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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.
The walnut “meat” is great! The seasonings made it taste just right. This was a filling and tasty dinner salad. I might make it with fewer toppings just to save a little time and effort. I made it as written but added a little bit of salsa to serve.
This “taco meat” is incredible and will become a new regular ingredient for me! This salad has so many great flavors and crunch. I made the cashew cream with chipotle peppers and it gave a great kick!
Yummy! I love taco salad and this is a great alternative!
Love this recipe! Very filling! I didn’t soak my cashews in enough time to make the cashew cream, but it should be ready for my leftovers tomorrow. I love all the different flavors in this salad.
In the past, if I’ve forgotten to soak the cashews over night I have just put some hot water on them and let them soak while I’m making everything else. Then they are good to go!
Day 2 – Toco Salad was good -enjoyed soaking the Walnuts (my first) – I also used Poppy Seed Dressing
This was really good. Love mexican and I didnt even miss the meat
This salad has so many wonderful flavors! My husband seemed skeptical & asked for a small portion. In the end, he truly enjoyed it; I was glad he didn’t want a lot because I have enough for lunch tomorrow!
We really liked the walnuts as a substitute for meat.
I enjoyed this taco salad but I wish I would have had some salsa or something in my fridge or Pantry to add to it. If I were to make it again, I would add more black beans. The salad had some really nice flavors.
Yes, black beans would be yummy in this recipe.
Very good and very satisfying. I had my doubts about soaking the walnuts, but the overal consistency and the flavorings were delicious. This is a fun challenge.
I typically stay away from taco salad, corn chips are a trigger food for me. I did enjoy this salad but in all honesty I made
Ground Turkey vs the walnut meal. It was good. But after reading the reviews now I want to try the walnut meal. I’ve been happy with the salad so far and feel like I am getting more veggies into my diet.
You gotta try it, it’s so yummy!
Love this taco salad! I added some shredded pork that I leftovers of- made a great dinner.
Family favorite. My kids love this salad as much as I do. It’s filling and very tasty. My kids don’t really like nuts, but they really enjoy this taco “meat@ with the salad. We will be adding it in to our family recipe box so we can make it more regularly
I was super wary of the walnut meat but it was amazing! I am the biggest taco fan ever so I was so excited to try this new recipe. It did not disappoint! I added my favorite taco seasoning to the walnut meat before adding it and that was glorious.
It was delicious! And my family could customize with cheese and hot sauce if they wanted.
Loved the walnut taco “meat!” would have never thought of turning walnuts into meat and had never heard of anyone else doing it. We do a lot of meatless Mondays through Saturdays and this taco meat recipe will be repeated. Question – I had a little liquid with the soaked walnuts… I drained the walnuts and it worked, so I’m guessing that’s what I should have done? Can you use the liquid?
It’s first time to make Taco, vegan meat, cashew cream. Really good My husband loved them. Especially, Cashew cream was impressed.