Taco salad
Taco salad is a modern variation on the traditional Tex-Mex dish. These recipes begin to show up in American cookbooks/magazines in the 1960s.
"Taco Salad. This salad arrived with the Tex-Mex fast-food franchises, which began to pepper the country in the 60s...The man who whetted our appetite for "hot and spicy" was Glen Bell, who opened the first "Taco Bell" in Downey, California. That was 1962. Did Taco Bell originate the Taco Salad? I've been unable to proved it did. Or didn't. The first recipe I could find for Taco Salad appeared in the May 1968 issue of Sunset."
---American Century Cookbook: The Most Popular Recipes of the 20th Century, Jean Anderson [Clarkson Potter:New York] 1997 (p. 305)
Here is the recipe from Sunset Magazine, May 1968, p. 167
"Taco Salad
Ingredients:
1 lb lean ground beef
1/4 c. finely chopped onion
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp chili pepper
1 can (8oz) can tomato sauce
1 medium head iceberg lettuce
1/2 c shredded Cheddar cheese
2 medium sized tomatoes, peeled and cut in wedges
1 avocado, peeled and sliced
1 and 1/2 c. corn chips or tortilla chipsFry meat and onion over medium-high heat; stir until the meat is crumbly and has lost its pinkness and the onion is tender. about 7 minutes. Stir in the salt, chili powder and tomato sauce; keep hot.Shred the lettuce and arrange on individual salad plates. Top each with the meat mixture and sprinkle with cheese. Arrange on each salad tomato wedges and avocado slices, if used. Place corn chips around edges of salads and serve immediately. Makes 4 servings.
If you like more hotly seasoned Mexican foods, you might add chopped canned green chilis or liquid hot pepper seasoning to taste; stir into the meat mixture with the tomato sauce."
