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Beef Taco Salad Bowls

Averie Sunshine

4.91 from 11 votes

Updated: Mar 29, 2026

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🌮🥗 Ground Beef Taco Salad Bowls are made with all your favorite ground beef taco ingredients, including seasoned ground beef, black beans, and cheese in a homemade taco shell bowl. Topped with a creamy lime-cilantro dressing, it’s an easy meal everyone will love!

Homemade Ground Beef Taco Salad Bowls

I remember eating taco salad at many picnics and potlucks growing up in the Midwest. Everyone made them a little different, from thinner on a sheet pan to deeply Layered Beef Taco Salad to Loaded Beef Taco Salad served in a big bowl. 

These salads, this ground beef taco bowl recipe included, are served in homemade taco bowls, which adds to the fun and flair, and are a cinch to make.

What I love most about taco salad, apart from it being full of Mexican-inspired flavors, easy, and hearty, is that the sky is the limit with all the various ingredient options and variations you can incorporate. Flexible recipes are what it’s all about!

Ingredients and Notes

Everything for these ground beef taco salad bowls is easy to find in your local market. You’ll need the following:

• Homemade taco bowls: Use medium to large flour tortillas, vegetable or canola oil, and oven-safe bowls
• Lime cilantro dressing: Combine cilantro, sour cream (regular, reduced-fat, or Greek yogurt), olive oil, garlic, coriander, salt, pepper, jalapeño, and lime juice
• Ground beef: You can use ground turkey, ground, cubed, or shredded chicken, sausage, pork, or any meat you like
• Taco seasoning: I used a whole package, or you can make a homemade blend. Use mild, medium, or hot based on your preferences
• Lettuce: I used Romaine lettuce, but iceberg lettuce or another favorite is fine
• Tomatoes: Any type or variety from Roma to cherry tomatoes
• Corn: Fresh, frozen, or canned
• Black beans: Canned or homemade Instant Pot black beans
• Avocado: Guacamole is also great
• Jalapeños, limes, and black olives: All optional
• Salsa: Any kind, including restaurant-style blender salsa and chunky tomatillo avocado salsa
• Onion: Red or white, optional
• Cheese: I used a Mexican blend, but any is fine
• Chips: Fritos, Doritos, Tortilla chips, or your favorite

Note: Scroll down to the recipe card section of the post for the ingredients with amounts included and for more complete directions.

How to Make Taco Bowls with Tortillas

As a disclaimer, you don’t need to make homemade tortilla bowls. You can use store-bought, mix up the salad in a big bowl, or plate the taco salad individually.

1. Make the taco shells: Heat a tortilla in an oiled skillet until it begins to bubble. Flip and continue to cook. Transfer the tortilla to an oven-safe bowl, pressing down gently. You can also drape the tortilla over an upside-down bowl. Repeat, cooking and shaping all the tortillas.
2. Bake the taco shells: Transfer the tortillas to the oven, and bake just until they’re nice and crisp. Be careful not to burn!
3. Prepare the dressing: While the taco shells bake, blend all the dressing ingredients in the canister of a food processor or high-speed blender until smooth. Chill in the fridge.

Tip: As an alternative to making your own lime cilantro dressing, feel free to use Ranch, a lighter vinaigrette, taco sauce, or simply mix salsa with some sour cream.

4. Prepare the beef: Cook the ground beef in a skillet, adding the taco seasoning.
5. Assemble the taco shell salad: Add lettuce to the baked tortilla bowls, followed by the tomatoes, meat, olives, black beans, cheese, and all your favorite toppings. Top with the chilled dressing and a squeeze of lime juice, and enjoy!

Recipe Variations for Taco Salad Bowls 

Aside from the various protein alternatives to ground beef I mentioned, such as chicken, turkey, sausage, or pork, there are tons of other ways to customize and personalize these taco salad bowls.

• Whether it’s black beans, olives, jalapeño, or another ingredient that may not be popular with the whole family, feel free to simply omit things as desired.
• Pickled red onions, radishes, jicama, shredded carrots, cucumbers, celery, or most crunchy, fresh veggies work perfectly in taco salad. 
• Rather than using taco bowls made from tortillas, if you’re plating the taco salad or serving it from a large serving bowl, you can add chips on top, like Fritos, Doritos, or corn tortilla chips. The crunch factor shouldn’t be missed!

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4.91 from 11 votes

Beef Taco Salad Bowls

By Averie Sunshine

🌮🥗 Making homemade taco salad bowls is so easy and they’re perfect for holding this family-favorite taco salad including seasoned ground beef, black beans, cheese and more! Everything is topped with a creamy lime-cilantro dressing that’ll have everyone finishing their salad!

Prep Time: 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes minutes

Total Time: 40 minutes minutes

Servings: 6 servings

Equipment

• 1 large skillet
• Heat-Proof
• 1 food processor

Ingredients 

Tortilla Bowls

• ▢ 6 large flour tortillas
• ▢ 4 Tablespoons canola or vegetable oil, or as needed
• ▢ 6 oven safe bowls

Creamy Cilantro Lime Dressing

• ▢ 2 cups fresh cilantro, stems included is fine (1 average bunch)
• ▢ ½ cup sour cream, lite okay or Greek yogurt can be substituted
• ▢ ¼ cup olive oil, or use mayonnaise for a thicker dressing
• ▢ ½ teaspoon minced garlic, or more if desired to taste
• ▢ ½ teaspoon ground coriander
• ▢ ½ teaspoon salt, or more if needed to taste
• ▢ ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, or more if needed to taste
• ▢ ½ jalapeno finely diced, optional (remove the seeds to reduce the heat)
• ▢ 2 medium limes, juiced

Salad

• ▢ 1 pound lean ground beef
• ▢ 1 one-ounce package taco seasoning mix, or use a homemade version
• ▢ 1 cup corn, (canned, frozen or fresh)
• ▢ 6 cups shredded lettuce, 1 large Romaine head or iceberg may be substituted
• ▢ 1 cup diced tomatoes, Roma, cherry, etc.
• ▢ ½ cup sliced black olives, optional
• ▢ 1 cup canned black beans, drained and rinsed (I use low salt)
• ▢ ½ cup sour cream, lite okay
• ▢ 1 avocado, sliced or 1 cup guacamole
• ▢ 1 cup shredded Mexican blend cheese, or another shredded cheese
• ▢ 1 jalapeno, finely diced; optional (remove seeds for less heat)
• ▢ 1 cup salsa, red or green, mild to spicy
• ▢ ¼ cup white or red onion, finely diced
• ▢ 1 large or 2 small limes, sliced, optional for juicing
• ▢ 1 cup lightly crushed chips, Doritos, Fritos, tortilla chips, etc., optional but if not using tortilla bowls recommended for crunch

Instructions 

Taco Bowls*

• Preheat the oven to 350°F. Preheat a large skillet and add a tablespoon of
  oil.
• Heat a tortilla until it starts to bubble, flip it over, and let it get a couple of bubbles on the second side.
  
• Remove it, place in an oven-safe bowl (such as a French onion soup bowl, mini Le Creuset, or ceramic bowl), pressing down gently making sure not to rip the tortilla, and keeping the sides up. Alternatively, flip the bowl over so the opening of the bowl is face-down on your counter, and lay the tortilla over the bowl, making sure the sides are pressed down over the bowl securely.
  
• Repeat the process with the remaining 5 tortillas.
• Place the bowls on a cookie sheet and bake for 15 minutes. Tap the tortillas to make sure they are nice and crispy before removing. If the bottoms are not crisp enough, bake for an additional 1 to 2 minutes, or until done. While the bowls are baking, make the Creamy Lime-Cilantro Dressing.

Creamy Lime-Cilantro Dressing

• Place the cilantro, sour cream, olive oil, garlic, coriander, salt, pepper, optional jalapeno, and lime juice in the canister of a food processor or high speed blender and process until
  smooth. Set aside in the fridge until ready to use.
  

Taco Salad

• To a large skillet, add the ground beef, taco seasoning, and brown over medium-high heat, crumbling the beef as it cooks. Although taco seasoning packets usually call for adding water, I don't in this situation but use your judgement if you want more liquidy and saucy ground beef.
• After the beef has browned, add the corn, and brown slightly, about 1 minute.
• To the baked taco bowls (or large mixing bowl or individual plates), equally divide all the ingredients* including the ground beef, optional olives, black beans, cheese, optional jalapeno, avocado or guacamole, onions, salsa, sour cream, and optional squirt of lime juice.
• Evenly drizzle with lime-cilantro dressing and serve immediately. Taco salad bowls are best served fresh.
  

Notes

*It isn't required to make taco bowls for this recipe. You can use a store bought version or simply serve the salad from a big serving bowl or as a plated salad. If going this route, I strongly encourage you to use the optional but recommended chips so that there's a crunchy element. I use flour tortillas because they aren't as prone to ripping as corn are. However, you can experiment with corn and see how they work for you.

** As mentioned in the blog post, nearly all the ingredients can be omitted or increased in quantity if you don't like something, don't have it on hand, or want more of something. Additionally, many other ingredients can be incorporated. See blog post for ideas and tips!

Storage: All ingredients/components will keep airtight in the fridge for up to 5 days if store separately. Lime-Cilantro dressing will also keep for up to 5 days airtight in the fridge. Extra baked tortilla bowls will keep airtight at room temp in a ziptop bag or similar for up to 5 days.

Nutrition

Serving: 1serving, Calories: 961cal, Carbohydrates: 73g, Protein: 40g, Fat: 60g, Saturated Fat: 16g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 38g, Trans Fat: 1g, Cholesterol: 108mg, Sodium: 1688mg, Fiber: 15g, Sugar: 8g

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

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