with the turkey and pepper mixture. Add desired toppings and enjoy!

Notes

Turkey: Ground turkey is our go-to for all tacos, and I prefer a 93% lean ground turkey. You could certainly substitute a lean ground beef here instead. Just be sure to drain any excess grease. Ground chicken would work too.

Peppers: This recipe calls for 1 ½ cups of chopped bell pepper. Using a mix of colors - such as red, yellow and green - adds a lot of flavor and color, but it’s fine to use all of one.

Taco seasoning: Homemade taco seasoning makes a huge difference, flavor-wise. It’s also easy to mix up and uses on-hand spices. But you can also use a store-bought packet if you prefer.

Lettuce: Spinach is my go-to green for salads, but you could also use romaine lettuce, a spring mix or another blend of salad greens.

Extra veggies: You could also mix in zucchini, corn, mushrooms or fresh tomatoes with the turkey mixture if you'd like some more veggies in your salad.

Additional serving ideas:

Make lettuce wraps by stuffing lettuce leaves with the turkey and pepper mixture, along with any toppings.
Make a wrap or burrito. Add your salad to a wrap or burrito shell to serve it that way.
Add black beans to make a more hearty mixture. Stir them in with the turkey mixture to warm through in the pan.
Make a rice bowl by serving the turkey and pepper mixture over steamed rice, then adding lettuce and toppings.
Or do both; stir the black beans in with the rice or with the turkey and serve the whole thing together.

Dressing: if you’d like a dressing, you can try this cilantro lime dressing (that takes just 5 minutes to make in a blender and adds a little punch of freshness) or any favorite store-bought dressing.

Make-ahead: You can prep this ahead or keep the leftovers for another day. (They make a fabulous lunch!) Just be sure to store your cooked meat and veggies separately from the lettuce, so it doesn’t get wilted. Add toppings just before serving.

Nutrition

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