Taco Salad at Magnolia's

We eat a lot of salad anytime but when vacationing in Las Vegas I think we eat a bit more. It is one of the easiest ways to replenish some of the body water loss. There are so many salad variations to choose from that we never get bored. I just had try the taco salad at Magnolia's Veranda at the Four Queens. It was $5.95 with the player's card, $7.95 without.

Taco Salad

Taco salad is a family favourite served fairly often here. My version can be found here. Really the ingredients are fairly similar for any taco salad but as I found out, the presentation can vary greatly! The taco salad consisted of refried beans, seasoned beef, lettuce, green onions, tomatoes, cheddar cheese, black olives and green chili strips in a tortilla flowerette accompanied by salsa, sour cream and guacamole. The tortilla flowerette was very impressive! It held a lot more taco salad than any one person could eat unless they were extremely hungry.

The tortilla flowerette was deep fried into the shape of a bowl. It would have started out about 18" in diameter before frying. The bowl was about 4" deep on the shallow side and about 7" deep on the deep side. The bottom of the bowl was about 6" then widening nearing the top of the salad. The beef was very lightly seasoned and mixed with the refried beans forming the first layer inside the flowerette. Iceburg lettuce formed the main layer then was topped with black olives, green onions, cheddar cheese, tomatoes and green chili strips. There was ample sour cream, salsa and guacamole.

My only complaint with this salad is is lacked a bit more punch. For such a mouthwatering presentation I expected just a bit more flavour from the ground beef and salsa. Both were very, very mildly seasoned. I would have liked to see a bit of separation between the beef and refried bean simply by not mixing together. The guacamole was also lacking that lime sparkle. If they added just a bit more punch this would be a spectacular salad instead of a very good salad. This simply is a must have salad when in Las Vegas.

I am going to work on frying tortilla shells until I get a suitable but smaller duplicate for serving my version of taco salad in. I will post back on how I made the shells along with temperature and timing so please be sure to check back.