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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 was really surprised by how much I liked this salad because I was so skeptical of the walnut “taco meat” mixture. Overall I felt like the salad needed a lot more flavor so I poured on some salsa and sprinkled some homemade taco seasoning on top.
This salad is so amazing and will definitely become a staple in our home. We did not miss having meat not one bit. Well balanced ingredients to create the Mexican flavor.
Thank You for this recipe.
Really hearty and filling salad. The walnut taco meat did not taste like meat to me but that’s okay. It is still a nice meat substitute. My only problem with it was that the spices gave me an aftertaste hours later. I will play with the spices a bit next time.
My avocados were not ripe enough to use. Any suggestions for softening/sweetening them for immediate use? I have them in a brown paper bag to help but I have had some that never ripened well.
I forgot the tomatoes and red bell pepper. Still had plenty in this salad. Will add the omitted items in future.
OMG
I love, love, love love this salad sooo much!
Who needs meat or sour cream when you have lovely nutty option to top off your beautiful medley of colours and flavours.
Could not resist, I am having a bowl of the left overs for lunch, from last nights dinner, as we speak.
Delicious- the walnuts were a great change from my quinoa taco blend! Will definitely make again!
Shockingly good! I and my husband, enjoyed this different kind of salad/meal. I’ve never tried anything like this before and it was very delicious and I will certainly try it again. Additionally, I would recommend it to others.
Really good. Fooled my kids again with the walnut meat.
The taco salad was delicious! Instead of the cashew dressing, I just added some salsa on top- it enhanced all of the flavors. The “walnut meat” tasted great to me!
So, I brought this taco salad to work and forgot the cream! Even without the cashew cream the salad was still pretty good. I think I would prefer it with a thinner dressing anyhow though, so I will try making an avocado and lime based dressing. I might also use pico instead of cherry tomatoes also. Overall, still very good as is.
So delicious!! Really enjoyed the walnut taco meat. I will make this recipe again. My husband and I loved it! We had it without the cashew cream.
This was delicious. I added cilantro/lime rice and did not add the peppers or olives. The walnut meat had great flavor. Overall very satisfying!
I’ve never done anything like this with nuts, but it was tasty! My hubby liked it a lot and didn’t recognize it wasn’t meat! I told him when we were finished and he said…..well, I did think it was something other than ground beef…..
The nuts were somewhat astringent in my mouth, but I’m not sure why. Maybe I should soak longer?
I love that you didn’t tell your hubby what it was until afterwards.
Yes, I would try soaking them a bit longer. I also rinse them off really good as well before adding them to a recipe.
Surprisingly delicious! I was a bit nervous about the walnuts, but they were so good.
I loved this salad but did not want to mess around with the cashew cream, so I mixed Greek yogurt, salsa and nutritional yeast together for a very tasty dressing! Five stars!
Love taco salad! I used ground beef instead of the walnuts but made everything else the same! Great meal we enjoy year round.
Surprise this is great. Made this and had our daughter drop in for dinner. Was enough to feed all three of us. Well balanced flavours. Had sour cream and salsa sides since I didn’t have enough avocado for the dressing.
This taco salad is soo so good! I suggest seasoning the beans & corn with some lime juice, pepper, paprika, and Tajin seasoning for a bit more flavor 🙂
Sounds yummy!