Turkey Taco Salad For Hot Weather

I'm not big on Mexican food most of the time but burritos, quesadillas, and this taco salad are all great hot weather dishes. I make burritos when I have leftover chili and cooked rice. I add some guacamole and plain yogurt to mine, plus some cheese to Sweetie's.

This taco salad is nice because you can make the cooked part during the cooler part of the day and then mix the rest of the ingredients together at mealtime. This recipe makes enough for 8 generous servings. If you are serving fewer people, don't mix the lettuce or avocado in. Keep those in separate bags and just serve portions to mix with a similar portion of the turkey mixture.

I leave out the cheese and tomatoes and add those in for Sweetie once I have my serving. Fortunately I think Sweetie can eat almost anything with his cast iron stomach.

If you don't have an easy source for ground turkey, use ground chicken or ground beef. It will still be delicious...and cool.

TURKEY TACO SALAD 

serves 8-10   

1 pound ground turkey browned, crumbled and drained.

1 Tbs. olive oil

1- 1 oz. package taco seasoning

1 15 oz. can kidney beans, rinsed and drained

1 large can pitted olives cut into ¼ or sliced

1 green, red or yellow pepper sliced and chopped

1 red onion sliced thin and chopped

1 pt. cherry or grape tomatoes sliced in half.

1 avocado, cut into chunks

1 large or 2 small heads iceberg lettuce washed, drained

and chilled then shredded thin.

½ lb. Mexican mix cheese or Monterey and jack cheddar blend

sharp cheddar
1 7 oz. bag taco flavored chips
1 8 oz. French dressing

 

Cook the turkey:

In a large nonstick skillet, heat the oil and add the ground turkey and cook for about 7 minutes, until the turkey loses the pink color.  Use a wooden spoon to break the meat apart carefully while it cooks.  Carefully drain off any liquid then stir in the taco seasoning—cook for 1 minute more. Add the kidney beans. Slice the olives and add. Refrigerate to cool.

Chop the pepper, onion, tomatoes and lettuce. Peel the avocado and remove the pit, then cut into chunks. (If not eating the whole salad at once, reserve lettuce not needed and be sure to also reserve proportional amount of meat mixture once everything is mixed. Coat some avocado with lemon oil to keep it from turning brown and save that in a separate bag.)

When ready to serve, mix chopped pepper and onion into the meat mixture. Fold in the halved tomatoes, avocado chunks and the mixed cheese. Place the lettuce in a large salad bowl. Top with the meat mixture, then the French dressing. Stir to combine. Top with the taco flavored chips (or tortilla chips). Break up the chips a little before putting them on the salad.

Serve at once.

SHOPPING LIST:

1 lb. ground turkey

 1 oz. pkg. taco seasoning

1 15 oz. can kidney beans

1 6 oz. to 8 oz. can olives

1 pepper of your choice, red, green or yellow

1 red or sweet onion

1 pt. cherry or grape tomatoes

1 avocado

1 large or 2 small heads iceberg lettuce

½ lb. cheese (8 oz.)Mexican mix—Monterey, Sharp cheddar, jack.

1 8 oz. French dressing

1 7 oz. bag taco favored chips or tortilla chips 

Almost Salad Nicoise

Classic Salad Nicoise has tuna, potatoes, green beans, hard cooked egg, black olives and salad greens with a garlic dressing. For dinner one evening this week I made my own version which had many of those elements, but I decided on a citrus-mustard dressing. Sweetie had bought some beautiful tuna steaks and grilled them so that they were still very pink inside, then he sliced them to put on top of the salad.

I cooked red potatoes and green beans and kept them hot while I made the dressing. The salad greens were comprised of romaine, iceberg, red cabbage. There were also some non-traditional carrot slices. When the tuna slices were ready I drained the potatoes and green beans and put them on top of the salad greens in a large bowl. The dressing when on next and it was all tossed together. Because I forgot to cook them ahead of time we didn't have hard cooked egg. Because I really don't care for olives, those were not included either. As you can see, not a classic at all, but still an interesting dinner for a hot evening. Our plates were piled with the dressed greens mixture and the tuna slices placed on top, to one side. I really enjoyed the contrast between the icy salad greens and the warm potatoes, beans, and tuna. An additional salad of fresh tomatoes, sliced, then dressed with balsamic vinegar, olive oil, and pepper completed the plate. It was delicious!

We have been having a heat wave with three straight days of 102 degree highs, preceded by a couple of days around 100 degrees and followed today by a high in the 90s. It should be in the 80s tomorrow and I am very grateful. Hot weather has never been my thing.

Citrus Mustard Dressing

grated zest of 1/2 medium orange
grated zest of 1/2 lemon
grated zest of 1/2 lime
juice of 1 lemon
juice of 1/2 lime
2 teaspoons Dijon style mustard
salt and pepper to taste
about 1/4 cup good quality olive oil

Place the grated zests and the citrus juice in a small bowl. Whisk in the mustard, salt and pepper. Continue whisking and very slowly add in the olive oil.

Suddenly Summer Spring Salad

I'm not a huge fan of heat. I know that some folks like lots of hot, sunny weather, but I live in a fog belt for a reason. This week, which should be the best of spring time, we have had really hot weather, breaking records all over the bay area. Fortunately, the spring strawberries are sweet right now and I rediscovered a great salad dressing recipe just in time to make a strawberry-chicken-crisp spring veggie salad.

First of all, the dressing is a Whole Foods recipe and it features strawberries and balsamic vinegar, with some shallots, fresh thyme, mustard and pepper for seasonings. It is 0 fat, 0 cholesterol, low sodium and low sugar fresh wonderfulness. You do need a blender or food processor, but it goes together really fast. Hulling the strawberries, getting those tiny fresh thyme leaves off the stems, and mincing the shallots are really the only tasks beyond measuring.

For the salad I started with a pre-cooked rotisserie chicken. Why heat up the kitchen at all? Nice, crunchy iceberg lettuce was the base, steamed, cooled and cut sugar snap peas and asparagus add flavor and vitamins and fiber, as does the celery, avocado some creaminess, walnuts a bit of crunch, and the strawberries sing Spring with every bite. I layered my ingredients in a pretty, wide bowl, then drizzled the dressing on after each serving went on the plate. A few slices of purchased baguette and we had dinner!

Strawberry-Balsamic Dressing
a Whole Foods recipe
makes about 1 cup to serve 8

2/3 cup washed, hulled and sliced fresh organic strawberries
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1/2 shallot, chopped
2 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
1 1/4 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

Combine all ingredients and 1/4 cup water in a blender and blend until very smooth. Serve chilled.

Suddenly Summer Spring Salad
Serves 4-6

1 recipe Strawberry-Balsamic Dressing
1 rotisserie chicken, skin removed, cut off the bone and cut into bite-sized pieces
1 small to medium head iceberg lettuce, shredded
2 stalks celery, chopped
1-2 cups sugar snap peas, strings and ends removed
1/4 lb asparagus tips, washed and ends removed
1 ripe avocado, peeled, pit removed, and sliced
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped
1 pint fresh organic strawberries, washed, hulled, and sliced

Prepare the chicken and return to refrigerator to keep cold until just before serving.
In a large salad bowl, place the iceberg lettuce. Sprinkle the chopped celery on top.

Steam the sugar snap peas until bright green and barely cooked, about 1-2 minutes. Cool under running water or in an ice water bath. Drain. Cut into bite-sized pieces and return to refrigerator to cool.

Steam the asparagus tips peas until bright green and barely cooked, about 1-2 minutes. Cool under running water or in an ice water bath. Drain. Cut into bite-sized pieces and return to refrigerator to cool.

When ready to serve, put half the sliced strawberries over the celery and lettuce in the salad bowl. Add the sugar snap peas, the asparagus and the chicken. Pile the remaining strawberry slices in the center of the bowl. Arrange the avocado slices around the outer edge and sprinkle the walnuts between the avocado slices and the pile of strawberries. Serve at once with the Strawberry-Balsamic Dressing.