It’s made with delicious, wholesome raw ingredients and ready in 10 minutes. Let’s do this!
This recipe starts with raw walnuts, which are blitzed into a fine meal. This creates the perfect texture while providing tons of healthy fat and protein.
Next comes a spicy, smoky red sauce made with sun-dried tomatoes, peppers, garlic, and dry spices. Once it’s blended into a paste, combine the two, and – seriously – that’s it!
This taco “meat” is seriously dreamy! We love the slightly chunky texture, the heartiness from the sun-dried tomatoes, and the spice from fresh habanero peppers. Mmm, it’s dinner time.
This would make the perfect item to add to things like tacos, burritos, nachos, salads, and more. We could also see it being a lovely addition to dishes like our Tortilla Soup, 1-pot Lentil Chili, and Black Bean Sweet Potato Enchiladas! You could also add it to a Perfect Roasted Sweet Potato with Garlicky Guacamole, Easy Red Salsa, and a little Vegan Sour Cream for the ultimate decadent (yet healthy) meal!
Ingredients
WALNUT TACO MEAT
- 2/3 cup sun-dried tomatoes (preferably packaged dry, not in oil)*
- 3 cups raw walnuts
- Four cloves garlic (minced)
- 1/2 tsp sea salt (plus more to taste)
- 1 Tbsp smoked paprika
- 1 Tbsp ground cumin
- 1 Tbsp chili powder
- 2 tsp coconut sugar (omit if avoiding sugar, or sub a little stevia)
- 1-2 small habanero peppers (deseeded and chopped // more or less to spice preference // or sub one chipotle pepper in adobo sauce, plus more to taste, but this will make the recipe no longer raw)
- 1-2 tsp nutritional yeast (optional)
- ~1/4 cup water as needed (plus more as needed)
FOR GARNISH/SERVING (optional)
- Tortillas
- Cilantro
- Avocado
- Radish
Instructions
- Add sun-dried tomatoes to a small bowl and cover with warm water. Set aside and allow to soak for at least 5 minutes.
- To the bowl of a food processor, add walnuts and pulse into a semi-fine meal (some larger chunks are okay. Be careful not to churn into butter). Transfer walnuts to a medium mixing bowl and set aside.
- Drain the sun-dried tomatoes (reserving the water in a small bowl to add back to the sauce later on) and add to the bowl of the food processor. Add garlic, sea salt, smoked paprika, cumin, chili powder, coconut sugar, habaneros, and nutritional yeast (optional) and blend until a smooth paste is formed. Add 1 Tbsp (15 ml) of reserved water at a time until a thick but pourable sauce is formed (see photo).
- Taste and adjust flavor as needed, adding more salt for saltiness, garlic for more “zing,” peppers for heat, cumin for smokiness or coconut sugar to balance the heat.
- Add mixture to walnuts and stir to combine. At this point, you can taste and adjust flavors as needed once more. We added a bit more salt.
- Enjoy in any setting one would use taco meat: tacos, salad, nachos, burritos, and more. Leftovers can be stored for up to 5-7 days in the refrigerator or up to 1 month in the freezer.
