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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.
Oh so delicious!! Great as is or adaptable to a variety of flavors to experiment with. I really loved the walnut taco meat-had never tried this before and completely enjoyed! I am certainly placing this salad on rotation.
I LOVE this salad!!! Whoohooo. All of the ingredients blend perfectly together and the walnut taco meat is superb!!! The only thing I have to question is…this is made for one person??? My bowl is so big, I can truly have this for lunch and dinner
Hi Michelle! Most salad recipes in the challenge are 2 servings!
Hi Michelle! This recipe is 2 servings.
I am a huge fan of walnut taco meat so I was really looking forward to making this salad. It is amazingly good. Happy Taco Tuesday.
Love this healthy erosion of a taco salad. The dressing is delicious.
Love this salad. Left off the corn chips and sour cream but added a couple tablespoons of salsa and a squeeze of lime juice. It was so good! I ate it so fast, forgot to take a picture. Love the salad challenge so far this week.
Had this for lunch today. Tasty! I wasn’t sure about the walnut taco meat. I didn’t really like the taste by itself, but it worked well when added to the salad with everything else. I subbed in radishes for the olives (I don’t like black olives). So simple and healthy! I’ll definitely try it again!
Mexican cuisine is one of my favorites. This is a true winner and deserves 10 stars! So many flavors and textures, it is OMG delicious!! I made it with the avocado crema and added some hot sauce. We will definitely, make this a Taco Tuesday tradition!! Thank you, Jen for another amazing recipe!!
I wasn’t sure if I would like this one. I did. The vegan taco meat wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. I was very full even eating only about half of my salad
Marvellous
Brought to picnic in separate containers. Kept fresh
Big hit
Healthy Taco Salad
This is a wonderful salad. Instead of the ground walnuts I used tofu cut in small squares and added about 5 whole walnuts. Such a great variety of veggies and so colorful and delicious!
My dressing was simply lemon, rice vinegar and balsamic vinegar
( California Balsamic) which I use daily.
This was like a taco to me not so much a salad. It was good but it really didn’t seem like a salad. The taco shell was a bit high in calories, so I ate it without the shell. My husband had it with the shell and had zero complaints.
SO delicious! It so easy to sub out the tortillas with a salad and still get all of the great flavors of a taco Tuesday. I love this one and will use it regularly.
Sooooo good – I’ll totally make this again. And probably look for other reasons to make the taco “meat” – everything about it was pleasantly surprising!
Really enjoyed the walnut taco meat. Very filling.
Taco salad is always a favorite around here, and this one took that to a higher level for sure! Al the extras give this so much flavor and texture.