Vegetarian Taco Meat imitates the food we love without the meat or the higher price tag. A win win for taco lovers!
(Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free, Low-Sugar, Vegetarian, Vegan)
I’ve been dreaming of this vegetarian taco meat for a while now.
Whether you are a Meatless Monday or Meatless forever and ever family, this Vegetarian Taco Meat is perfect for any reason.
I have ‘meat issues’ every once and awhile, I just find it hard to eat. Then there is my husband who believes he will, and I quote, “Will DIE without meat in my life.” Such an over-the-top drama king, I know.
We have quinoa black bean tacos that are absolutely delicious but I wanted a meat replacement. Something that was a total replacement and actually mimicked the texture of taco meat.
What is the base to this Vegetarian Taco meat you may ask?
- Cashews
- Mushrooms
Have I lost you?
Stay with me, I promise it’s worth it!
Cost for a pound of organic pasture raised beef is $7-8 per pound where we live.
Cost for cashews and a container of mushrooms? About $4.
Does that convince you to at least TRY it?
Now that my husband is back home, I’ll be the first to admit the grocery bill has been giving me mini panic attacks.
Two people working out at least 5 times a week means we eat quite a bit. Meaning our grocery bill is out-of-this-world high. Painful but necessary.
With certain plans in the future (will tell more later) making me very aware I’m going to be the sole breadwinner of the house for a while and it has also made me very aware of our budget.
(Sole Breadwinner of the house by running THIS BLOG. Thank you my amazing readers. Heres to hoping Net-Neutrality won’t squash my lively-hood)
We’ve always been very fortunate to live within our means since day one and never really have had to worry about cost of anything.
Well… here is more my thought process now.
One pound of beef will last two days for us. Eating that all week (which R would like to do) means that is about 3 pounds of beef per week. That is $96 dollars a month JUST IN GROUND BEEF. For two people, total bat shit crazy when put into perspective.
Either I make my husband a 100% vegetarian (never gonna happen) or find a Vegetarian Taco Meat substitute he enjoys and SAVE US SOME MONEY.
Mission accomplished.
Vegetarian Taco Meat thats Gluten-Free Recipe
Main
Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free, Vegetarian, Vegan, Low-Sugar
Mexican
Yield: 4
Prep Time:10 min
Cook Time:18 min
Total Time:28 min
Ingredients:
- 4-5 cups sliced white button mushrooms
- 1 cup roasted cashews (I like them lightly salted)
- 1/8 teaspoon salt (omit if cashews are salted)
- 1 Tablespoon olive oil
- 2-3 Tablespoons homemade taco seasoning
- 1/4 cup water
- Optional: 1/4 cup taco sauce (try out our homemade taco sauce)
- Juice from half of a lime
Directions:
- 1. In a food processor, pulse mushrooms, cashews and salt until it creates a crumbly mixture, Pulse apprx 10-12 times. You want to have little bites of cashews and mushroom in the mixture still, do not over process it.
- 2. In a large skillet over medium heat, add olive oil and vegetarian taco meat mixture. Cook 4-5 minutes to heat mixture through, turn heat down to low, cook for another 5-8 minutes. Cashews should have very little 'crunch' to them when tasting the mixture.
- 3. Stir in taco seasoning and water. On low for another 5 minutes.
- 4. Stir in taco sauce and lime juice before serving into corn tortillas or onto your favorite taco salad!
Author: Linnie
Nutrition Information:
Calories: 245
Other nutrition information: Total Fat: 19.5g, Saturated Fat: 3.6g, Unsaturated Fat: 14.8g, Cholesterol: 0mg, Sodium: 222mg, Potassium: 468 mg, Total Carb: 14g, Dietary Fiber: 2.1g, Sugars: 3.4g, Protein: 8g
How much did you love this recipe?
Click a star to let me know:
(158 votes, average: 3.82 out of 5)
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This look so amazing. Like you I’m not totally meat free but do love the vegetarian recipes that you share. What is the amount for one serving, 1/4 cup or so? Can’t wait to try this.
Thanks Jacquie! So it serves about 4 servings and 1 Serving filled up about 3 small corn tortillas for us. Hope you enjoy it! 🙂
I forgot to ask this, sorry. Are these “raw” cashews that I need to roast first or just ones I can by at the market in a can?
The ones you can buy at the market in the can will work. Generally those are a darker color with a little salt and they work perfect in my opinion. 🙂
you know I love seitan, but I can´t handle so much gluten, so this is absolutely amazing!!!! I have to give this a try
What’s your secret to buy cashews AND mushrooms for $4? I could only manage to find raw cashews for $10 last night. Looks yummy if I could just master cashew savings! Lol
So when I bought my cashews I bought them for $4.. there was 2 cups of cashews in that container. Same thing with mushrooms – my mushrooms cost $2.
I ended up dividing the cost of the cashews can by 2 since you only need 1 cup for the recipe.
I can see if you bought the bulk cashews/ large bag of them perhaps that is where the extra cost is but you’ll have extra cashews to snack on! Never a bad thing. 😉
Because you bought “raw” which are more expensive. The recipe calls for standard roasted cashews😊
Hi! How long will this keep in the fridge? And is it freezable?
My experience at least 4 days. I haven’t attempted to freeze it either so I’m not sure what the results are with that.
I accidentally bought too much and am going to attempt to freeze some. From what I’ve read, mushrooms freeze better after they’re cooked because of the high moisture content and cashews are totally fine to freeze. So, I’m hoping it’ll turn out okay. I’ll let you know!
Yes please let us know! We always end up making enough for the night and a little bit leftovers for the next day so have not gotten a chance to freeze and unthaw this recipe yet. Fingers crossed! 🙂
So how does this turn out for those of us who dislike mushrooms? ha! I’m willing to try but if it’s just going to taste like a mushroom I think I’ll pass.
My daughter (age 10) is meat free 11 months now so it’s apparent that it wasn’t just a phase. lol. My husband has decided to go meat free for at least 6 months partly for our daughter and partly to see if meat is what is causing him to get sick after he eats. He and my boys like mushrooms but my daughter and I do not. I plan to make more meat free dinners this year. Hope We like this one….even though I dislike mushrooms….It looks great.
So my husband is actually not a fan of mushrooms. According to him, he couldn’t eat this plain (but I can’t eat ground beef plain either) but having it in a taco with toppings he actually enjoyed it. So I think as long as its IN something you should be grand. 🙂
Thanks for replying…good deal. I’m going to try them in a week or so.
We finally tried these tonight! Yum!!! All of my meat eaters and my vegetarian non mushroom eater and myself all liked them all the way down to my 6 year old! Score! Thanks for the recipe.
Also, I forgot to buy roasted so I roasted the cashews myself with olive oil and cumin to help with the taco flavor. Perfect.
I added a store brand hot sauce and there was no distinct mushroom taste. All flavors blend and taste very good.
so, do we roast them first? and if so, for how long? cheers
I personally bought already roasted cashews. If you are buying raw cashews then yes I’d recommend to roast them. Roast at 350 F for 5-10 minutes
This was SO delicious!! Thank you Lindsay 🙂
I’m new to being vegan and I have found it hard to find recipes I enjoy – but this was amazing! It tasted like real taco mince!!
I added some tomato paste and baby spinach to this as well 🙂 Yum!
So glad you enjoyed it! 🙂
I just made this and it truly is tasty!! I would even go so far to say this is an an excellent base to replace pretty much any type of ground meat recipe!! Just season according to the type of dish you are making.
Thank you so much!!
Yay!! So glad you liked it! 🙂
Is there something else you can use besides cashews? Tree nut allergy here. I also have a niece who can’t have the protein in nuts. This would be perfect except for the nuts.
Mmmmmm. My thinking is perhaps some pumpkin seeds or sunflower seeds? I would think that actually might work out nicely.
Would walnuts work instead? Cashews have the highest omega 6 and so I don’t eat them.
Yes they sure would!
Have you tried freezing it yet? I’m doing a vegan freezer meal party and would love to include this. Sounds yummy.
I have not and really am unsure about the results. Perhaps someone else had tried this yet? Let us know! 🙂
I can’t eat mushrooms due to an allergy (but I am not lamenting having an excuse for not eating them – ha!) so I am going to try this with lentils and cashews instead. Will report my findings whenever I get around to making these, which should be soon since I just got a box of blue corn tortillas from Brandless in the mail yesterday!
Yes! Please let us know how that turns out! :))
WOW! I get so disappointed when i waste time and money on recipes i don’t like but this was cheap, easy, and exceeded my expectations. I loved it so much. Thank you! I used corn tortillas (gluten free), Daiya cheese, green onion, and cilantro to top it off. It was amazing.
Goodness you scared us how you started this comment LOL so glad we didn’t disappoint and I am SO HAPPY you enjoyed it! We’ve been using this vegetarian meat base for other recipes too because I love it – so stay tuned! 🙂
Could you replace white mushrooms with baby portabellas or other mushrooms?
I haven’t tried it myself but it’s definitely worth a try!
This was very good. I barely pulsed the mushroom/cashew mixture so it would have chunks. Then I didn’t cook it quite as long and only added part of the sauce. It made really good tacos!
So glad you enjoyed this! Thanks for coming back and letting us know. 🙂
Thanks for the recipe, I enjoyed it! I’m always looking for new ways to prepare mushrooms and this was very creative and delicious.
Something else to try—once the recipe was done, I added rice and then turned up the heat to brown it a bit. It created a pattie, though it didn’t stay together (maybe could add flax for that).