Taco salad

• 1 lblean ground beef · 90 percent lean, or ground turkey
• 1 tspground cumin
• 1 tspchili powder
• 1 tspsmoked paprika
• 1/2 tspgarlic powder
• 1 canblack beans · 15 oz, drained
• 1 cupcorn · fresh, tinned or thawed
• 1 large headromaine or cos lettuce · chopped
• 1 cupcherry tomatoes · halved
• 1avocado · diced
• 1/2 cupplain Greek yogurt
• 1lime · juiced

Methode

1. 1

   Make your own taco seasoning

   Cumin, chili powder, smoked paprika and garlic powder beat the sachet, which is mostly salt, cornstarch and anti-caking agents. You control the salt and get fresher, brighter spice. Toast the spices with the meat so they bloom.

2. 2

   Brown the meat hard and drain it

   Press lean beef or turkey into a hot pan and let it brown before breaking it up, then drain any excess fat. Browning is where the flavour is, and draining keeps the salad from going greasy. Lean meat plus a hard sear is the balance you want.

3. 3

   Beans and corn for fibre and substance

   Black beans and corn stretch the meat, add ten grams of fibre and make the salad genuinely filling rather than a pile of leaves. Char the corn in a dry pan for a minute for a smoky-sweet edge that lifts the whole bowl.

4. 4

   Yogurt-lime dressing instead of heavy ones

   Whisk Greek yogurt with lime juice, a little of the taco spice and salt for a creamy, tangy dressing that adds protein rather than a load of fat. It stands in for both sour cream and a bottled ranch-style dressing in one.

5. 5

   Keep the lettuce crisp and cold

   Use crunchy romaine or cos, washed and dried well, and keep it cold until you build the bowl. The contrast of cold crisp lettuce against warm spiced meat is the whole appeal, so do not let warm ingredients wilt it in advance.

6. 6

   Build in layers and add crunch last

   Lettuce, warm meat, beans, corn, tomatoes, avocado, then the dressing. For the crunch that a taco salad wants without a deep-fried shell, add a small handful of crushed baked tortilla chips or toasted pepitas at the very end so they stay crisp.