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This is not your average vegan taco salad. It’s full of butter rich flavor from sweet potato noodles as well as smooth cashew cream. The avocado pico de gallo brings a pop of color, and a bed of kale ribbons finishes off the picture of perfection. Not only does it look delicious, it tastes heavenly!
Whoever said vegan food isn’t filling hasn’t loaded up on this vegetarian taco salad…
Table of Contents
Not Your Average Taco Salad
I’ve eaten a lot of taco salads at a lot of restaurants. Any time I ask for the vegetarian option, I’m told to swap the meat with beans. Every once in a while I’ll get a mushroom topping option. The tomatoes are usually slimy and not ripe, and the iceburg lettuce is wilted. Not in this salad!
I chose sweet potato noodles for the base, as they add a mild sweetness to the dish, as well as a heartiness. The avocado pico de gallo ups the fat content, and provides a rich creaminess. And don’t skip out on the cashew cream! It ties the whole dish together, in my opinion.
Vegan Swaps
While this recipe was designed to be eaten on a Seasonal Cleanse, you can definitely make it your own. Each component of this salad is meant to fuel your body with a balance of healthy fats, fiber, protein and carbs. So keep that in mind while making swaps. If you’re looking to lower the fat (or just get rid of the avocados), then you can replace the avocado with diced tomatoes or bell peppers.
Swap the cashews with almonds or macademia nuts in the cashew cream recipe. Change out the walnuts with cashews or almonds. And don’t be afraid to go wild with toppings! If you like it on your tacos, then you’ll probably like it on this vegetarian taco salad.
Pro Tips
Because I want you to get the best from this salad, I’m offering all my tried and true tips + tricks for making this vegetarian taco salad a hit from the first bite.
First, don’t skip on soaking the nuts! Walnuts have a completely different texture raw vs soaked. If you want the right consistency for the ‘meat,’ then soaking is important.
The same is true for the cashew cream. If you are a sour cream lover, then this cream is for you! Yet the cashews need time to soften up through soaking before they can become the cream of your dreams.
Finally, if you like taco salad that you eat with crunchy chips, then you can still love this version! Just bake those spiralized sweet potatoes until crispy. This will give you a crunchy base for your vegan taco salad, as well as give a satisfying crunch to each bite.
Need help getting the noodles crispy? Make sure to rub in the oil with your hands, so every bit of sweet potato is covered. Spread out the noodles on the baking sheet, to give them a bit of breathing room. And don’t be afraid to broil them (watching closely!) at the end of baking to finish.
Whole Foods to Help You THRIVE
This vegan taco salad recipe comes directly from the pages of my Seasonal Cleanse. This reset is NOT: a juice cleanse, a punishment, or a starvation diet. It’s not a diet at all. It is a week long, whole food, plant based meal plan designed to help you reset your body, eating habits, sleeping habits, energy levels, and more.
Yes people often lose weight while doing this, because your fueling your body with 100% plants (delicious ones, I might add). Yet even greater, you’ll find that following this plan for 7 days will bring you better, more restful sleep. It will give help your body feel energized, and clear brain fog.
I knew I needed to do more than survive in my life, so I created a plan to help me and this community THRIVE. And guess what? It did just that!
More Tasty Recipes
Curious as to what kinds of recipes are in this Seasonal Cleanse? Here are some recipes you can expect in Thrive. All of these recipes are in either my Seasonal Cleanses or Seasonal Cleanses:
- Mediterranean Roasted Veggies
- Turmeric Tea
- Maple Smoothie Bowl
- Oven-Roasted Almonds
- Warm Almond Milk
- Carrot Ginger Soup
- Brain Fuel Smoothie
- Vegan Protein Bars
With recipes like these, how can you not try this reset?! Make this vegan taco salad, leave a comment + rating below to let me know how you liked it, then sign up for our next live Thrive Seasonal Cleanse. Your body and mind will thank you!
Spiralized Vegan Taco Salad
Ingredients
For “meat”:
- ⅓ cup raw walnuts soaked overnight
- 1 tsp lime juice
- 1 garlic cloves minced
- 1 tsp chili powder
- ½ tsp cumin ground
- pinch sea salt
For sweet potato/swoodles:
- 1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil extra virgin
- 1 sweet potato peeled, spiralized
- ¼ tsp chili powder
- ¼ tsp cumin ground
- ¼ tsp smoked paprika
- ¼ tsp garlic powder
- ¼ tsp sea salt
- ¼ tsp black pepper ground
- pinch cayenne pepper optional
For avo pico de gallo:
- ¼ avocado diced
- ¼ cup mango diced
- 1 tbsp jalapeño pepper minced
- 1 tbsp fresh cilantro
- 1 garlic cloves minced
- 1 tsp lime juice
- pinch sea salt
For toppings:
- 1 cup kale cut into thin ribbons
- 1 lime wedges
- 2 tbsp cashew cream optional
Instructions
- Preheat: Set oven to 425°f. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or lightly grease.
- Process: Place presoaked walnuts, lime juice, chili powder, cumin, and sea salt in a food processor. Pulse until finely chopped. Alternatively, finely chop the walnuts with a chef’s knife, place in a bowl and add the lime juice and spices. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
- Mix: Toss the spiralized sweet potato with olive oil and season with the spices, sea salt, black pepper, and cayenne. Arrange on the baking sheet. Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until tender.
- Mix: Meanwhile, prepare the avo pico. Stir together all of the ingredients and season with a pinch of sea salt.
- Serve: To serve, place the baked swoodles on a plate. Top with the walnut “meat,” kale ribbons, avo pico de gallo, cilantro, and some cashew cream, if desired. Serve with lime wedge(s) on the side.
Video
Notes
- Use less walnut meat and cashew cream to keep the calories down.
- Swap the olive oil for coconut or avocado oil.
- Feel free to use the toppings of your choice.
This is my favorite recipe on the site!! It’s from the Winter cleanse. My whole family loves it. It’s where I discovered I like roasted kale. You simply must try this .
Hi Jill! It’s one of my families faves as well, nothing like a good taco salad!
I’ve made this several times and it’s fabulous. However, the last time I made it the walnut mixture seemed off. Do you rinse the soaked walnuts or just drain them? I can’t remember what I did the first couple of times and wondering if that mattered.
Hey Terri – Glad you asked! Soak, drain, then rinse. 🙂
AMAZING!!! I made this early. I just LOVE all the Mexican Insured recipes. They sooooo delicious and comforting to me.
Is yam used in this recipe? It looks orange in the photos. The sweet potato that I’m familiar with is white inside.
Hi Susie! Yes, we use an orange sweet potato in this recipe. Yet yam or white sweet potatoes would work well too. Glad you’re rawkin this salad with us!
Good tasting, but time-consuming. I did my own change ups and next time I will probably do it differently!
Ohhh Emm Geee! It was like a party in my mouth! This recipe is bursting with so many fresh flavors! My hubby- (a meat eater), loved it as well! Thanks so much! This recipe will be in our regular rotation! Thank you!
That’s awesome Faith!!! When a meat-eater gives it a thumbs up, you know it’s the real deal!
This was delicious! I used tomatoes instead of mango and added some green onions. I’m taking off one star, because it was so time consuming to make. I don’t have a food processor. The sweet potato was charred around the edges after less than 12 minutes, so i would recommend keeping an eye on that.
This is one of the best combos I’ve ever had! I’m fresh off of the fall cleanse and want to continue eating the rainbow! We did not even put hot sauce on it (that’s saying a LOT for flavor).
Love it, Rebekah!
Somehow we missed this during this original reset so added it to the spring one now — hands down the best of the meals!! So incredibly delicious — and we love most of the meals in the resets.
I love this one, also! It was a big hit in my house, even with the meat-eating folks. 🙂
I am allergic to cashews!
No worries! You can make “cashew” cream using a different nut. 🙂
This walnut meat has managed to creep into a ton of our mexi recipes! So flavorful with amazing texture and meatiness without being meat. Such a delicious recipe. I absolutely adore the depth of the walnuts with the creaminess of the cashews, the sweet of the potatoes and the bright fresh creaminess of the avo pico. Love this recipe so much!
Me too, it’s one of my faves!! I love how all the flavors come together so well. 🙂
This was amazing!! I just finished the Plant-Based Cleanse and needed something new to keep me going. This was perfect.
Hi Jessica,
KALE YEAH! Congrats on being an SGS grad!!
This looks so yummy! I’d have to leave out the walnuts because my husband has nut allergies but I think black and or pinto beans would be a great substitute. Cook them up with some cumin, cayenne, smoked paprika and some minced onion and garlic and it should all be good :).
Hi Sandy,
Yes beans or legumes would make a delicious swap in this recipe. Mushrooms too!
This recipe was delicious! My husband and I did the reset and this was one of our favorite recipes! We were both skeptical of eating walnuts as “meat” but don’t hesitate to try this recipe. You won’t miss the meat at all! I can’t wait to find more vegan recipes that taste this good. Thanks so much!
Thanks for the love, Christie! And I’m so happy you joined us for our Plant-Based Cleanse!!!
Had this tonight. YUM!! Although I am working on the 21 day healthy eating challenge I wanted something different for dinner and found this recipe. I did add meat instead of the walnuts, not ready to go meatless but this was a winner for dinner!! The whole family ate it and getting them to eat kale is a challenge and the family wants to this recipe to be a keeper!
Hi Traci,
YAY! I love that you loved this recipe. And I especially love that you can swap recipes from Thrive into Fresh Start too!! How are you feeling throughout your Plant-Based Cleanse?