A delicious alternative to traditional beef tacos, these Cauliflower Tacos with Walnut Taco Meat and Pickled Beets taste SO good!
We love taco night in my house because it’s super fun to assemble your own little meal and make every bite different and unique. But when my family is tiring of the classic ground meat mixture, or pulled chicken (which is DELICIOUS too btw), and I’m looking for some ways to sneak more plant based meals into my family’s day, I go STRAIGHT for these this walnut taco meat. Paired with cauliflower and pickled beets, it’s the best vegan taco combo you’ll try.
Table of contents
Why This Recipe Works
Did you know that WALNUTS can taste like MEAT? If you haven’t tried this vegan hack, get ready to have your MIND. BLOWN. Other than this tasting ah-mazing, here are some more reasons to make this walnut taco meat tonight!
- Kids love it
- Make the pickled beets the night before and you can have dinner ready in TEN minutes!
- Freezer friendly
- Packed with Omega-3s
Key Ingredients
Walnuts — Walnuts are a great ingredients to add to your regular meals as they are packed with healthy fats, fiber, vitamins and mineral. Did you know that walnuts provides 2.5 grams of Omega-3s per 1-ounce serving?
Cauliflower Rice — You can find cauliflower rice at mosy major grocery stores now in the freezer aisle. If you cannot find any, I explain how to DIY in the tips section.
Flavour bombs — We pack these walnut tacos with flavour with all the seasoning we use. We have chili, tamari, chipotle in adobo, and cumin in the filling!
Pickled Beets — I used raw beets and a simple pickling solution that is both sweet and spicy and sits in the fridge overnight to take on flavour. If you’re making this right before you want to serve dinner (which, let’s be real, you PROBABLY ARE), I would suggest using the cooked beets you can now find in a lot of grocery store produce aisles and following the quick pickle instructions below.
How to Make This Recipe
Step 1: To a sauce pot, heat the water, sugar, salt, and cumin until the sugar and salt dissolve. Add the vinegar, jalapenos and beets. Place in a sealed mason jar, and let sit in the fridge for 3-6 hours, or overnight.
Alternative, the quick version: Cook the beets first, then spiralize the beets. Place in a jar with the brine for 30 minutes.
Step 2: To a large nonstick skillet, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the garlic and saute for 30 seconds. Add in the walnuts, frozen cauliflower rice, cumin, chili, tamari, chipotle, lime and maple syrup. Saute and mix until everything is well combined and the cauliflower rice is warmed through, about 5-7 minutes. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.
Step 3: To serve, add the walnut meat to the tacos along with the avocado, radish, pickled beets, sour cream and cheese. Enjoy.
Expert Tips
Since this walnut taco meat recipe is so easy to make, I love making extra of the filling to freeze for later. Once your filling has cooled, you can transfer the walnut cauliflower filling into single or family sized servings freezer bags. Freeze for up to 3 months. When you’re ready to enjoy, you don’t even have to thaw it! Simply add it to a skillet to crisp it back up.
Be sure to not over-pulse the walnuts in the food processor as you want there to be some texture to it and not be a puree.
If you cannot find cauliflower rice for these walnut tacos, you can make your own by putting a head of cauliflower into a food processor or finely dicing the florets by hand. You can also run the head of cauliflower through a box grater to rice it.
Recipe FAQs
Yes! As long as you use corn tortillas, these vegan walnut meat cauliflower tacos are totally vegan.
This recipe does have a kick to it, but you could tone it down to make it more kid friendly. I suggest omitting the chipotle in adobo in the walnut meat cauliflower taco mixture, and then omitting the jalapeno in the pickled beets. If you want to serve this to young toddlers, just make extra sure there is no large pieces of walnuts left in the mixture and that everything is minced very fine.
Absolutely! The walnut meat mixture itself (the combination of walnuts and cauliflower is low in carbs), so if you replace the tortilla with a lettuce wrap, you would have a low carb meal.
The walnut taco meat mixture will last for about 3 days and the beets can last a few weeks in the fridge as they are pickled. To check if your pickled beets are still good, check if the beets have developed an off odour or appearance.
The filling for these walnut tacos are a really versatile mixture that can also be put on taco salads or in burritos or wraps. You can even throw it over a bowl of rice or quinoa.
More Recipes You Might Like
Want more taco recipes for Taco Tuesday that are just as delicious as my walnut tacos? Try these ones!
- Peach BBQ Slow Cooker Chicken Tacos
- Vegan Buffalo Cauliflower & Chickpeas Tacos
- Tofu Tacos with Vegan Peanut Sauce (Grilled)
- Vegan Buffalo Cauliflower and Chickpea Hard Tacos | Healthy, High Protein Tacos!
What are you serving for meatless Monday or taco Tuesday this week? Leave me a comment below and send this to a friend who needs some weeknight inspiration!
Walnut Tacos with Cauliflower and Pickled Beets (Vegan)
Ingredients
Spiralized Pickled Beets
- ½ cup water
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 1 tbsp salt
- 1 tbsp ground cumin
- ½ cup apple cider vinegar
- ½ jalapeno sliced (omit if you don’t like heat)
- 1½ cups spiralized beets
For the Walnut Tacos
- 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1½ cups walnuts pulsed in a food processor to a minced consistency
- 400 grams bag frozen cauliflower rice about 2 cups
- 1 tsp cumin
- 2 tsp chili powder
- 2 tbsp low sodium tamari
- 2 chipotle in adobo peppers minced
- 1 tbsp maple syrup
- Juice of ½ lime
- Salt and pepper to taste
To Serve:
- Toasted corn tortillas
- Avocado sliced
- Radishes thinly sliced
- Vegan crumbled cheese
- Vegan sour cream
Instructions
- To a sauce pot, heat the water, sugar, salt, and cumin until the sugar and salt dissolve. Add the vinegar, jalapenos and beets. Place in a sealed mason jar, and let sit in the fridge for 3-6 hours, or overnight.
- Quickle version: Cook the beets first, then spiralize the beets. Place in a jar with the brine for 30 minutes.
- To a large nonstick skillet, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the garlic and saute for 30 seconds. Add in the walnuts, frozen cauliflower rice, cumin, chili, tamari, chipotle, lime and maple syrup. Saute and mix until everything is well combined and the cauliflower rice is warmed through, about 5-7 minutes. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.
- To serve, add the walnut meat to the tacos along with the avocado, radish, pickled beets, sour cream and cheese. Enjoy.
Video
Notes
- Since this walnut taco recipe is so easy to make, I love making extra of the filling to freeze for later. Once your filling has cooled, you can transfer the walnut cauliflower filling into single or family sized servings freezer bags. Freeze for up to 3 months. When you’re ready to enjoy, you don’t even have to thaw it! Simply add it to a skillet to crisp it back up.
- Be sure to not over-pulse the walnuts in the food processor as you want there to be some texture to it and not be a puree.
- If you cannot find cauliflower rice for these walnut tacos, you can make your own by putting a head of cauliflower into a food processor or finely dicing the florets by hand. You can also run the head of cauliflower through a cheese grater to rice it.
Nutrition
Abbey Sharp is a Registered Dietitian (RD), regulated by the Ontario College of Dietitians. She is a mom, YouTuber, Blogger, award winning cookbook author, media coach specializing in food and nutrition influencers, and a frequent contributor to national publications like Healthline and on national broadcast TV shows.
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