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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.
This salad! So impressed with the result. Absolutely delicious. What I love about the 10 Day Spring Salad Challenge most is the introduction of new and unique (especially vegan) foods and food combinations. The Healthy Taco Salad gave us Cashew Cream and Walnut Taco meat. Big hits in our house! And the beautiful colors, tastes and textures of the ingredients made for a meal for the eyes and the palette. Well done!
It makes me so happy to hear that you’re finding so many fun benefits within this challenge! You RAWK!
This taco salad rawks! So many flavors and textures coming together for one delicious bite after another! Not only that, I feel like I am getting total nourishment and that makes me happy! I subbed red lentils and roasted garbanzo beans for the walnut meat and made a tangy citrus balsamic dressing without allergens for me. Again I’d make and eat this again and again!
Yummy!
Very filling salad. I had to add a lot more spices to the walnut taco meat to get enough flavor. Other than that I really liked it. It is time consuming to prep this one and I didn’t have time to do the cashew cream…maybe next time.
Modified the recipe due to nut allergies. However this was one delicious salad. Super easy, filling, taco-y, and interesting addition of olives!
I used real beef so added some calories there but very protein-full with the beans. 10 out of 10!!
Taco salad is best. Can’t go wrong with this one.
Five/five tacos for this winner. I added salsa. The best thing about this salad is that it’s simple. Not too many spices for the taco meat. Not too many ingredients in the salad. Could you add green onions, lime juice, salsa, etc. to the salad? Definitely. Could the taco meat be more complicated with more spices and ingredients? Yes. But I needed to get this in the bowl fast. I also likely would have all of these ingredients in my kitchen even if I hadn’t shopped for the challenge, key for a busy morning when I decide what to do for dinner later. I’ll definitely make this one again. Super satisfying, simple ingredients, very versatile.
edited to add: when I made this I only looked at the left column of ingredients, haha. I was really in a hurry. Similar ideas still apply.
Savoury medley of ingredients that are accessible even to the mobility challenged. Mexican cuisine with a wholesome and toothsome twist
OMG. So good. And so filling. Will definitely be making this again.
Loved this recipe. We made a few adjustments based on personal preferences, but added some homemade tortilla chips and homemade salsa and it was delicious. Even my one year old liked parts of it.
My walnut taco meat wasn’t as taco-y as my tastebuds expected. I’ll adjust the spices next time.
Really great alternative to what we typically have as a taco salad. Definitely healthier and still tastes great!
I used a different recipe for the taco meat. Here is the link.
I had two people give a taste test. One wanted more spices in the meat. Both said they liked the salad.
I used a small Bullet to blend the taco ingredients. Some of the walnuts were not breaking down. I ended up using a knife to chop it to the consistency needed.
I would not have tried this if not in this challenge. Thanks! Good to try new recipes.
Loved the Taco salad, the Taco meat was the bomb!
Overall I enjoyed it, but because of modifications I had to make, it was dry. The good news is- because each recipe makes 2 salads, and I’m the only one eating them, I get a do-over! I have made guacamole out of my avocado to add more moisture. It’s gonna be great!
Love this one! I wasn’t sure I would like the vegan taco “meat” but it’s quite yummy! I might add a little more heat to it next time but a wonderful new recipe and great with this cashew cream dressing!
Delicious! I’m new to vegan taco meat — this tastes fantastic and is easy to make! It’s now going to be my go to for meatless meals. I did add way more spices to the walnuts because I like food on the spicy side. This is perfect to serve at a party. The plus side is that it looks delicious too!
The “walnut taco meat” wouldn’t fool any meat lover on it’s own but mixed in it with the rest of the ingredients it’s pretty good. A big solid dinner salad and neither me nor my SO missed the tortilla strips.
I liked this salad overall and will, on occasion replace my meat with the walnut “meat” substitute. I really love Mexican food and this was a good alternative, but wouldn’t be my first choice. Like I said, still a good option that I would not have tried without this “salad challenge”!
I liked this recipe, the walnut meat was different but the rest of the ingredients were delicious and worked well together
Great job giving it a shot!! 🙂
This salad was very filling. I was not able to eat my whole portion. I was not a fan of the cashew cream, although it could have been because I added the lemon juice when I was bleeding it instead of when they were soaking.