For this week's Craving Ellie in My Belly recipe, Peggy from Pantry Revisited chose for us to make the Beef Taco Salad with Chunky Tomato Dressing, from Ellie's So Easy cookbook. As you can see from the title of this post, I revamped this recipe a bit! Okay, more than a bit. I took two of the main components of the salad, the beef and the chunky tomatoes, and omitted them completely. The results were mixed, but mostly very, very good!
Since I don't eat beef, it was a no-brainer that I would just use ground turkey instead, and of course it worked out just fine. For the dressing, however, I had to get a little more creative. I basically had to remove the main component from the dressing, which was of course the chopped tomato pieces, in order to satisfy my aversion to chunks of raw tomato in my salads. I recalled that I had made a dressing once before that was a maple and lime combination, and it was really tasty. Since there was lime juice in this one, I went with a sweet/tart theme. This time, I added a squeeze of honey, some tomato paste, and I eyeballed the olive oil. After a quick taste, I decided that the lime juice plus the tomato paste was making it taste way too acidic, so I added a bit of sugar. That really helped, but I don't necessarily think I'll go making this made-up salad dressing on a regular basis! Not my favorite. That's totally my fault, though, and not Ellie's.
The salad itself was incredibly delicious. I had this whole meal thrown together in record time, too, so that's always a big plus! Personally, I'm a huge fan of throwing crushed-up tortilla chips on salads and soups, so it was a pretty safe assumption that I would like this. The simple seasoning on the meat and beans was just enough, and I threw in some chopped carrot and scallion to brighten up the salad just a bit. Overall, this was a great salad and I would absolutely make it again. Thank you, Peggy! For the original recipe, click over here. And to check out the CEIMB blogroll, click here.
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This version sounds great as well! Although, I have to say that I didn't think there was going to be any tomatoes showing up here, I think they did add a nice color to the dish overall. Of course I would, right, because I love tomatoes! This looks and sound delicious, I am a big fan of the turkey substitute.
ReplyDeleteToo bad you don't love tomatoes though. That leaves out a lot of recipes for you to have to find substitutions. Glad you liked your version of this and thank you so much for cooking with me this week on my pick! Hope your holiday season is going well so far. I always enjoy seeing what creative thing you have done with your recipes and this version sounds yummy.
ReplyDeleteI really need to use more ground turkey. I bet it was good in this salad and even more healty.
ReplyDeleteI also do not like raw maters. Let the hubs eat those and I used an older standby dressing.
I would have liked turkey more so I think that is a smart move, on your part. I should give up beef also.
ReplyDeleteTomatoes, on the other hand, are something, I love. This was a good salad although I would never have thought of it before.
It is a shame about your dressing.