Tofu Taco Salad with Chipotle Lime Vinaigrette

So here’s the situation. You recently made these tofu tacos and have a bunch of tofu crumble leftovers but are out of homemade flour tortillas. What do you do? Make this tofu taco salad, of course! Incredibly healthy and delicious. A true power bowl, loaded with lots of protein, veggies and a variety of greens to hit all those macro and micro nutrient needs.

Chipotle, lime, cumin vinaigrette

Typically, a taco salad bowl will have a creamy chipotle dressing, but I urge you to try this dressing instead. It's got a nice mix of zesty citrus, heat from some hot sauce and cumin seeds for texture. The tart citrus and spicy hot sauce are balanced with just a hint of sweetness from the maple syrup. Using lime zest and juice -pulp and all! Really dig into the inside of a lime with a spoon to get all the good stuff out-, olive oil, a minced clove of garlic, some cumin seeds, chipotle hot sauce, maple syrup and salt and pepper, makes this one delicious vinaigrette. This makes way more dressing then needed for the recipe, but it can be stored in a bottle or mason jar in the fridge for weeks. When the dressing amount gets low, the dressing will split with the olive oil solidifying on top. The dressing is still good, just take it out of the fridge to reach room temperature and liquid state again before shaking it up, or whisk it all together while the olive oil is still solid for a thicker dressing. Salad dressing meal prep is complete.

The Ingredients to Build a Taco Salad:

Load up this salad with some protein! Heat up a skillet over medium heat on a stove, with a couple tablespoons of the vinaigrette dressing. Cook half a can of rinsed black beans for 5 minutes or so and add the leftover tofu taco crumble with a couple minutes left to reheat it as well. Throw in some roasted corn kernels at the last minute. Frozen corn can be used instead, just up the cook time to 3 minutes. The rest of the beans can be covered and saved in the fridge for a day or two - use them on some nachos!

Roasted corn is perfect with this salad! Since it's not quite spring yet, the barbecue is probably not an option. You can roast it in the oven at 400F for 30 minutes or so, using a dab of butter and a pinch of salt and pepper. Once the butter melts, roll the corn around in it to coat. Rotate the corn every 10 minutes for a perfectly roasted cob. Take a large knife and cut off the kernels. You can save the leftover cob in the freezer with the rest of your veggie scraps for a homemade vegetable broth! In the summertime, you should definitely try roasting your corn on the barbecue instead..

Lettuce - choose pre-washed, mixed lettuce to save yourself some time and hassle. Using a mix of different greens is great because you get a variety of different vitamins and minerals. The mix I chose had baby romaine, chard, mizuna, radicchio, red leaf, oak leaf, arugula, spinach and butter lettuce. That being said, plain spinach or romaine lettuce will work great as well!

Red Cabbage - not only is it a beautiful rich purple colour, it’s also nutrient dense, full of antioxidants and has a high vitamin C content - pretty and healthy! Make sure to cut the cabbage very thinly, since large raw chunks can be tougher to eat. Rinse the shredded cabbage in a colander or sieve and pat dry with some paper towel to rid it of the purple tie-dye bleeding effect red cabbage can have.

Carrot - can either be shredded using a grater or ribboned using a y-shaped peeler lengthwise along the carrot.

Jalapeno - slice some of these up for extra heat. If you are sensitive to spicy heat, feel free to remove the seeds and white pith, where the majority of the heat is located. Between this and the chipotle hot sauce vinaigrette, this salad has the perfect amount of spice.

Red Onion - a few rounds of thinly sliced red onion add even more colour and flavour.

Cherry tomatoes - heirloom varieties are best for a nice mix of beautiful bright colours.

Avocado - Whatever you do, don't forget the avocado! Avocado is a staple for tacos, agreed?

Cheese - Thinly shredded orange cheddar is perfect for this salad. For a plant-based or vegan salad, just skip this ingredient.

Cilantro - A small handful of cilantro leaves goes a long way. However, if cilantro tastes like soap to you, try some fresh parsley instead.

Tortilla chips - Whatever you do, DON’T forget to take a handful of tortilla chips and crumble them on top. Where are they in the pictures, you may be asking yourself. To be honest, I completely dropped the ball and forgot to add them during the photoshoot. It was only afterwards as I was munching down on this salad that I remembered… oops!

This recipe makes enough for 4 full meals or 8 sides. It can be prepared ahead for easy meal prep lunches, just skip adding the tortilla chips, avocado and dressing until just before eating. Plus, with all that dressing you made, you have multiple lunches covered! Does this recipe make way too much for your needs? It’s easy enough to halve the recipe, leaving you with a lunch or supper right now and another meal ready to go for tomorrow. Not only is this salad colourful, zesty and delicious with some spicy heat, it’s also full of healthy nutrients and it’s a great way to repurpose leftover tofu taco crumble.