When I was young, a meal out with just my mom and me was a rare treat. I love my dad and my two younger brothers, of course, but family dinners were always more loud and chaotic affairs. When my mom and I got to eat dinner by ourselves, I’d often vote for Mexican food, just for the chips andqueso. I’m still a sucker for chips and good queso, and I still haven’t learned to save room for dinner.
Back then, I always ordered something basic from the kids menu, and my mom always ordered a taco salad. The taco salad you see here is quite different from the salads my mom used to order. She chose them because they were the lightest option on the menu, but I always found myself wondering: how do those bowl-shaped fried tortillas hold up all that the cheese and sour cream? The rich ingredients didn’t make up for the dearth of flavor in the iceberg lettuce or the sad pink tomatoes.
Here’s my fresher, plant-based take: Avegetarian tacosalad that serves as a balanced, full meal in a bowl. Peppery arugula and crisp romaine lettuce form the base, so we’re already off to a more flavorful salad. I like to chop my romaine into small pieces (about 1/2 inch) for the best texture.
Then, I toss the greens in a creamy, intentionally zippy avocado-lime dressing. Cherry tomatoes, radishes and avocado lend some color and pops of flavor. The dressing would also be great on simplified side salads, with any of the fresh ingredients in the salad.
I added chili-flavored quinoa and black beans instead of ground beef, which makes it a hearty meatless salad. You can use the quinoa and black-bean component in other Mexican recipes, too. It actually started out as taco filling, but I imagine it would be good inside enchiladas as well. You can load it onto nachos for a more filling and redeeming cheesy meal. I don’t design recipes to mimic meat, but this quinoa and black bean combination is coincidentally quite similar to ground beef. I think it will satisfy even the most skeptical carnivores at the table.
Fetacheese rounds out the salad with some creamy, salty flavor. Feta is my go-to substitute for Mexican Cotija cheese, which is generally hard to find. I always buy feta in blocks and crumble it with a fork as necessary. The pre-crumbled kind is more expensive and doesn’t taste nearly as good!
The ode to my mom’s taco salads wouldn’t be complete without some crispy tortilla strips on top—either make your own as described below, or skip a step and throw in some crumbled tortilla chips just before serving.
To make this vegetarian taco salad recipe vegan, just omit the feta cheese (you might want to throw in a handful of smallpickled jalapeñoslices to make up for feta’s salty punch). Bonus: This recipe is gluten free as long as your tortillas are gluten free. And like Mom's taco salad from way back when, it always hits the spot.
Kathryne Taylor is the creator ofCookie and Kate, and the author of the new cookbookLove Real Food.
