Vegan Picadillo Crispy Tacos

Vegan crispy taco filling with no beans! Mushrooms, vegetables, spices, and some walnuts or pecans for healthy fats and great texture. Serve this vegan picadillo inside crispy taco shells or soft tortillas with your choice of toppings. Also great as a taco salad!

Thanking my stars for this little vegan picadillo I came up with a couple months ago, because it’s quickly become a weekly menu item round these parts. What I love about this is A. it’s the perfect vegan crispy taco filling, B. it’s very flexible, using your choice of cauliflower, broccoli or summer squashes, and C. no beans!

Not that I have anything against beans, you know. We eat lotsa beans around here, but sometimes it’s just not what I want. (But for a beany vegan taco recipe, try my white bean and pumpkin tacos.)

This vegan picadillo combines mushrooms, onions, your choice of secondary vegetable, spices and a few walnuts. And ketchup. Don’t judge! Use tomato sauce or a tomato salsa if you like instead, but using ketchup in place of tomato paste is something I tried out of desperation a couple of years ago and I never looked back.

I’ve left those forgotten, half-empty, crusty cans of tomato paste in the past, my friend, and you can, too.

Vegan crispy taco filling with no beans! Mushrooms, vegetables, spices, and some walnuts or pecans for healthy fats and great texture. Serve this vegan picadillo inside crispy taco shells or soft tortillas with your choice of toppings. Also great as a taco salad!

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Vegan Picadillo

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  • Author: Hilah
  • Prep Time: 10
  • Cook Time: 10
  • Total Time: 20
  • Yield: 4 tacos 1x

Ingredients

Scale
  • 8 ounces mushrooms
  • 8 ounces cauliflower, summer squash or zucchini*
  • 1/2 large onion, diced
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • jalapeño or serrano pepper, minced to taste
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon chili powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
  • 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
  • 1 tablespoon ketchup (or tomato paste or salsa, see notes above)
  • 1/4 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (omit for nut allergy)
  • For serving: 4 taco shells or tortillas, cheese, sour cream, avocado, chopped onion and cilantro

Instructions

Clean the mushrooms with a damp cloth, wiping dirt from the stems and caps. Finely mince them. Mince the other vegetables. Dice the onion.

Heat the oil in a large heavy skillet over medium-high until hot. Add the minced mushroom and onion. Sprinkle with a little of the salt. Cover. Let cook undisturbed for 1-2 minutes. Stir.

Continue to cook until the mushrooms and onions are very soft and browned. Stir in the other vegetables including hot chiles. Cover and let cook 1-2 minutes. Stir. Add a few tablespoons water if necessary to keep from sticking and burning.

Add the spices and ketchup. Cook until vegetables are tender. Stir in chopped walnuts. Serve.

Notes

I’ve used cauliflower florets and stems, broccoli stems, summer squashes or a combination of those – use whatever you have on hand

Nutrition

  • Serving Size: 2 tacos
  • Calories: 209
  • Fat: 14
  • Carbohydrates: 18
  • Protein: 8

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Vegan crispy taco filling with no beans! Mushrooms, vegetables, spices, and some walnuts or pecans for healthy fats and great texture. Serve this vegan picadillo inside crispy taco shells or soft tortillas with your choice of toppings. Also great as a taco salad!

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