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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.
Very good. I often make taco salads, but the walnut taco shmeat was amazingly good. Amazing texture and would do it again.
Loved Loved this Taco Salad, Soaking the Walnuts in Lemon juice really made a difference, delicious salad tastes just like a True Taco Salad, You will enjoy this Salad.
5++ stars
This Healthy Taco Salad is so delicious and filling. I made mine with lentil taco meat and topped it with some fresh salsa. I will definitely be making this salad often.
Yummy, great job substituting in the lentils!
I’ve always loved taco salad, and this one was delicious!
I didn’t want to turn my family off plant base meals, so I gave the option of the vegan taco meat or regular. They just had to taste a small spoon after roasting the walnuts to decide. I seasoned the walnuts with my regular dried herb taco seasoning mix. EVERYONE chose the vegan taco meat. This recipe is now a family staple. Thank you for sharing your recipes and knowledge.
OMG that warms my heart! I love when the whole family loves the plant based meals!
Everybody loves a good taco salad and this one combines both taste and healthfulness! Due to my son’s specific diet, we used grassfed/finished ground beef. I also used Vidalia onion, because I had it. I did adjust the spices with what I typically use: chili, garlic, and onion powders with smoked paprika, and sea salt.
Pretty hearty, nice flavour. I used spinach instead of romaine. Next time I will make it with other vegan “meat”.
It is amazing how you can take vegan ingredients and modify a normally meat filled meal. I love this salad. It is just as wonderful and comforting as a regular taco salad. The cashew cream is a nice touch. Delicious!
Was leery of this recipe as walnut taco meat sounded iffy, but was delicious, would definitely do it again
Always love taco salad! Really good recipe. I added low fat sour cream and some crazy hot sauce. Very good!
We had never tried the walnut taco meat before. It was an interesting twist to our traditional taco salad.
What a tasty salad. I like that you can customize it with the toppings of your choice. The walnut “meat” had a great taco flavor and looked like hamburger. Will keep this in my salad rotation.
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.
Yum! Everything is better when it’s homemade!
I absolutely loved the Walnut Taco Meat! I added a dash of chipotle pepper to the seasoning. I used pinenuts instead of cashews to make the cream, it is so good. I added some jalapenos to the salad and mixed arugula, romaine, and kale.
So good! I was skeptical of the walnut taco meat but it was seriously delicious. My husband wanted more and more ands he’s definitely not a picky eater. Such an easy and delicious recipe!
I forgot the tortilla chips, but I really enjoyed this salad anyway! I’ve been looking for a vegan alternative to taco meat and the walnuts in this recipe were so easy to make – and tasty!
Loved this! Even my husband, who is a meat-eater, approved!