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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 was soooo good. The walnuts tasted just like taco meat, but I knew it was much healthier for me. And the cashew cream on it was creamy goodness. Did I say creamy? I could eat this salad every day.
This is an easy “throw everything into a bowl” recipe, which is great. I’m allergic to nuts and avocado, so I used soy crumbles instead. If you make this, make sure you have a tasty taco seasoning to satisfy that taco craving. The seasoning for the walnut taco meat was a bit lackluster for me, but considering the issues with packaged seasoning mixes (wonky ingredients at times, high sodium, etc.), it’s a decent substitute.
I tried making walnut taco meat for the first time in my vitamin and it was so easy and tasty. I added all the other ingredients plus yummy home made salsa and it was delicious and filling. I have enough for the next day too. I will make this again!
This is a keeper! The salad was really good and filling. I’m a bit of a Mexican food snob after having lived in NM for 19 yrs so next time I will definitely incorporate NM Hatch Valley green Chile in with the walnut crumbles! We both loved the cashew cream! What a great substitute for dressing/sour cream! Loved it!
I love having leftovers, makes it easy to enjoy again.
I tried making walnut taco meat for the first time and it was so easy and tasty. I added all the other ingredients plus yummy home made salsa and it was delicious and filling. I have enough for the next day too. I will make this again!
Well I had my doubts when setting into this taco salad, but after making the vegan taco meat thought – okay – this may work! Next up making the cashew cream – then thinking yes – yum! Then with the layers upon layers of flavors and textures topped with a gray portion of cashew cream – another winner! It was a giant salad for us both, but we devoured every morsel!
So many wonderful layers of flavour and texture in this salad! It is heartier than it looks but offers bright, fresh, zesty flavour bombs with each bite.
HIGHLY recommend using the recipe for the Adobe Cashew Cream from the SGS website to elevate this salad even more! Woo!
Awesome idea!
My boyfriend and I made the chipotle cashew cream to add to this salad. He enjoyed it for dinner as I finished up my ten-day round of complete master cleansing. He said it was delicious. He added hot sauce since he prefers eating spicier food.
I love this salad & make it often. Today, I was out of walnuts, so I used mixed nuts (almonds, walnuts, pecans, cashews). I was pleasantly surprised that the mixed nuts did not change the flavor of the taco meat.
I really liked this recipe, but forgot to start the walnuts so I did tofu meat instead. I’m excited to try the walnut meat.
The salad itself is a fantastic combo and everything pairs so well together. I however found the dressing to be lacking flavour 🙁 I eventually made an avocado cream from the remaining half of my avo and it turned out fantastic. I also made fresh corn tortilla chips which were sooo good. This recipe is a keeper for sure! Loved it!!
What better way to enjoy taco Tuesday than with a plant based salad!
We did the 50/50 meat combo. My family loves there ground beef so I was happy to add some healthier “meat” and reduce the saturated fat. Taco for dinner always welcome. We doubled up on avocado and made guacamole. The cashew cream didn’t turn out a win. Really glad to switch up dinner and eat healthier as a family.
Love tacos, but taco meat wasn’t as taco-y as we would have liked. Next time we will tweak spices a little. Cilantro and black olives really made it feel more authentic like a taco. We didn’t need dressing as we added chick peas and was very filling. I also had pecans and made both walnut and pecan taco meats. We couldn’t tell a huge different between the two, but the pecan taco meat was browner, like actual taco meat.
This salad will have you craving it over and over. All my family loved it! Such a powerhouse of flavors
Think I left review in wrong place (yesterdays spot). Did not expect to like the taco salad but both my hubby and I liked enough to want to do again. Did not use olives or corn to make hubby happy and did a bare sprinkle of cheese so he could see some! Even the cashew cream was great. You have taught an old dog!
I am such a fan of taco salads and this one was amazing!!
Yum! Walnut taco meat was a revelation!