Gluten Free Crock Pot BBQ Taco Salad. A tasty Taco Salad with a little BBQ Bean and Beef kick! Easy to make in the crock pot, healthy, and perfect to use for multiple meals!

Well guys, it’s time to enjoy a Monday off! But you know what that means…

Labor day is here and Summer is officially coming to an end soon! I know many of you are out there soaking up the last bit of sunshine and Barbecue, which is why I have a BBQ recipe for you today combined with a Taco recipe you can enjoy Tuesday (Taco Tuesday). Consider this my farewell to Summer recipe. Pretty soon pumpkin will take it’s place!

That being said, I did not BBQ grill this meat. Gasp! I know, it’s way to hot here to do that. In fact, it all (minus the salad) went in the crock pot, yet again. I know what you’re thinking.

Why in the world is she on a crock pot kick?

And I kindly reply —> because it’s 100F here. I don’t feel like sweating much more outside by the grill. Haha!

Honestly, there are some major health perks to slow cooking foods in the crock pot. I think I mentioned them in this post. But’s talk about slow cooking beans a little more, shall we?

Slow cooking meats and beans perserves more of it’s nutrients (versus cooking on extreme high heat)
Soaking then Slow cooking beans allows for more (but not all) phytic acid to be broken down. Learn more about phytic acid here.
Rinsing and Slow Cooking beans can help reduce raffinose. Raffinose is a sugar found in beans. Many have a hard time digesting raffinose since humans don’t have the enzyme to break it down. Raffinose is similar to lactose, some can tolerate, others can’t. It’s best to ferment or slow cook beans for ease of digestion..

To conclude —> You’re tummy with thank you! And maybe then those beans won’t be called the “musical fruit.” If you get what I’m saying. Not to “toot” my own horn or anything, but I am getting pretty darn good at slow cooking foods for better digestion, haha. Pun intended. 😉

Okay, moving on to this recipe. There are two ways to make it. The faster way and the super easy but longer and more friendly to your gut way. I’m going got give you both. Because, let’s face it, sometimes (a lot of times) we need the faster recipe version just in case.

Crock Pot BBQ Taco Salad

★★★

2.9 from 7 reviews

Author: Lindsay Cotter
Total Time: 5 hours
Yield: 6 1x

Print Recipe

Description

Crock Pot BBQ Taco Salad {Gluten Free}

Ingredients

Scale

CROCK POT FIXINGS:

1 lb ground beef (lean)
1 cup pinto beans (or 2 cups canned and rinsed pinto beans)
1/2 cup salsa or pico de gallo
2 tsp BBQ seasoning (rub)
1/4 cup tomato sauce
1/2 tsp garlic
1 tbsp olive or avocado oil
1 tbsp chopped cilantro (optional)
dash of black pepper and sea salt

SALAD FOR ONE FIXINGS:

3–5 cup lettuce/greens mix
1/2 cup diced grape tomatoes
1/4 cup diced zucchini
Bacon crumbles
Parmesan
Chili flakes
Optional sour cream topping. (I mixed 2 tbsp greek yogurt with 1 tbsp sour cream)

Instructions

First brown your meat in a skillet, drain the fat, and set aside.
If you are going to use beans (not canned), first soak them and rinse. It’s best to soak overnight but if you don’t have time, then that’s fine. Place them in crock, add your seasoning and sauces, keep on low for 2 hrs, then add browned meat and cook high for another 3 hrs or so.
Stir halfway drain any extra grease from meat.
If you are going to use canned beans, rinse them thoroughly, and place in the crock pot with meat and sauces. cook on low for 5 -6 hrs or high for 3 to 4 hrs. Check half and stir with spoon. Then spoon out extra grease from meat.
Once meat is done, arrange your salad and place meat on top. Add the extra fixins if desired. Such as parmesan cheese, sour cream, chili flakes, black pepper, etc.
Meat serves 6. Salad serves one.

Notes

The meat/bean combo serves about 6. You can make multiple salads for one ore store the leftover meat for later. Also Freezes well!

Prep Time: 10 min
Cook Time: 5 hr
Category: main/salad
Method: crockpot
Cuisine: mexican american

Keywords: crock pot, salad, tacos, healthy, slow cooker, beans, gluten free

For more information on how to slow cook beans, see the Kitchn.com.

Oh and you will definitely have leftover meat/beans if you are are just serving 1-2 people. I like to save meat and beans for a sloppy joe the next day. Just add cooked green beans a little more tomato sauce! Served on Mikey’s toasted Onion bread (Paleo).