While it’s great that there are more vegan meat alternatives on the market, a lot of them promote convenience rather than good health.
If you’re looking for a healthy and tasty alternative to mince meat for your mexican dishes, you’ll love my vegan taco meat recipe. It’s packed with veggies, is quick to put together and looks very close to the real thing.
The bulk of the “mince meat” comes from cauliflower, carrots and walnuts. You’ll find plenty of walnut mince meat recipes already on the net. I think the addition of the veggies not only helps to lighten the recipe (nuts only can be a little dense) but it also makes it cheaper to make, not to mention a great way to hide veggies for any little picky eaters!
Cauliflower is a nutritional powerhouse in the veggie world. It contains unique plant compounds that may reduce the risk of several diseases, including heart disease and cancer. It’s also a surprisingly high source of vitamin C.
Walnuts provide healthy fats, fiber, vitamins and minerals, plus they’re packed full of antioxidants. They’re also a wonderful source of Omega 3 fats, an essential fat that you must get from diet.
Not only is this vegan taco meat healthy but it’s really flavorsome too. Forget buying your taco seasoning in a packet from the store! It’s really easy to make your own at home for a fraction of the price and without any added nasties.
What’s in the packets of some of the well-known taco seasoning brands anyway? Things like:
- Maltodextrin
- Partially hydrogenated soybean oil
- Silicon dioxide (anticaking agent)
- Natural flavor (could be anything!!)
- Ethoxyquin (preservative)
Sounds delicious… NOT!
You won’t find any of those dubious ingredients in my taco seasoning mix!
So without further ado, I present you with my vegan taco meat recipe…
Remember to come back and leave me a comment if you make it and let me know what you think.
Vegan Taco Meat
Ingredients
- 2 cups cauliflower chopped
- 2 cups carrot grated
- 1 cup walnuts
- 1 tbsp olive oil
Taco seasoning
- 1 tbsp chili powder
- 1+1/2 tsp cumin
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1/4 tsp smoked paprika
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- 1/4 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp oregano
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400°F
- Pulse all ingredients in a food processor until you have a coarse mixture resembling taco meat.
- Spread mixture onto a parchment lined sheet pan.
- Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes.
As a veggie, I am a hesitant to make meat substitutes but I am glad I tried this for my buddha bowl tonight. Delish Now entering the staples team.Thanks Pj