I’ve previously shared with you the secrets of making kick-ass homemade tacos, and these are usually in heavy rotation around my house. Of course, I’ve been listening to Celebrity Intern preach the gospel of the Slow-Carb Revolution for years, and recently started to think about all those tortillas we were eating. Sure, we always use Mission tortillas’ Carb Balance medium or small-sized wraps, which are definitely better for you than the average tortilla (with only 18 g of carbs, plus 11 g of dietary fiber), but still.
I guess what finally put me on the road to Slow-Carbing it was the fact that I had finally gotten my hands on the library’s copy of Tim Ferriss’ Four-Hour Body, and was looking at the “Chipotle method” he advocated for the non-cooking bachelor. I mean, number one, who doesn’t love Chipotle? But more importantly is number two: dude, I can make a taco salad myself that will rival any Tex-Mex bowl o’ goodies.
Thus, I present to you the Low-Carb Taco* Salad!
LOW-CARB TACO* SALAD
Ingredients:
- 1 lb ground beef (preferably organic, though shoestring budgets may dictate otherwise)
- 1 shallot, minced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- ground cumin, chili powder, salt and cayenne pepper (to taste; see our taco recipe for approximate amounts)
- romaine lettuce
- salsa (we used a combination of Herdez Salsa Verde and Salsa Casera, plus Texas-Texas Fresh Roma Roasted)
- white cheddar cheese, shredded
- sour cream or crème fraîche
- guacamole (1/2 an avocado, a sprinkle of salt and juice of 1/2 a lime all mashed together; keep it simple!)
Directions:
- Salt and pepper your ground beef, then brown in a skillet over medium heat.
- Drain off excess grease, if necessary (we used an 80/20 mixture, so there was quite a lot), return to pan, and add shallot, garlic, cumin and chili powder plus about 1 cup of water to create a sauce.
- Simmer sauce down until water has mostly evaporated, about 10 to 15 minutes.
- Arrange leaves of romaine lettuce in the bottom of your bowls. You can either use the leaves whole for a nice presentation or chop them up into bite-sized pieces for edible convenience.
- Place ground beef on top of lettuce.
- Sprinkle cheese on top of beef.
- Add salsa, guacamole and sour cream on top as desired. We also tossed in a few pickled banana peppers for good measure.
- Consume and enjoy!
* Tacos need not apply
