Dinner is Ready!: Taco Salad with Doritos

Taco Soup Salad

Spicy, filling and delicious, Taco Soup Salad makes a wonderful lunch or dinner. Maybe you'd even like it for breakfast if you're like Lani, who likes dinner for breakfast. The truth is, this salad is just so wonderful whenever you eat it.

Start with lettuce on a plate. You can choose whatever kind, size and shape of lettuce you like. I like Iceberg cut in small squares. I'm quite sure it will be grand with Romaine or Butter or any mix of greens.

Add tortilla chips on top of the lettuce. I like to use Doritos. The regular cheesy kind of Doritos. If you like lots of spicy then you might want to try the Sweet and Spicy Chili Doritos. Very delicious. I suppose regular tortilla chips would be ~~boring~~ okay but I truly love the extra tasty, cheesy goodness of the Doritos. (Have you tried a Doritos Taco at Taco Bell? You should.)

Top the chips with steaming hot Taco Soup. I like this recipe for Ranch Taco Soup the best but really any Taco Soup recipe that you love will be wonderful here. I also like to use leftover soup for this salad. The soup is thicker the next day and the perfect consistency. Soup that is too thin will just make the lettuce float around on your plate. I like it loose enough to still flow down the chips but not so thin that it runs off.

~~~The truth is, when I make Taco Soup, I make 2 or 3 times the recipe. I freeze some for Taco Soup later, but I also freeze some in individual servings....just.so.I.can.make.this.salad.~~~

Top this with cheese. Cheddar and Pepper Jack are perfect here. I like to shred the Cheddar on the big side of my cheese grater and Pepper Jack on the little side. I also like to have the cheese shredded and ready to go before I start to assemble the salad so that the entire salad gets assembled before the chips have a chance to start getting soggy.

Then pour on the Ranch Dressing. You could use the bottled variety from the store but ~~WHY would you??~~ the homemade variety is definitely worth the extra 5 minutes of effort. Make the dressing. Pour it on. Be generous.