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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.
I skipped the chips for lunch today but when I eat the other half at home I’ll add some blue corn chips! Excellent recipe and the cashew cream was even better the second day!
This salad has so much flavor and is really easy to make. I love the clean ingredients and different textures that make it so good!
You can never go wrong with tacos! Loved everything about this one, I’ve tried the taco ‘meat’ before and can ever get enough!
I wasn’t able to find all the ingredients but it was still delicious. My husband was pleasantly surprised how good the walnut “meat” tasted. I will definitely make it again. Thanks
I agree with others that this salad was different.
This taco salad was delicious:)
I don’t like walnuts but it didn’t detract from the rest of the salad. I think I would amp up the flavors and add salsa like I was tempted to. Overall I enjoyed it. Thanks for the recipe!
Pretty good but more than I could eat!
This taco salad recipe was delicious 🙂
Really good – but again the servings are too large for us. I’m going to divide them into 3 or 4 servings from now on. I also added lime juice make it even tastier to us. It’s a lovely salad!
This salad was a little different for us. In order to get my husband to eat it with me
I served it with fat free Western dressing and tortilla chips instead of the strips. It went down pretty good for something that was different than what we were used to. The little changes made it more “familiar” feeling. We did good!
I love the small steps to a healthier meal!
Really great alternative to what we typically have as a taco salad. Definitely healthier and still tastes great!
Really like almost anything taco! The walnut “meat” has authentic flavour and texture. Didn’t have Romaine so used mixed greens and spinach. Skipped corn and olives per personal preference. Used yellow instead of red pepper to have more colour variety. Crumbled lime and jalapeño flavoured tortilla chips around the edges. Salsa would have been a good addition if I had thought of it in time. Hubby enjoyed his portion smothered in hot sauce.
I love adding more color to a meal!
Delicious meal salad and the walnut “meat” is amazing! It is very filling. I will make this again!
We made brown lentil taco meat and it was delicious. My whole family gobbled down more veggies in this salad than the previous days meals combined!
Tried this salad for day 2 of salad challenge. I was really excited to try it as I LOVE tacos!
I am feeling like I didn’t prep and do right by this one, didn’t turn out as good as I was hoping. I also had to substitute cayenne for chili powder and cumin. I also could not find tamari in last minute shopping trip. The black beans I had from a can and just rinsed and added (not a thing I’d do again).
But I’m determined to give this salad another go with some tweaks because I love how much is included in the ingredients list.
Hopefully the cayenne didn’t make it too spicy!
I love that I have a new meat replacement “go to” that is so easy to prepare! Can’t wait to make enchiladas and empanadas with the walnut mince. Of course all the other veggies make a colorful and tasty salad. Hubby wanted pickled jalapeños to kick up the heat. I chose hatch chili salsa. We both agree this is another winner!
Wow! I made this for dinner with a few variations and I didn’t even miss the meat. I used chipotle powder in place of the chili powder and soy sauce instead of tamari for the walnut meat, and dressed the salad with a local grocer’s house green sauce (a magical mix of mayo, sour cream, jalapeno, and cilantro)!
loved it. left off the beans because i can’t stand beans.
I can totally understand.