This raw vegan walnut taco meat is a great staple dish. Since it lasts 5 days in the refregirator, you can make it ahead and add a nice taco flair to various dishes throughout the week. I use it in raw vegan lettuce leaf tacos, raw vegan taco salads, raw vegan taco cucumber boats, raw vegan burrito bowls, you name it. This recipe was originally posted in the raw vegan lettuce leaf tacos recipe, but I am posting this separately so that it can be easily found on my recipe page.
Raw Vegan Walnut Taco Meat
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
Author: Mariko Sakata
Cuisine: raw food, raw vegan, gluten-free
Serves: 4
Ingredients
- 2 cups walnuts
- 6 sun-dried tomatoes
- 1 garlic clove
- 2 teaspoons onion powder
- 1 Tablespoon + 1 teaspoon cumin
- 2 teaspoons chili powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 Tablespoon tamari
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- 2 teaspoons maple syrup
Instructions
If you own a dehydrator:
- Soak the walnuts for 6-8 hours, rinse well and drain. Dry them in the dehydrator on 115℉ (46℃) for about 18 hours until completely dry.
If you don't own a dehydrator (it will no longer be raw):
- Lightly toast the walnuts on a dry skillet until they start to smell fragrant. Set aside and cool off.
- Soak the sun-dried tomatoes in water to soften. Drain and roughly chop.
- Add all the ingredients for the walnut taco meat into the food processor, and pulse until the walnuts become the size of ground taco meat. Do not process too much. It should look like crumbles. If you process it too much, it will become a taco meat paste!
Notes
If you don't have walnuts on hand, you can also use other nuts or seeds. I also use sunflower seeds when I'm out of walnuts.
Store the walnut taco meat in the refregirator in an air-tight container. Will keep for 5 days.
Store the walnut taco meat in the refregirator in an air-tight container. Will keep for 5 days.
Hi! As you may now I really admire your work.
I am wondering if I lightly toast the walnut, am I loose some enzymes?
Hi Giose,
Thank you so much for your kind words!
Yes, you will lose some enzymes. This recipe calls for dry walnuts, so it’s ideal to use soaked and dried walnuts. But not everyone owns a dehydrator, so lightly toasting is an option for someone who doesn’t own a dehydrator, and who’s also concerned about the enzyme inhibitors. Hope this clarifies your question.
what do you think?
would it work with roasted-salted peanuts too? 🙂
Hi Gabi,
Thank you for your comment! It could. It’ll taste like peanut taco meat, but it’ll probably be tasty if you like peanuts. I would cut down on the salt in the recipe if you are going to use roasted-salted peanuts. Let me know how it turns out:) Thank you!
Im new to this, but very old! why do we soak walnuts to dry them, instead of just using raw walnuts? I recently exposed to raw foods, …. I feel 10yrs younger.