This healthy vegan taco salad with a spicy lemon tahini dressing comes together in only 15 minutes and it's perfect for meal prep or when you need a quick meal. With one serving, you'll get roughly 25 grams of high-quality plant-based protein. Also, this vegan taco salad is packed with important vitamins and minerals and healthy fiber.
What you need to make vegan taco salad
To make this healthy vegan taco salad, you'll need
- whole-wheat pasta (like penne or fusilli)
- black beans (cooked)
- red onion
- fresh tomatoes
- red bell pepper (you can use yellow, orange or green bell pepper instead)
- sweet corn (canned)
- parsley
To make the delicious salad dressing, you need:
- tahini
- lemon juice
- sriracha (or another hot sauce of your juice)
- ground cumin
Is this vegan taco salad healthy?
Made from whole-some plant-based ingredients, this vegan taco salad is packed with fiber and important vitamins and minerals. Let's take a look at some of the ingredients and why they are so good for our bodies.
Protein: One serving of this vegan taco salad has roughly 25g of protein. The main protein sources in this meal are the whole-wheat pasta, black beans and corn. Beans and whole grains are a perfect protein combination as these protein sources complement each other to form a high-quality protein mix.
Vitamin C: The raw bell peppers as well as the tomatoes and parsley are all good sources of vitamin C. With the lemon juice in the tahini dressing, we add even more vitamin C to this meal. Our bodies are unable to produce vitamin C so it's important we get it from our food. Vitamin C can help with the absorption of plant iron. If you want to learn more about iron, check out this blog post about Iron on a Vegan Diet – How to Get Enough.
Vitamin K: Parsley, tomatoes and raw bell peppers are all good sources of vitamin K. This vitamin is important for healthy bones and can help prevent kidney stones as well as arteriosclerosis.
Zinc: Whole wheat pasta and black beans provide us with zinc. Zinc is important for our bodies to produce proteins and DNA/RNA and it helps with repair of tissue.
Fiber: One of the benefits of a whole-some plant-based diet is that it tends to be rich in health fibers. Large amounts are found in the black beans and whole-wheat pasta in this dish. Fiber helps with our digestion, it can help prevent diet-related diseases and influences our fat and carbohydrate metabolism in a positive way.
How to make vegan taco salad
Step 1
First, bring a large pot of water to a boil and cook the pasta according to package instructions. Cook them a few minutes less than recommended (al dente).
Step 2
In the meantime, prepare the veggies. Wash and cut the tomatoes and bell pepper into bite-sized pieces (or smaller). Finely dice the red onion.
Drain the sweet corn and black beans and set aside.
Step 3
To make the salad dressing, combine tahini, lemon juice, ground cumin and sriracha in a small bowl and mix well.
You can adjust the amount of sriracha (or hot sauce) to your preferences. It's okay if the dressing is quite spicy when you taste it on its own. When mixed with all the other ingredients, it is no longer as spicy.
Feel free to add a few teaspoons of water to the dressing if it is too thick. When you first mix the tahini and lemon juice, the tahini may change consistency and become very thick. That's totally normal. Just add a little bit of water at a time until you reach a runny consistency.
Step 4
Finally, add all ingredients (cooked pasta, black beans, sweet corn, red onion, bell peppers, tomatoes, parsley, dressing) to a large mixing bowl and combine so that everything is coated in the sauce.
Enjoy straight away or store in an airtight container in the fridge for later.
How to store this vegan taco salad
This vegan taco salad is best stored in the fridge in an airtight container. If you are making this for meal prep to take with you as a to-go lunch, you can store it in individual containers.
It lasts in the fridge for roughly 3-4 days. Enjoy it cold (or slightly warmed up to room temperature) or heat it up in a microwave.
Looking for more healthy vegan lunch recipes?
- Simple Vegan Udon Noodle Bowl Perfect for Meal Prep
- Simple Vegan Sushi Bowl for Meal Prep
- Simple Vegan Lentil Bolognese Recipe
- Vegan Meal Prep Burrito Bowl
- Sundried Tomato Pesto Pasta Salad
- Smoked Tofu Pasta Salad
- 15-Minute Creamy Vegan Chickpea Pasta
- Creamy Lentil Cauliflower Curry
Did you make this vegan taco salad?
Please leave a comment below, share or rate this recipe. You can also tag me on instagram – I would love to see your creations!
Vegan Taco Salad
Ingredients
- 150 g whole-wheat pasta
- 1 red bell pepper 150g
- 2 tomatoes 200g
- 1 red onion small
- 200 g black beans cooked (roughly 1 can, drained)
- 100 g sweet corn canned
- parsley 1 handful
- salt and pepper to taste
for the dressing
- 20 g tahini 1 ½ tablespoons
- ¼ tsp ground cumin
- juice of 1 lemon
- sriracha or your favorite hot sauce
Instructions
- Bring a bot of water to a boil and cook the pasta according to package instructions.
- Wash the bell pepper and tomatoes and cut into small pieces.
- Finely chop the red onion.
- Roughly chop the parsley.
- Drain the sweet corn and black beans and set aside.
- Combine all ingredients for the dressing and mix well. Add water if consistency is too thick.
- Add all ingredients to a bowl and combine. Add salt and pepper to taste.
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