The thing I love about salad is that that you can do so much with it. You can toss together a quickie salad that looks pretty much what people think vegans eat, or you can go all out and make a proper salad that fills you up with food and nutrients.
Guess which one I enjoy?
If you guess a big ass salad, you are correct, my friend.
Sometimes I enjoy what call it a hot & cold salad because I like to mix fresh raw ingredients with cooked ingredients, especially when it comes to burrito bowls, taco salads and Buddha bowls. Grab your favorite raw veggies, any kind of vegan protein you want and cooked veggies if you’re feeling spunky.
Check out my Sushi Salad Bowl or the Chickpea Rainbow Salad or Buffalo Chicken Salad or this Summer BBQ Salad recipe.
Sometimes I prefer something a little more traditional like potato salad, or a mostly raw vegan salad.
Today’s vegan taco salad is similar to dozens of vegan salad recipes I’ve made over the years but the difference is that I jumped out of my comfort zone and made something that I have yet to have a good experience with: peach & cucumber salsa.
It’s always been a hate-hate relationship with non-tomato salsa because I just don’t find the combination of peaches or nectarines with cucumbers all that pleasant to my taste buds. Today I decided to do it again just to see if my mind or my palate has changed.
So let’s dig into this black bean and corn taco salad.
Gather your ingredients and let’s get started!
What You’ll Need:
*Salad spinner
*Salad tongs
*Deep mixing bowl
*Small mixing bowl
Ingredients:
*Black Beans
*Corn (cut fresh off the cob)
*Onion
*Red bell pepper
*Jasmine Rice
*Romaine Lettuce
*Scallions
Salsa
*Peach
*Nectarine
*Cucumber
*Cherry tomatoes
*Shallot
*Lime juice
Directions:
*Chop and weigh salad, rinse and dry in a salad spinner. You may need to fill and refill the spinner a few times to get rid of the dirt on your lettuce so do it first so you can make sure your salad is nice and dry when you’re ready to build your vegan taco bowl.
*Put on water for your rice. Follow package instructions
*Make your salsa: dice the ingredients into uniform sizes and place in a small mixing bowl. Season and top with lime juice. Stir & set aside.
*Chop onions and bell peppers. Weigh them. Add to a medium-high skillet for about 4 to 6 minutes.
*Cut fresh corn into a deep mixing bowl to make sure the kernels don’t end up flying all around the kitchen. Add to skillet with onions and peppers, cook another 5 minute
*Add black beans and seasoning (cumin, cayenne pepper, salt & black pepper, garlic powder etc…) and stir until blended.
*Cook another 5 minutes until warmed through. Stir in rice.
*Assemble your vegan taco salad starting with lettuce and scallions on the bottom, cooked ingredients next and then your salsa.
*Add vegan sour cream (optional). I mixed fresh lemon and lime juice with vegan cocogurt because vegan sour cream is hard to find, but if you have any, tell me in the comments what your favorite brand is.
Enjoy!
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The Spicy Spatula 