Vegan Taco Salad (Restaurant-Style!)

Vegan Taco Salad in a tortilla bowl with forks on the side.

4.88 from 8 votes

Vegan Taco Salad (Restaurant-Style!)

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!

Prep Time25

Cook Time20

Total Time45

Course: Salad

Cuisine: American, Mexican

Servings:

Calories: 716kcal

Author: Alissa

Ingredients

For the Crispy Tortilla Bowls

4 large (burrito size) flour tortillas
Oil mister or cooking spray

For the Lentil Walnut Taco Filling

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

For the Avocado Dressing

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

For the Salad

6 cups roughly chopped romaine lettuce
1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
¼ cup black olives
Salsa, and/or any of your favorite taco toppings

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Make the Crispy Tortilla Bowls

Preheat the oven to 400°.
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.
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).
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)

Make the Lentil Walnut Taco Filling

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.
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.
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.

Make the Avocado Dressing

Place the avocado, milk, lime juice, garlic, cilantro, chives, and salt into a blender or food processor and blend until smooth.
Optionally, thin the mixture with additional milk and add more salt and/or lime juice to taste.

Assemble the Salads

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.

Notes

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.

Nutrition