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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.
Yum! Walnut taco meat was a revelation!
I made this and it was delicious, the walnut meat turned out great. Even my boys were eyeing my plate.
This salad was so filling. I’m not a huge fan of bell peppers but when everything was put together it didn’t even bother me. I used the dill ranch cashew cream recipe and blended the avocado to make a dressing .
I LOVE this salad, we made something close in the Winter Cleanse last year and I’ve made variations of it several times since. I added a squeeze of lime juice over the top to brighten the flavors up.
Delicious taco salad! I didn’t miss the meat at all and was completely satisfied. I’d definitely make this again but add some jalapeños for some zing.
This salad was OK but I felt I had to add a lot of salsa to make up for the lack of dressing in order to tie it all together. Otherwise, it was just a bunch of veggies and “taco meat” on a pile of lettuce. I did like the “taco meat” and will probably do that again for other recipes.
Lots of great flavors in this salad. I didn’t even need any dressing on it. Couldn’t get my cashew cream very creamy though. Used my Vitamix but may not have had enough volume to get it on high enough speed without displacing the cream away from the blades.
I always like to make a double batch of the cashew cream which helps to give it enough volume to get over the blades.
This salad I loved!!! My boys were eyeing it and wanted tastes too. They really enjoyed it also. Walnut meat was super tasty.
This healthy taco salad was great. It needed to be grain free because I was sharing it a friend that has celiac, so I used corn tortilla chips instead. I’m not a fan of the vegan meat so substituted tuna since I’ve been craving it for a month. Hope that ok. Otherwise everything else remained the same. This is a huge change for me so I guess that’s why the call it a challenge. Anywho, the salad still turned out fantastic and was absolutely delicious! Will definitely be making this again minus the vegan meat. I just can’t do it… ! I really like this challenge and I’m glad I have the time to do it.
I love that you are making it totally you!
This recipe was hearty and I didn’t miss real meat at all. The walnut meat was totally satisfying. I enjoyed the surprise of flavor with each layer. Great recipe!
Sooo good!! Used extra servings of spices for the walnut “meat”. Someday I will perfect that cashew cream though lol. Mine was still a little chunky.
I wasn’t sure about the walnut taco meat, but it turned out to be really good. Allow time for an overnight soak. Also allow time to pan fry it a little. That really added to it’s texture and flavor for the salad.
I also made the chipotle cashew cream. Do that the morning of. I did need to add a little more lime, salt and some tapatio to get it where we wanted it. Once there I wished I had done the whole recipe in that flavor.
Great idea to cook the nuts a bit!
The cashew cream is so good. I’ve used it with other meals. I’m not a huge cumin fan but I liked this salad better than expected. I’ll give it another chance without the cumin. I feel bad giving it a lower rating. I’m confident others will love it. I will too with a couple mild tweaks. I personally feel the portion was more like 2 meals.
I love this salad. I added some hamburger with the walnut mixture. Fantastic. Had this for supper. It was my whole meal and 3 hours later I’m still stuffed.
Walnut taco salad was good. The star of the show was the cashew sour cream. Added a ton of salsa on salad. Felt like the “beef” needed some more flavor. Still LOVED IT overall! Thank you! ♥️ I think the best part about this recipe is really the full satisfied feeling after you eat it and your tummy doesn’t feel gross from greasy ground beef. I’m very curious to see if you would make a lentil based taco meat recipe. Maybe you already have one on here
I enjoyed the taco salad although I need to spice up the walnut meat a bit more next time
Day 2: The Taco Salad is delicious. I love the Cashew Crema. I added some cilantro to the crema. Easy to make and quite filling. I’m familiar with walnut “meat”. It is also delicious. I add mushrooms to the walnuts for some additional protein. I’ll definitely make this and when I’m not eating raw I’ll add the beans, corn, olives, and chips!
Next time I’m adding lime and cilantro to the cream too! Great minds think alike