Taco salad

We eat taco salad at our house at least once a week. Its mixture of textures, flavours, and temperatures are so satisfying, and it doesn’t take much effort to prepare. It makes for a good party food or a ‘it’s really late at night and we have no ingredients’ kind of meal. Like making regular tacos, you can really add or subtract whichever ingredients you like - so you could easily switch out the lentils for beans, or add hot peppers if you want it to be spicier.

Credit: Cara Livermore

• serves

  4

• prep

  25 minutes

• cook

  35 minutes

• difficulty

  Easy

Ingredients

• 1 large sweet potato
• 1½ cups lentils (see Note)
• 1 tbsp coconut oil
• 1 large red onion, loosely chopped
• 1 large capsicum, loosely chopped
• 2 medium cloves garlic, minced
• kernels from 1 corn cob
• 2 avocados
• pinch each salt and pepper
• 350 g seitan (see Note)
• 2 tsp sriracha, or to taste (see Note)
• pinch each garlic powder, onion powder, paprika
• pinch sugar
• pinch each sea salt and cracked pepper

To serve

• corn chips
• lettuce, finely sliced
• tomato salsa (see Note)

Instructions

Wash and chop up the potato into 2 cm slices and transfer to a pot of water over medium-high heat. Bring to the boil for 15-20 minutes or until cooked through. Rinse the lentils and remove any debris, then put in a separate pot of salted boiling water on medium-high heat for 15-20 minutes, or until soft while remaining intact.

Meanwhile, melt the coconut oil in a frypan on medium-high heat. Add the onion, capsicum, garlic and corn. Let cook until the onions are translucent, stirring occasionally to prevent burning.

Meanwhile, halve the avocados, remove the pits, and scoop the flesh into a bowl. Using a potato masher (or fork, but the masher is so much easier) mash the avocado with some sea salt and freshly cracked pepper. Set aside with one of the pits in the bowl, to prevent browning. 

When the onions and capsicums are ready, add the cubed seitan, sriracha and spices and turn the pan down to a medium heat. 

The lentils should be ready soon. When they are, add them into the onion pan. The sweet potatoes should be ready once you’ve done that. In a bowl or colander, stir them together with a pinch of sugar and some sea salt.

Crunch up the chips in your bowls and add lettuce, salsa, and the other foods you’ve just made; mix them together and chow down.

Notes

• We use Westsoy Cubed Seitan, you can use firm tofu if seitan isn’t readily available.

• Instead of the lentils, you can use 1-2 tins of your favourite beans. There’s obviously no reason to boil them. Just add them in towards the end. 

• Sriracha is a Thai-style chilli sauce. You can substitute with any hot or mild chilli sauce that you prefer.

• For an easy tomato salsa, simply dice 1 tomato with ½ red onion and 2 tablespoons of coriander leaves.

Recipe from Hipster Food by Cara Livermore, with photographs by Cara Livermore.

Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.