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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 like a little spice so I added a red chili. I was going to add Jalapeno too but decided not to at the last minute. There are lots of flavors and textures in this salad which keep it interesting. I think I will try an avocado crema on it next time.
This salad did not disappoint. Yummmmm!
Only made a few changes. Pecans for the taco meat. I’m in Louisiana so I often have extra bags of pecans in the freezer. Tasted when made yesterday. Interesting. I warmed it up today. Even better, but still taste like pecans. love so that’s okay, but as a replacement for my ground meat? We’ll see.
I had leftover refried beans from a Mexican dinner so I stirred in into the taco meat with a little salsa.
Instead of dicing my avocado, I made a basic guac. , smashed avocado, salsa and a squirt of lime.
Skipped the black olives, green onions. Also the cashew cream as I don’t do sour cream as a topping on anything. Gave the cilantro a try. Not really my thing so I mixed it in with the lettuce. Probably won’t buy again.
Verdict: A definite, repeatable winner!!!! When eaten together with everything taco meat was even better and I didn’t really miss my ground meat.
Literally one of the best salads i’ve ever eaten. I will definitely be making this one again. A+.
This was so good! I did sub ground turkey so my family would eat it, but I felt like it was a healthy choice!
Love this salad!! I had to make some adjustments because I thought I had walnuts and I didn’t so I added ground beef. I added more romaine lettuce and forgot the avocado but it was still delicious!!
This was my first time making the walnut taco meat. It was so easy to make and it tastes so yummy!!!! I also made the cashew cream! Love it! I love a good taco salad and this one is definitely easy to assemble after one has prepared all the extra items.
One of my favorites! I really love this salad. I’ve made it for my son and daughter-in-law and they also love it.
I sometimes roast the cherry tomatoes, which adds a nice flavor. I often add a good salsa over it all kind of like a salad dressing.
Delicious, easy, and no one in my family realized it was plant-based.
This was super easy to make. I enjoyed the flavor profile. The only thing I did differently was mix some plant based yogurt with salsa to create a dressing as it was very dry without it. I made the salad twice.
I made this with healthy real meat No beans and added red cabbage.
Loved this salad! It could have been my brand of walnuts , but the walnut meat was very walnutty 🙂 So the salad for me just tasted like walnuts. But I loved this and will have it in rotation! Great texture and fun to make!
Holy wow this salad is a fave! The flavors are so good and has a lot of it. Surprisingly filling too. The walnut taco meat was such a hit! I will definitely be making this again and putting it in rotation. Yum yum yum!
Whoot, so glad you loved it!
Really good salad except I’m allergic to walnuts. I had to adlib just a bit but I wanted to stay on the challenge.
Wow! I’ve never tried anything like the walnut taco meat before. I will definitely be making this again. This salad was great as a meal. Not a huge fan of corn, but there is just a small amount. I think I will like it better in summer when fresh corn is available. It’s a win!
Def feel free to omit the corn or any ingredients you aren’t a fan of. We want these recipes to work for you! Great job trying it though!
This salad is a winner. I wasn’t sure about the walnut ‘meat’ but everyone in my family loved it. Will definitely make this salad again.
I love when everyone loves it! Ultimate win!
Mexican food is definitely my favorite, and this was no exception. I have never used Walnuts as a meat replacement. It was different, but not bad.
Awesome!!