This post is sponsored by Blue Diamond Almond Breeze Almondmilk.
I’ve had this one planned for awhile now. Every few months, I’d glance at my upcoming list of potential recipes and start salivating over the idea of this summer taco salad. I love summer, I love tacos, and I really really love salads, so here we go!
Instead of taco meat, I mix red quinoa and black beans with lime juice, chili powder, smoked paprika, and a touch of maple syrup – all of this helps create a bit of a smoky flavor. Quick tip: keep this quinoa mix on hand in the fridge to build lunchtime salad bowls throughout the week.
Now onto the “ranch” sauce – I used blanched, slivered almonds (unpeeled almonds work best and it’s not fun to peel almonds yourself), Almond Breeze Almondmilk, cucumber, lime juice, jalapeño, and spices. It makes the perfect cool, creamy ranch-like sauce.
Jack and I had a long argument about whether this tastes similar to “authentically” bottled ranch dressing. He said “it tastes more like tzaziki because of the cucumber” and I said “that’s the COOL part about cool ranch.” The argument came to an abrupt, unsatisfying end when Jack found a bottle of ranch dressing in the back of my parent’s fridge that expired last December that we both refused to try. I continued on, and once the taco bowls were assembled with this creamy vegan ranch-ish sauce, we were both very happy.
This recipe has a few components – but all of them can be made in advance: the sauce, the quinoa – even the baked tortilla strips.
You can assemble your bowls however you like – I use chopped romaine lettuce, fresh raw corn kernels, chopped tomato, and tons of cilantro.
The sauce recipe makes extra – store it in the fridge and put it on more bowls, in tacos, or use it as a dip for raw vegetables.
