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Truthfully, I’ve never had a taco I didn’t like.
Yet when it comes to taco salad– well, I am traumatized.
As a kid, I was forced to eat taco salad covered in thousand island dressing (don’t ask me why). I just remember gagging it down and vowing to stay away from taco salads. Then I started making my own recipes and it all changed.
This healthy taco salad recipe is not a childhood recipe. It used walnuts and cashew cream for protein and salsa for the dressing. It’s good, promise!
As I grew up, I learned that taco salad takes many forms— and some are quite tasty (while others are gag-worthy)! There’s just something so satisfying about a crisp corn shell (or chips) piled high with shredded lettuce and all of the other veggie-lovin’ fixings.
What’s unique about my Healthy Taco Salad is there’s no meat. Instead, I’ve substituted my heart-healthy vegan taco meat. It’s so good you’d almost never know it wasn’t meat.
Ingredients in Healthy Taco Salad
While there are a dozen reasons I love tacos and taco salads, here are my top three:
- Easy to make
- Versatile for everyone
- Favor changes every time
For real though; I’ve got a family of 4 and we all have different taste preferences. This healthy taco salad recipe is an easy dinner win because everyone can customize it their own way. Here’s what I set out for my version of a healthy salad:
- Vegan taco meat: no joke, everyone is shocked at how amazingly tasty this walnut ‘meat’ is. You’ve gotta try it!
- Tortilla chips: I like to get strips for this; try Siete’s cassava chips for a grain-free version
- Romaine lettuce: It’s all about those crispy leafy greens in this healthy taco salad. Feel free to swap in spinach, kale, or the leafy green of your choice.
- Black beans: I splurge on the organic version, or make my own recipe from Simple Green Meals
- Avocado or guacamole: Healthy fat is needed for our bodies to break down nutrients, and what better way than with a colorful avocado?!
- Colorful veggies: cherry tomatoes, red bell pepper, corn, black olives, green onions
Get creative with the veggie toppings. Red onion provides a pop of color, radishes are super crunchy, jalapeños really pop in flavor + spice… What are you fav veggies to add to a healthy taco salad?
Taco Salad toppings
Serve food that delights your tastebuds and nourishes your body at the same time. Choose a veggie or two from each of these 5 color groups and enjoy a variety of flavors as well as health benefits in your healthy taco salad.
Blue/purple foods provide vitamins A, C, and K. Green foods are rich in cancer fighting phyto-chemicals. Orange/yellow foods bring the beta-carotene and potassium. Red foods are good sources of iron. White/light green foods provide potassium, magnesium and vitamin E.
While this is just a glimpse into the incredible land of whole food, keep these tips in mind when choosing what colors join your plate for dinner.
What Makes Taco Salad Healthy?
Most taco salad recipes use ground beef, not this one. My walnut taco meat recipe is amazing. Now, I don’t often try to ‘mimic’ meat with plants, yet this recipe is pure genius on a plate. All you do is place walnuts in a bowl with water and a little lemon juice. Let sit for 8 hours or overnight to soften.
When ready, drain and rinse the soaked walnuts. Then add to a food processor with tamari (gluten-free soy sauce) and a few spices and grind it all up. You can turn up the spice on this ‘meat’ as much or as little as you want. If you have a fav taco seasoning, use that instead of my spice combo! This recipe made its debut in my our 21-Day Cleanse, and has been a fan fav ever since. Your salad just won’t be the same without it.
How to Incorporate Meat into Taco Salad
Plant-based eating doesn’t mean you have to be vegan. I’m not. If your family eats meat, try using half walnut taco meat and half ground beef. Your brain and body will thank you for providing it the rich benefits of walnuts, while you can also keep your meat-loving family members happy, too.
Healthy Taco Salad
Ingredients
- 1 cup Vegan Taco Meat
- 1 cup tortilla chips
- 2 cups romaine lettuce shredded
- ¾ cup black beans drained and rinsed
- ½ avocado diced
- ½ cup cherry tomatoes halved
- ½ red bell pepper diced
- ¼ cup corn thawed if frozen
- ¼ cup black olives sliced
- 2 tbsp green onions thinly sliced
- 2 tbsp cilantro for serving
- 1 tbsp dairy-free sour cream cashew cream
Instructions
- Prepare Vegan Taco Meat according to recipe (best if walnuts are soaked overnight. Yet in a pinch, you can "flash soak").
- Arrange romaine lettuce on plate and top with ingredients.
- Top with tortilla chips, followed by the taco meat, black beans, avocado, tomatoes, corn, olives, and green onions.
- Garnish with cilantro and sour cream.
Notes
- Vegan avocado crema would be really good on top instead of sour cream. It’s like a saucy version of guacamole.
- For a grain-free version, substitute corn tostadas with large cabbage or lettuce leaves, or simply omit.
- To heat taco meat, place a nonstick skillet over medium-high heat and lightly coat the bottom with olive oil, about 1-2 teaspoons. Add taco meat mixture and lightly saute until warmed through and nuts are lightly toasted. Be careful not to let it burn. Use immediately.
Nutrition
Taco Salad Frequently asked questions
No! They can be super healthy yet still delicious by using fresh ingredients, protein powered vegan meat or real meat and dressing that is made with whole ingredients.
Easy! Use walnut taco meat, chickpeas, black beans, jackfruit, or tofu for a delicious non-meat taco salad. Swap out cheese + sour cream for guacamole and cashew cream. You won’t even miss the dairy or meat.
Taco salads are kind of a whole-meal-in-one dish. You’ve got your protein, starch, veggies, and fats altogether in one filling dish. Know that not all calories are the same, and if your healthy taco salad is full of fresh, whole foods, then you’ve got nothing to worry about except that next bite of flavor-filled goodness.
What a combo of color, texture, taste and fragrance. It was delicious and disappeared like magic. I had fun creating it too!
I really liked this salad. Glad I prepped the cashew cream and walnut taco meat ahead of time. The rest was very quick and easy to put together. It was very filling and surprisingly not dry. I like the fresh corn. I didn’t add tortillas. I will definitely make this again!
I’ve never used walnuts for meat before, but I was up to trying something new. I was surprised. I love this salad.
I really love this taco salad, and I didn’t miss the meat, cheese or sour cream at all! Thank you for another great salad!!
This was fun to make the walnut taco meat. It had so many good flavors in it. I added some spices to my cashew cream and watered it down to be a dressing.
I made modifications and had to use ground meat instead of walnuts for now. Enjoying the variety and textures.
I love taco salads! I love the crunch of the tortilla chips, the seasoned meat, the crispy veggies… yum!!! This is a good one. I wanted a little more seasoning in the cashew cream, so next time I’ll add some punch to it, but I can see its versatility and I know I’ll use it often. Very satisfying for lunch!
Very good salad that I will be sharing the recipe with my friends! Love these healthy salads!!
Wow, I really loved the walnut taco meat! This salad was easy to prep for and make. It’s is a hit for me.
I love to modify taco salads — they are very versatile. Yes, I made this recipe with some modifications to save time. Instead of the “walnut taco meat” I used a package of Madras Lentils (TastyBite). I also used a coconut yogurt for the cashew cream and sprinkled pumpkin seed on it. It was an easy modification that saved time.
The recipe is a great base for adding any ingredients you want based on your time and taste.
This is one of my favorite recipes! The walnut “meat” tastes earthy and spicy. I didn’t realize I was out of cumin until I began making it, so I subbed in a southwestern spice mixture and it did the trick since it had cumin in it.
This is definitely a recipe I’ll make over and over again.
This one was not a favorite. Couldn’t do the walnut meat or the cashew cream. I used my usual plant based meat and omitted the cashew cream. Did like the black beans in the salad,but will have to play with spices to add flavor.
I made the Taco salad but made some modifications. I am sharing it with my son who took it to work for lunch, his work place is nut free so and we are not vegan so I cooked up grou d meat and used salsa and sour cream instead of cashew cream. It was an excellent salad and very filling.
Another surprisingly tasty salad. Was not sure about the walnuts as taco meat. But it actually works really well with the rest of the ingredients. Thanks for another awesome salad recipe.
UPDATE: Had leftovers so I put them in a tortilla for breakfast taco. Added my salsa verde…sooooooo good!
So Good 🙂 My Healthy Taco Salad Was So Delicious. I Like Making My Meat Alternative With Walnuts This Is One Of My Favorite Ways. The Fresh Salsa I Made, A Sprinkling Of Cilantro, Diced Avocado And Beans Makes For Filling Meal. My Romaine Lettuce Was Crunchy And Slightly Sweet. Note: I Used Coconut Aminos, Vegan Shredded Cheese And No Corn Or Tortilla Chips. Yes, I Will Make This Again.
Really like the taco salad. Good mix of flavours and minced walnuts pretty surprising. I would however add a little oil/lemon dressing to the salad
The walnut taco meat was too overpowering and made it difficult to taste the other parts of the salad. I made the cashew cream but thought it needed some salt.
Since I can’t do the walnut meat or cashew cream, I added pinto chili beans to the mix, plus a little turkey. I used spicy guacamole as a “dressing” to cream it up a bit. Very tasty!