What’s better than tacos for breakfast? This healthy Breakfast Taco Salad has all your favorites – spicy ground beef, onions, peppers, tomatoes, avocado, cilantro, fried eggs and easy plantain chips! Savory breakfast at its best – Paleo and Whole30 friendly!
Greetings from the past! Even though it’s currently Tuesday, it’s actually Friday as I’m writing to you and therefore I have nothing to say about the marathon yet, except that let’s hope I finished in one piece?! Whenever there’s a marathon or other big event, I always have that thought/feeling that I’ll never see the other side of it! Of course as a grown up I know better, but I still feel that way every time.
I plan to gather thoughts and post a full race recap this Thursday so stay tuned!
But now let me rewind even further to last week, when I put together this insanely yummy breakfast taco salad with basically everything you might crave in a healthy, Paleo friendly (and whole30!) taco salad. Then I topped with perfectly fried eggs and called it breakfast! But you can call it anything you want, and eat it whenever the craving strikes. Breakfast for dinner and Taco Tuesday combined maybe? Go for it!
Of course I had to include plantain chips in my breakfast taco salad – because, um, have you seen what I typically eat for breakfast? Yup. Plantains are kind of a thing around here – brown, yellow, green and everything in between!
For these chips, I didn’t go with dark green plantains as I typically do for chips, but rather made them a bit more “breakfast-y” by using a greenish yellow plantain for a smidge more softness and a hint of sweetness. Perfection. However, you can use sweeter plantains or greener ones if you prefer your plantains a certain way.
I also decided to go an inch out of my comfort zone by including diced jalapeño pepper plus onions. I was having a craving for more spice and flavor and decided a touch of jalapeño would be perfect in this breakfast taco salad. Completely removing the seeds definitely turns the heat down and it was the perfect touch. Well, it wasn’t perfect when I idiotically touched my eye after handling the jalapeño, but the ground beef was perfectly spiced so I suppose it was worth it.
I swear every time I’ve cooked with jalapeño I either touched my eye or my nose and subsequently felt the burn. I think I’m probably just gross and doing this all the time, or maybe I’m being a rebel and don’t know it. Really I have no clue.
Are you ready for the recipe? It’s very, very easy and super tasty! I would say this recipe feeds between 2-4 people, depending on your appetite. Just make sure you fry an egg (or two!) for everyone planning to eat – the more the merrier 🙂
Breakfast Taco Salad with Easy Plantain Chips {Paleo & Whole30}
Breakfast Taco Salad with Easy Plantain Chips {Paleo & Whole30}
Ingredients
- 1/2 lb ground beef or ground turkey if you prefer
- 1/4 cup finely chopped onion about half of a medium
- 1 small jalapeño pepper seeds removed and finely chopped
- 1/4 cup diced red bell pepper
- 1/2 cup quartered cherry tomatoes
- 1/2 tsp fine grain sea salt
- 1/2 tsp cumin
- 1/4 tsp chili powder
- 1/2 large green or green/yellow plantain
- 3 tbsp ghee or refined coconut oil for cooking/frying divided
- 2-4 eggs
- 1/2 large avocado or 1 small
- chopped cilantro for garnish
- sea salt to taste
- Mixed salad greens of your choice
Instructions
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First, peel your plantain by cutting off the ends and scoring it vertically on two sides, then, using your thumb, create a space between the peel and plantain and slide your thumb down in that space to remove the peel. Alternatively, you can do this with a knife.
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Once your plantain is peeled, slice it into "chips" that aren't paper thin but not thick and set aside for a moment. Prepare all your other ingredients so they're chopped, diced, and ready to cook.
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Heat a large heavy skillet over med heat and add about 1 tbsp of ghee or coconut oil. Once heated, add the chopped onions and cook for about 1 minutes, then add the bell peppers, stir, and cook for about 30 seconds.
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Add the ground meat, crumbled, the jalapeño, salt, cumin, and chili powder and stir to brown the beef and allow the peppers to soften. Cook for about 2 minutes until the beef is browned and the mixture is toasty, then set aside and make the plantains*
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For the plantains, heat a separate skillet over med-med/hi heat and add the rest of the coconut oil or ghee. Once it just begins to smoke, add all of the sliced plantains to the pan and sprinkle the top with salt. These cook quickly in the heat. Flip them one at a time when the first side just begins to turn golden brown.
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Once the second side begins to brown, remove with a slotted spoon to a paper towel to cool.
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Fry your eggs in the same skillet you fried your plantains in with the leftover ghee or oil - over med heat, then cover the pan to allow the whites to cook through (or just cook them however you prefer)
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Now, assemble the salad! Layer the following over mixed greens: ground beef mixture, tomatoes, slices avocado, plantains and eggs, then garnish with plenty of cilantro and sprinkle with sea salt to taste. Enjoy!
Recipe Notes
*Depending on your preference, you can fry the plantains first and set aside while you cook the meat mixture. Either way is fine!
Nutrition
Any hot pepper mishaps while cooking?
Are breakfast salads your thing? Or maybe breakfast-anytime? I ate this twice in one day and neither time was breakfast 😉
my son would love this for dinner! I really have to make it for him. looking forward to your race recap!
Great anytime meal really 🙂
You know I’m saying SIGN ME UP!
Taco and breakfast = yum 🙂
My kind of breakfast right there! You know I’m down with plantain chips these days and taco everything is perfect this time of year! PS milk takes away the jalapeño sting.
Good to know about the jalapeño! Love all your plantain photos 🙂
yum i love tacos for breakfast!! I recently rubbed my eye with pepper juice and almost wept haha so intense!
Eek, yes, painful!
Loving breakfast salads lately! I feel like I have my life together when I eat a lot of veggies in the morning. And, writing to you from the future, I’m happy to say you survived the race!
Haha me too! Veggies for breakfast means it’s go time!
I don’t eat plantains regularly, but this makes me want to!
You need to make them a staple, I’m a little obsessed and bias though 🙂
I love breakfast salad even though my family thinks I’m weird…yet if you stuff all the veggies and meat into the eggs, somehow it’s more acceptable? 🙂
I know, omelettes make sense to people but breakfast salad is still weird, oh well 🙂 I guess more for us!
I would love this for breakfast!! Every since I began reading your blog, I have been dying to try my hand at plantain chips or fried plantains…I really need to pick some up from the store. They just look so yummy!
And they really are that good! A must try 🙂
I have to wait until Thursday!? 😉
But…it’s always good to see plantains 😉
Lol plantains galore!
I love breakfast salads for lunch! Are they still breakfast salads then? Can’t wait to read your recap of Boston!
I say they are still breakfast salads even if for lunch 😉 Breakfast anytime!
Tacos for breakfast?!? I have to make this for Jesse as he’d think all his Christmases had come at once, haha!
Oh, I always have eaten plantains yellow! I’ve never tried them green… I’ll have to do it now. 😉
Looks delicious, by the way! Love the bright colors.
Thanks! The green ones make awesome chips and fries 🙂
On my, this was fantastic. I substituted dear sausage for the ground beef. 2 Thumbs Up!??
Awesome! So glad you like it! And that sausage sounds so yummy 🙂