This vegetarian taco meat is made with cauliflower, walnuts, and chipotle peppers. It’s so easy: just mix and bake. Meatless miracle!
Cauliflower Walnut Vegetarian Taco Meat
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Hands down the absolute best taco meat substitute I have ever had. Perfect texture and flavor and oh so easy and healthy. Thank you 😊
Tina Mitchell
Breaking news: vegetarian taco meat is a weirdly delicious thing. Like, all plants. In tacos. That really closely resembles ground beef and possibly even tastes better. This is a miracle of epic proportions.
Do we love tacos or DO WE LOVE TACOS? We – team POY, readers and bloggers and friends and family alike – definitely love tacos. We also love all derivatives of tacos – taco bowls, burritos, burrito bowls, quesadillas, enchiladas, tostadas, nachos, etc., which is good news for the magic of vegetarian taco meat because it goes with everything. All of them. Not one taco relative left behind.
The number of types of tacos I’ve made is beyond counting. It would actually be embarrassing. That number is not slowing down anytime soon, pals. Being a taco fanatic means I am definitely not going to say no to a beef taco if you offer it to me, but I am also a part-time vegetarian and I really love a good meatless alternative.
I have no real explanation for this except that I love to eat plants and I find cooking vegetarian recipes to be easier. And more fun. So chipotle-spiced, easy-to-make veg taco meat was born.
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How To Make Some Mind-Blowing Vegetarian Taco Meat
Here’s what we have going on in this vegetarian taco meat situation:
- cauliflower
- walnuts
- chipotle peppers
- a few spices
- salt
Can you handle it? It’s too easy. It should be wrong but it’s so right.
Once that gets all ground up, we’re going to bake it.
You still with me?
Serve It Up with All The Things
While it’s baking, since you’re going to have about 30 minutes of down time, this is the perfect opportunity to get into a salsa frenzy and whip up every type of friendly taco buddy that you can think of.
I went with the trifecta pictured here: corn and black bean salsa, pico de gallo, and guacamole because I don’t want to hate my life.
My taco vision quickly got out of control and I opted for a taco bowl – er, maybe burrito bowl, technically, with the rice and everything – instead of a traditional folded-in-a-tortilla fashion. Which is a callback to what I said at the beginning: that this vegetarian taco meat is ready to go with anybody in the taco family.
Only love for this mountain of glory.
What can I even say? My heart is happy. Vegetarian taco meat, please never leave me.
I hope you love tacossss.
Ways To Use Vegetarian Taco Meat
There are so many ways! Here are my favorites.
- In tacos!
- In bowls!
- In burritos!
- Stuffed in enchiladas.
- Layered in a crunchwrap.
- Eaten straight off the pan.
Cauliflower Walnut Vegetarian Taco Meat
- Total Time: 35 minutes
- Yield: 6 servings (about 1/2 cup each) 1x
Description
This vegetarian taco meat is made with cauliflower, walnuts, and chipotle peppers. It’s so easy: just mix and bake. Meatless miracle!
Ingredients
Units
Scale
The Vegetarian Taco Meat Basics:
- 3 cups cauliflower florets
- 2 cups whole walnuts
- 2 individual chipotles in adobo sauce
- 1 tablespoon chili powder
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 1 teaspoon salt
Optional Add-Ins:
- 2 tablespoons lime juice
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic or onion powder
- a pinch of cayenne for more heat
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Pulse all ingredients in a food processor until the mixture is evenly ground (see picture).
- Transfer to a greased baking sheet. Bake for 30 minutes, stirring halfway through to prevent over-browning.
- Serve in tacos, burritos, quesadillas, bowls, and the like!
Equipment
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Notes
My salsa-making game is pretty loose. I like to just eyeball it and taste and adjust as I go.
- Corn Salsa: toss some corn kernels in a pan and saute until roasty-looking. Mix with black beans, jalapeño, salt, lime juice, cilantro.
- Pico de Gallo: toss chopped tomatoes with chopped onion, salt, lime juice, and cilantro.
- Guacamole: toss mashed avocados with chopped onion, salt, lime juice, and cilantro.
Freezer Meal Version
- Pulse in a food processor to make the “meat”:
3 cups cauliflower florets
2 cups whole walnuts
2 individual chipotles in adobo sauce
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon salt
optional: lime juice, onion and garlic powder, cayenne to taste - Bake and then freeze: 375 degrees for 30 minutes (stir halfway through), freeze in plastic bag or glass container.
- Final Step: Add Cauliflower Walnut Taco Meat to a skillet to reheat, or in the microwave. Serve in tacos, enchiladas, rice bowls, burritos, quesadillas, nachos, the usual.
- Check out our full freezer meal posts with all recipes and instructions here!
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Category: Dinner
- Method: Bake
- Cuisine: Mexican
Keywords: vegetarian taco meat, cauliflower walnut meat, vegetarian Mexican recipe, vegetarian recipe, taco bowl
View freezer meal version of this recipe here.
You might also like our full freezer meals post.
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Filed Under: 5 Ingredients All Recipes Bowls Cauliflower Dairy-Free Dinner Gluten Free May Gluten-Free Healthy Lunch Main Dishes Quick and Easy Sheet Pan Sugar Free January Sugar-Free Tacos Vegan Vegetarian Winter
January 16, 2020
Nice to meet you!
I’m Lindsay and I ♡ FOOD. I used to be a teacher, and now making food and writing about it online is my full-time job. I love talking with people about food, and I'm so glad you're here.
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Hi! The walnut-cauliflower taco meat is delicious, but very dry. I found that pulsing it until it just starts to clump helped a bit, but I’m looking for a way to make it “juicy” (vs wet or oily, as my efforts have yielded.)
Any suggestions?
This was amazing. My son is anaphylactic to peanuts and tree nuts so I subbed pepitas, and it was so delicious. Thank you for this recipe!!
Glad to hear that pepitas worked!
Would this hold up in taco soup as a substitute for ground beef? I would make the soup 2 days ahead of serving it. Thanks!
I am a vegetarian and love this so much! After making it a few times I decided to add a block of tempeh to the food processor to up the complete protein element of this. Couldn’t even taste the difference! Thanks SO much for this incredible recipe.
Tastes amazing, and freezes/re-heats so well!!
Absolutely delicious. Better than any vegetable tacos I have ever eaten…
Absolutely delicious. I gave it to a bunch of taco lovers meat eaters, none of them could tell the difference, and like it even more than ground meat when they found out what the ingredients were.
Do you think you could use chickpeas as an alternative to cauliflower? Cauliflower is so expensive where I live.
Haven’t tried this yet but it looks great!
Never made it to the freezer because we ate it all. Tastes much better then the veggie taco “meat” I’ve bought n the store.
The taco meat recipe is delicious! Can you share your recipe for the pictured corn and black bean?
I’ve been wanting to try this but Chipotle in adobo sauce aren’t really a thing in my country. Any substitution ideas?
If you have chipotle powder or something similar, that will give it the flavor!
I’ve come back to this recipe so many times over the years. So simple and so delicious. We will often do a double batch and freeze. The fact that I can take a scoop of this and toss it into a frypan to reheat & crisp is so fantastic! Thanks for a staple in the house that all us meat eaters happily enjoy ❤️
What would be a good substitute for the cauliflower? I’m following a lowFODMAP diet.
Thanks
I would like to make this for a wedding that is serving tacos on buffet. Would this hold up in a crockpot for several hours?
Just made this as the picture on Instagram peaked my interest. It is really good! Like real good! Thanks for the recipe!!
Love your blog!
I’ve made this recipe countless times and LOVE it. So quick and easy with a large food processor and holds up great in the freezer. We sometimes omit the chipotle pepper and it still turns out great.
I am allergic to walnuts. What woold you recommend as replacement?
Hi, Katherine! You could try almonds. Enjoy!
Wow, I was SO pleasantly surprised by this – taste AND texture! So easy and makes so much. I’m not even vegetarian, I just prefer this stuff! Will definitely be making again (and again!).
Do you cook the cauliflower while frozen or thawed? Does it have to be frozen?
Hi, Joan! We used fresh cauliflower here, but if you prefer to use frozen, you can cook it straight from the freezer – it just might not get as “crispy” as fresh cauliflower.
WOW! This filling/”meat” was incredible. Perfect amount of spice. If you want to fool some meat eaters, this is what you should use. Will definitely make this again. I am not a vegetarian and I loved it!
Just wanted to add that I used “riced” cauliflower rather than a head of cauliflower.
This is very original delicious but super spicy (and I have a high tolerance for heat).
Can you substitute almonds for the walnuts? My son has a tree nut allergy. Thanks!
Almonds have a very different consistency compared to walnuts. If your son isn’t allergic to pecans, I’d try that. Pecans are more tender than walnuts so I’d be careful when they’re in the food processor to not pulverize too much.
We haven’t tested this recipe with almonds, so it’s hard to say! It may work out okay!
Ok this stuff is fantastic!!! So tasty even right out of the food processor… Made nachos tonight but looking forward to experimenting with other flavors in the future. Yum!