Vegan Taco Salad
This vegan taco salad is filled with vegetables and plant-based protein, all topped with a delicious salsa dressing. This salad is super filling and completely vegan, dairy-free, and gluten-free!
Ingredients
- Tofu taco crumble (tap the link for the recipe)
- 4 small corn tortillas (gluten-free if necessary)
- ½ teaspoon chili powder
- 1 large heart of romaine lettuce (you can add more if desired, see note below)
- ¾ cup black beans (I use canned)
- 1 avocado (diced)
- ½ cup chopped green onion
- 1 cup corn (I use frozen)
Dressing
- 1 cup salsa (mild or medium)
- ½ cup cashews
- ¼ teaspoon chili powder
- 2 tablespoons lime juice
- ¼ cup water
Instructions
- First, set your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit to give it time to pre-heat.
Tofu crumble
- Tap the link in the ingredients list above for instructions on how to make the tofu crumble. While the tofu is pressing, continue with the steps below.
Tortilla strips:
- Cut the corn tortillas into strips (about 1 ½ cm wide).
- Lay the strips out on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. You will likely need to use two baking sheets to fit all of the strips. Sprinkle about ½ teapsoon of chili powder over all of the strips.
- Bake for 20 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Dressing:
- Add all dressing ingredients to a high-powered blender and blend until smooth. If you do not have a high-powered blender, you will need to soak your cashews for several hours to soften them. To speed up the process, you can pour boiling water over the cashews and cover for about 20 minutes.
Assembly:
- Wash and dry your lettuce, then rip it into pieces and add it to a large bowl.
- Rinse the black beans, then add them to the bowl.
- Add the diced avocado, chopped green onion, and corn.
- Once you have prepared the tofu crumble and tortilla strips, add them to the bowl and mix everything together.
- Once the dressing is prepared, pour it over the salad and mix it in. I recommend only adding the dressing to the entire salad if you plan on eating it all within a couple of hours (see note below).
Notes
This recipe makes a lot of dressing. If you don’t like too much dressing, add slowly and use the extra for any other salad or as a chip dip. You can also add more romaine lettuce if you have excess dressing.
Not every romaine heart is the same size, so add more romaine if you find that one heart isn't enough.
This salad does not keep well in the fridge if you put the dressing on the entire salad. It will get soggy if it sits too long. If you think you will have some leftover salad, make sure you only put dressing on each portion individually and store the dressing in a separate container in the fridge.
If stored separately, the dressing and the salad should last for about 3 days in the fridge.