Vegan Taco Salad with Creamy Oil-Free Avocado Cilantro Dressing
Vegan Taco Salad is an all-time favorite. Bursting with color and flavor this recipe is packed with beautiful, healthy ingredients. Perfect for lunch or a Mexican style dinner. Your family and friends are going to love it!
Looking for More Salad Recipes?
- Quick and Easy Sesame Kale Salad
- Easy Mediterranean Chickpea Salad
- Vegan Caesar Salad
- Cucumber Mint Salad with Lemon Mint Dressing
What is a Vegan Taco Salad?
A vegan taco salad is simply a salad made with ingredients that you usually associate with taco filling, such as a variety of fresh vegetables, beans or meatless crumble, and topped with either fresh salsa, vegan cheese, avocado dressing, and vegan sour cream.
“The Best” Vegan Taco Salad Ingredients:
When putting together a wonderful taco salad, remember to include vegetables with as many colors as you have available. It is visually attractive, but more importantly, it provides a variety of different nutrients. It is therefore important to eat a rainbow of colors every day.
Romaine Lettuce:
I like to start my vegan taco salad with a generous amount of crispy lettuce. I prefer Romaine lettuce, but Iceberg lettuce will work as well. Both options give a nice crunchy base to the taco salad.
Black Beans:
Black beans add a beautiful savory quality to the salad, as well as adding excellent plant-based protein and fiber to the meal. They are also very low in fat.
Meatless Crumbles:
To give this vegan taco salad some meat-like texture, I would suggest my meatless crumble recipe—an excellent meat substitute made with only four ingredients. Meatless Crumbles are super simple to make and can quickly take our plant-based taco salad to the next level. It is, however, optional and can easily be omitted, but it adds protein, crunch, and texture to our salad.
Click Here for my Favorite Meatless Crumble Recipe!
Cherry Tomatoes:
Cherry tomatoes add a pop of color to this vegan taco salad along with the fresh summer flavors of ripe sweet tomatoes. Tomatoes are high in nutritional value.
Red Onion:
Red onion adds a slight spicy bite to this dish, with lots of antioxidants and anti-inflammatory benefits. And let’s not forget the beautiful color.
Red Cabbage:
Red cabbage is another vegetable that provides a beautiful color, but that is not the only reason for including it in the vegan taco salad. It is very high in nutrients, antioxidants, and surprisingly low in calories. If shredded, red cabbage is an easy thing to add to any salad. I often will keep a container with shredded cabbage in my fridge to add to salads and various dishes. It makes life easier.
Fresh Cilantro:
In my opinion, fresh cilantro is the finishing touch on this healthy and beautiful salad. A small amount delivers a huge flavor boost as well as vitamins and minerals. It is particularly high in vitamin A and K. It also delivers anti-inflammatory benefits. If you happen to not like cilantro, don’t worry, just omit this ingredient.
Lime:
Lime adds such a wonderful touch to a taco salad. It’s hard to imagine a Mexican dish without it. It’s green color is also so amazing. You may want to garnish with sliced or quartered lime to add extra pizzazz to the plate.
Avocado:
Fresh sliced avocado is a great addition to this vegan taco salad dish. Avocados are creamy, delicious, and packed with nutrition and fiber – a great source of potassium and, yes, healthy fat. The creamy texture brings it all together. Try my Creamy Avocado Cilantro dressing to drizzle over the taco salad. It’s amazing.
How to Make Meatless Vegan Taco Meat:
One of my top Kitchen Hacks is to keep meatless taco meat in the freezer for easy access when needed. Add meatless crumbles and turn a lunch or dinner into an extraordinary meal.
Meatless crumbles are easy to make. It contains only four ingredients, mixed together into a dough. Knead for a couple of minutes, wrap in cheesecloth, and steam until you have the most beautiful meat substitute.
Click here to see how I make Meatless Crumbles on YouTube!
When cooked, crumble the meatless meat in a food processor, and tada, you have meatless crumble that would give any store-bought crumble a run for its money. Here is my Recipe!
Season the meatless crumbles with onion, garlic, paprika, cayenne, and salt.
Let’s Talk Dressing for Taco Salad:
You can keep it simple and add a fresh salsa or Pica de Gallo to the taco salad. Take it from me; it is super delicious.
But if you are looking for the creamiest, most delicious, oil-free salad dressing, to add some sparkle to the taco salad, I’ve got one for you – a creamy avocado cilantro lime dressing that will take this salad to another level. This dressing is among my favorites!
This incredibly creamy, flavorful, glorious salad dressing goes perfectly over this vegan taco salad. And believe it or not, this amazing creamy avocado dressing happens to be completely oil-free. This is guilt-free eating at its best.
How Do You Make Creamy Oil-Free Avocado Cilantro Lime Dressing?
Start by adding half an avocado to a blender, along with coconut milk (or your favorite unsweetened plant-based milk), and water. Season with fresh garlic, salt, and fresh cilantro. And if you like a bit of a kick, or feel extra daring, add a few slices of jalapeño and a pinch of crushed red pepper. Blend until smooth and chill in the fridge until ready to use.
How Do I Make Fresh Salsa (Pica de Gallo)
Finely dice ripe Roma tomatoes (or cherry tomatoes), red onion, jalapeño, chopped cilantro, and add to a small bowl. Sprinkle with salt, a splash of fresh lime juice and stir to combine. Store in the fridge until ready to use.
Click Here for my Favorite Fresh Salsa Recipe!
Assembling the Vegan Taco Salad
To assemble this vegan taco salad, start by adding a generous layer of crispy lettuce to the bottom of the bowl. Next, add the following ingredients in piles to make the salad look attractive and appetizing: black beans, meatless crumbles, Pica de Gallo (fresh salsa), shredded red cabbage, sliced avocado, and diced red pepper. Garnish with fresh cilantro, lime slices, or jalapeño slices. Serve with creamy avocado cilantro lime dressing, corn chips, vegan shredded cheese, or vegan sour cream.
Should I serve my Taco Salad hot or cold?
Most of the ingredients in a taco salad is best served cold. If you desire, you could heat the beans and meatless crumbles, but it is not necessary.
What Do I Serve with Taco Salad?
How long will the Taco Salad last in the fridge?
Vegan taco salad ingredients last well in the fridge for several days. It is better if they are kept separate until ready to eat, but I have certainly put it all together in a container and brought it for lunch the next day. Fresh tomatoes get a little soft when left in the fridge for longer periods of time.
What makes Vegan Taco Salad healthier than other taco salads?
This recipe is completely dairy-free and meatless, so this salad contains no cholesterol. It is filled with lots of fresh vegetables, including red cabbage, all of which explode with wonderful nutrition. It provides protein and is high in fiber and antioxidants – a salad to enjoy time and time again.
Vegan Taco Salad with Oil-Free Avocado Cilantro Dressing
- Yield: Serves 4
Description
Vegan Taco Salad is an all-time favorite. Bursting with color and flavor this recipe is packed with beautiful, healthy ingredients. Perfect for lunch or a Mexican style dinner. Your family and friends are going to love it!
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cup (1 recipe) meatless crumbles
- Pica de Gallo (fresh salsa)
- 1 can (15.5 oz) black beans, drained & rinsed
- 1 Romaine Lettuce, sliced
- 1 red sweet pepper, chopped
- 1/4 red cabbage, shredded
- 1 avocado, sliced
Instructions
- Prepare the various components before assembling the salad. Pre-make the vegan meatless crumbles (optional). Season with a little onion and garlic powder, red paprika, cayenne pepper, and salt.
- Prepare the Pico de Gallo and Creamy Avocado Cilantro Dressing (Recipe Below). Keep in fridge until ready to assemble.
- Drain and rinse the black beans.
- Wash the Romaine Lettuce, slice into manageable pieces, dice the red pepper, shred the cabbage, and slice the avocado.
- To assemble the vegan taco salad, start by adding a generous layer of crispy lettuce to the bottom of the bowl. Next, add the following ingredients in piles to make the salad look attractive and appetizing: black beans, meatless crumbles, Pica de Gallo (fresh salsa), shredded red cabbage, sliced avocado, and diced red pepper. Garnish with fresh cilantro, lime slices, or jalapeño slices. Serve with creamy avocado cilantro dressing, corn chips, vegan shredded cheese, or vegan sour cream.
Creamy Oil-Free Avocado Cilantro Dressing:
- 1/2 of an avocado
- 1/2 cup canned coconut milk
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/2 cup fresh cilantro
- 1 garlic clove
- juice of 1 lime
- 1-2 slices of jalapeño (optional)
- salt to taste
Start by adding half an avocado to a blender, along with coconut milk (or your favorite unsweetened plant-based milk), and water. Season with fresh garlic, salt, and fresh cilantro. If you like a bit of a kick, or feel extra daring, add a couple of slices of jalapeño and a pinch of crushed red pepper. Blend until smooth and chill in the fridge until ready to use.
Fantastic pictures. Delicious. Totally worrh it.
Awww… I am so happy to hear that! Thank you, thank you!