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The best taco salad dressing recipe is beyond easy! This genius hack uses just a few fridge ingredients to make a creamy, zingy drizzle.
Want a killer drizzle for your taco salad? Look no further: try this Taco Salad Dressing! This genius hack uses just a handful of ingredients to create a taco salad dressing that’s full of flavor…in just 1 minute. Why whisk up a vinaigrette when you can use a few ingredients you might already have for your taco salad? You’ll be surprised at how creamy and zingy it is…with no effort at all. Try it on our Ultimate Taco Salad for a tasty Tex-Mex style dinner that fits a variety of diets. Let’s go!
Best taco salad dressing ingredients
What we love about this dressing is how simple it is to put together! It’s just a matter of mixing up a few ingredients you might have on hand or purchased for your taco salad anyway. Here’s what you need:
- Red salsa: Your favorite purchased brand! Mild or medium, you choose
- Greek yogurt: This helps to keep it light and healthy
- Sour cream: Adds richness and helps the drizzle adhere to the salad; you can also use mayo
- Hot sauce: Optional but recommended! We like Cholula brand; it adds a little heat and some tang
Mix together these ingredients, then add salt to taste! One taste and you’ll be impressed by how tasty, creamy, zingy and delicious it is.
Variations: use Greek yogurt, sour cream or mayo
Can you make this taco salad dressing without Greek yogurt? Can you substitute for the sour cream? Here are a few notes:
- The Greek yogurt plus sour cream combo is ideal. The Greek yogurt yogurt lightens the calories, and adds protein and live probiotics. (See our other Greek Yogurt recipes.)
- Don’t want yogurt? Use ½ cup salsa and ½ cup sour cream. Or for a vegan variation, see below!
- Don’t have sour cream? Use mayonnaise instead of sour cream! You definitely need some richness to give it body and help it adhere to the salad. We don’t recommend 100% Greek yogurt, though you could do it in a pinch.
Vegan taco salad dressing
Want to make a vegan taco salad dressing for your Easy Vegan Taco Salad? No problem! Here are two options to try:
- Use vegan yogurt and vegan mayo. It’s becoming easy to find vegan options for these products in your local grocery.
- Or, try cashew cream or homemade vegan sour cream! Try ½ cup red salsa and ½ cup cashew cream (a vegan staple!) or vegan sour cream.
How to serve taco salad dressing…let us count the ways!
Of course, you don’t have to only use this taco salad dressing on taco salad. Here are a few more ways to use it!
- Taco salad: Of course! Try Ultimate Taco Salad with Vegan Taco Meat
- Nachos: Drizzle on Sheet Pan Nachos, Vegan Nachos or Tater Tot Nachos
- Mexican side salad: This Easy Mexican Salad would be fantastic with a drizzle
- Rice bowl: Try this Easy Rice Bowl
- Burrito: Throw it inside a Black Bean Burrito or Easy Breakfast Burrito
This taco salad dressing recipe is…
Vegetarian and gluten-free. For vegan, see the notes above or in the recipe below.
Taco Salad Dressing (Genius Hack!)
The best taco salad dressing recipe is beyond easy! This genius hack uses just a few fridge ingredients to make a creamy, zingy drizzle.
- Prep Time: 1 minute
- Cook Time: 0 minutes
- Total Time: 1 minute
- Yield: 1 cup 1x
- Category: Dressing
- Method: Stirred
- Cuisine: Tex Mex
- Diet: Vegetarian
Ingredients
- ½ cup red salsa (mild or medium)
- ½ cup Greek yogurt*
- ¼ cup sour cream (or 2 tablespoons mayonnaise)
- 1 teaspoon hot sauce (optional; we like Cholula brand)
- 2 pinches kosher salt
Instructions
- Mix together all ingredients. Taste and adjust seasonings as desired. Stored refrigerated in a sealed container for up to 1 week.
Notes
*Don’t want to use yogurt? Use ½ cup salsa and ½ cup sour cream. Want a vegan variation? Use vegan yogurt and vegan mayo OR use ½ cup salsa and ½ cup Cashew Cream or Vegan Sour Cream.
Delicious! Will definitely make again!
if I decide to not use yogurt and use sour cream…you say half cup salsa and half cup sour cream…do I also add in the next fourth cup sour cream??? or is it TOTAL half cup sour cream?
Add the extra!
As written, it’s a good base dressing but bland. I ended up adding lime juice cumin powder, dried oregano and garlic powder to make the dressing a thinner consistency and more flavorful.
Disregard my first message regarding Pinterest. I found it!
Thanks.
Great recipe. Super simple.
No way to “pin it?”
Cute couple
Sorry! I posted the wrong review on the wrong page. This dressing was great!
Alright so I NEVER EVER EVER comment on recipe pages but I absolutely had to comment in this. I followed the recipe exactly but my rice started sticking to the IP during the toasting step so I did the whole “deglaze” thing once I added the water. I knew that too much water had evaporated and too much rice had gotten stuck. Sure enough, literally 5 seconds before it would have come to pressure, I get the stupid burn notice. I was one of the first people I know to buy an IP and in total I’ve gotten maybe 3 burn notices in my life. I said “forget” it, let’s see what happens. So I turned it off and left it for 14 minutes (4 mins cook time and 10 NPR). Worst case, I have to start over. Well let me tell you, this was the best rice I have ever tasted. Perfectly seasoned, perfectly cooked, and even with the rice cooker setting, I somehow manage to screw up rice every time I try. I don’t know if I’ll make rice any other way ever again. THANK YOU! This recipe is incredible.
I was looking for a quick and easy dressing recipe for our taco salad dinner and came accross this one.. I used up some small to-go containers of salsa’s I got from our local mexican restaurant and it came out great. Thanks for the recipe!
So glad you enjoyed it! Thank you so much for making it!
How long does the salad dressing last if kept in the fridge?
You can store up to 1 week! It will likely last up to 2 weeks, but we haven’t tested that. Thanks for asking!