This Vegan Cauliflower Taco Meat is flavor-packed! A meatless filling cauliflower, cremini mushrooms, walnuts and onion is tossed with kitchen-made taco seasoning and roasted.

Vegan taco meat isn’t a new concept or anything. I’m sure, like me, you’ve seen it all over Pinterest. But back in 2015 when I wrote my cookbook, I created a recipe where I mixed ground turkey with finely chopped veggies and made a meatloaf. If you have my book, you may be familiar with the recipe. That sparked an idea recently to do the same but for taco filling. Deeply good.

Now if you’ve ever had a beef taco, you’ll most likely notice a slight difference in texture and possibly flavor between the two. However, vegan cauliflower taco meet is still deliciously satisfying and versatile.

It’s reliable in tacos, bowls, salads or nachos and this method makes a TON so you can freeze half for another time. Bonus!

For this vegan cauliflower taco meat gather:

cauliflower
walnuts
cremini mushrooms
yellow onion
extra light olive oil
taco seasoning

Typically I make a quadruple batch of from-scratch taco seasoning so I always have it on hand. But if you don’t already have it in your cupboard, double this dish to be sure you will have enough.

Preheat your oven to 425℉ (220℃).

Meanwhile, in the bowl of your food processor fitted with the blade attachment, work in batches, adding half of 1 medium cauliflower (broken down into large florets) and pulse until coarse crumbles form.

Then transfer the cauliflower to a rimmed metal baking sheet and repeat.

Next you’ll want to repeat the same process with the all 8 ounces mushrooms and 2 cups walnuts.

Then pulse a few times until fine crumbs form, and then transfer to the pan with the cauliflower.

Add 1 small chopped yellow onion and pulse until finely minced.

Add that to the pan with the cauliflower and mushroom mixture.

Drizzle with 1 teaspoon extra light olive oil and season with 1/4 cup taco seasoning.

Stir well to combine.

Next, divide the mixture among two pans and roast both on the lower two racks of your preheated oven for 10 minutes. Remove, stir and spread the mixture evenly. Swap and rotate the pans before continue roasting for another 10 to 15 minutes.

This dish makes a lot, 5 whole cups worth of vegan taco meat. Which means, you can meal prep and still have leftovers to freeze and use later.