A zesty lentil walnut mix takes the place of meat in this scrumptious vegan taco salad. It's totally meatless, dairy-free, packed with flavor, and served up in a crispy (baked!) tortilla bowl!
- 4 large (burrito size) flour tortillas
- Oil mister or cooking spray
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- ½ cup finely chopped walnuts
- 1 tablespoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon ancho chile powder
- ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper, or to taste
- 3 cups cooked brown lentils (Note 1)
- ½ cup canned tomato sauce
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 1 ripe avocado, pitted and peeled
- ¾ cup unflavored soy or almond milk
- 3 tablespoons lime juice
- 1 garlic clove
- ¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives
- ½ teaspoon salt, plus more to taste
- 6 cups roughly chopped romaine lettuce
- 1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
- ¼ cup black olives
- Salsa, and/or any of your favorite taco toppings
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Preheat the oven to 400°.
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Use a mister or cooking spray to lightly coat both sides of a tortilla with oil. Drape it into a large oven safe bowl, or you can use a tortilla bowl pan.
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Repeat for the remaining tortillas. (You can work in batches if you need to. I used a couple of small stainless steel mixing bowls, and baked the tortillas 2 at a time).
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Bake until the tortillas are lightly browned around the edges, about 10 minutes. Carefully remove the bowls from the oven and place them on a cooling rack. Allow them to cool for a couple of minutes before carefully removing the the tortillas. (Note 2)
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Coat the bottom of a large skillet with oil and place it over medium heat. Once the oil is hot, add the onion. Sweat the onion until soft and translucent, about 5 minutes.
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Add the garlic, walnuts, cumin, ancho chile powder and cayenne pepper to the skillet. Cook the mixture for about 1 minute, until it becomes very fragrant, stirring constantly.
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Stir in the lentils, tomato sauce and soy sauce. Bring the sauce to a simmer and cook the filling for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until it thickens up a bit.
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Place the avocado, milk, lime juice, garlic, cilantro, chives, and salt into a blender or food processor and blend until smooth.
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Optionally, thin the mixture with additional milk and add more salt and/or lime juice to taste.
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Divide the lettuce, cherry tomatoes, and olives among the tortilla bowls. Top each salad with lentil walnut filling, a scoop of salsa, avocado dressing, and any other taco fixings you'd like to use. Serve.
- You can use canned/precooked lentils or cook them yourself. If you cook them yourself you'll need to start with about 1 ½ cups of dry lentils. Cover them with water and boil them for about 20 minutes, being careful not to overcook them.
- Please be careful not to burn yourself on the bowls. I don't usually put bowls in the oven, so I find it's easy to forget that they're hot!
- Tortilla bowls adapted from Livestrong.