Vegan Taco Salad
This vegan taco salad features delicious lentil taco meat, tortilla chips, avocado, tomato, corn, beans and quick and easy vegan sour cream.
Best Vegan Taco Salad Ingredients
There are so many ways you can go with a taco salad! Here are some ingredients you can play around with:
- Lentil taco meat. I mixed up a quick batch of lentil taco “meat” to give some oomph to the salad. We’ll go over how to make it below.
- Romaine lettuce. You’ll need a good, crunchy base for your salad. Romaine works well for this.
- Corn. You can do plain corn, roasted corn, grilled corn or corn salsa.
- Beans. Black beans or pinto beans work best! Refried beans are also delicious. Instead of corn and beans, you could also just use my black bean corn salad.
- Avocado. Go with diced avocado or a big scoop of guacamole. You can’t go wrong either way.
- Onion. Go with chopped green onion or red onion. Both add a nice, tangy flavour and some crunchy texture.
- Tomato. I don’t love tomato in taco salads but if you do, go for it. Go with fresh, chopped tomato or swap it out for a scoop of your favourite salsa. Pico de gallo is good too!
- Sauce. So many choices! I made vegan sour cream and a spicy chipotle sauce but vegan queso or avocado sauce are also delicious.
- Tortilla chips. I like a couple crushed tortilla chips in my taco salads. I think they’re a key ingredient. You can simply crush up some store-bought tortilla chips, or make your own crispy tortilla strips.
- Extra veggies. To add more veggies, try grated carrots and diced bell peppers.
How to Make Lentil Taco Meat
To make lentil taco meat you’ll need 2 cups of cooked green or brown lentils. To cook the lentils:
- Bring 2.25 cups of water to a boil in a medium-sized sauce pan.
- Reduce heat, add 1 cup of dry brown or green lentils, cover and reduce to a light simmer.
- Cook for 20 minutes or until the lentils are tender.
While the lentils finish cooking, you can begin making the lentil taco meat recipe. To make the taco “meat”, add 1 cup of diced white onion to a skillet with 1/2 cup of water and all the spices. Once you’ve cooked that up, add the now cooked lentils and mix well. Heat for another few minutes until everything is mixed together. You may need a little additional water or vegetable broth if it seems a bit dry.
That’s it! You can use the lentil taco mixture for Vegan Tostadas, Lentil Tacos, Vegan Breakfast Tacos.
How to Make Vegan Sour Cream
To make the sour cream, you’ll need 1/2 cup of soft tofu and a blender or immersion blender. You could also just whisk it with a fork but a blender will produce a smoother result. I made just enough for the recipe but you can easily double it and use any leftovers in other recipes.
Mix the tofu with apple cider vinegar, lemon and garlic powder and enjoy as an alternative to tofu!
Chipotle Sauce
In addition to the sour cream, I also made some spicy chipotle sauce. If you want to try it, blend 1/2 cup of soft tofu with 1 chipotle pepper in adobo and 1 tsp of the sauce. Add 2 tbsp lime juice, 1 tbsp maple syrup and a pinch of salt and enjoy as an additional topping.
Homemade Tortilla Chips
You can use any kind of tortilla chips or crackers or this recipe but I wanted to share a quick, easy and healthy way to make your own chips! To make your own tortilla chips:
- Turn the oven on to broil.
- Cut corn tortillas into triangles.
- Place them on a baking tray and sprinkle with salt, pepper and if desired, other spices like paprika and onion powder.
- Broil until crispy, flipping once and taking care not to burn them – they’ll burn quickly once they turn brown so watch carefully! They only take a few minutes per side.
This lentil taco salad is easy to make, full of nutrition, oil-free, vegan, gluten-free and high in protein. Enjoy as is or customize with additional ingredients like grated carrot, bell peppers, red onion or cilantro.
Topped with an easy tofu-based sour cream, you’ll love this hearty, filling plant-based salad!
More Recipes
- Beet Walnut Salad
- Black Bean Corn Salad
- Vegan Fajitas
- Peanut Chickpea Tacos
- Tempeh Tacos
- Sweet Potato Black Bean Tacos
- Black Bean Tacos
- Santa Fe Salad
Leftover lentils can be used to make lentil tostadas or added to recipes like brown rice burrito bowl, breakfast tacos, breakfast burritos or any other Mexican-inspired dish.
If you have extra sour cream it also works well with any of those recipes or it could be served over stuffed sweet potatoes.
Vegan Taco Salad
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 10 mins
- Total Time: 20 minutes
- Yield: 4
- Category: Main Dish
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: Vegan, Mexican
Description
A hearty vegan salad with delicious lentil taco “meat” and all the fixings.
Ingredients
For the Lentil Taco Meat
- 2 cups cooked green or brown lentils
- 1 cup finely diced white onion
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 tsp each garlic powder, onion powder, chili powder and cumin
- 1/2 tsp each oregano, paprika
- salt and pepper, to taste
For the Tofu Sour Cream
- 1/2 cup soft tofu
- 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- pinch of sea salt
For the Salad
- romaine lettuce
- diced avocado
- diced tomato
- corn
- black beans, pinto beans or refried beans
Instructions
- To make the lentil taco filling, add the diced onion and spices to a skillet with a few tablespoons of the water. Cook for 5 minutes over medium-high heat until soft and fragrant. Add the cooked lentils and the rest of the water and cook for a few more minutes until the lentils are heated through and coated in the spices. If needed, add a bit of extra water if it starts to dry out.
- To make the tofu sour cream, blend all the ingredients together until smooth.
- To assemble the salads, add a handful of romaine lettuce to a bowl then top with avocado, tomato, corn and beans. Add a couple tablespoons and about 1/2 cup of the lentil mixture to each salad.
Keywords: lentil taco salad, healthy, easy, vegetarian, plant-based
Hi Deryn,
Do you think that I can mix the salad items with the cooked & cooled lentil mixture and serve it in one big bowl at a company potluck with the sour cream on the side?
Sue
I think so, sure!
I made this recipe this week and will DEFINITELY make it again! I subbed TVP for lentils and it was AMAZING!! Highly recommend!
★★★★★
Awesome! I’ve never tried it with TVP…good to know! Thanks for your review.
This was fast and satisfying! It was also really nice to have healthy vegan sour cream to change it up
★★★★★
Sorry but the instructions were a bit vague and everything kinda tasted a bit bad, especially the fake sour cream. The picture is really pretty though! And the idea was nice.
★★
This was amazing…everyone loved it, even 2 teenagers which is a huge win! Thanks for sharing!
★★★★★
We made this for dinner tonight and it was amazing. The only change we made was to use an oil-free Southwestern dressing because we didn’t have soft tofu. We have made a couple of your recipes before and adored them. I will be pinning tonnes more recipes to try from your site. Thank you for sharing and for all your time and effort.
★★★★★