PFF: Chickpea Taco Salad

A.D. and I have been loving salads on Monday nights, switching between taco salad and Buffalo chicken salad. Standard practice was to brown some ground turkey or beef as the base for the taco salad, when A.D. asked about using chickpeas.

I was stunned.  Whaaaat?!  Absolutely.

So I searched the Pinterest and found some pinsperation in the Ultra-Easy Vegan Taco Salad at HealthfulPursuit. Lovely pic with easy-enough recipe if I wasn’t simply the laziest.

I decided to adapt the concept to what I had already been doing with the meat and came up with my own…

Ultra-Ultra-Easy Not Vegan Anymore Taco Salad

Ingredients:

• 1 can of chickpeas, rinsed and drained – I put on a paper towel to get some of the excess water off
• 1 packet of Frontera Texas Original Taco Skillet Sauce – the taco seasoning powder isn’t good for you either
• 1 avocado – halved and scored
• 1 head of Romaine Lettuce – chopped roughly
• Salsa of Choice
• Sour Cream
• Tortilla Chips of Choice – I prefer Way Better, Garden of Eatin’ or Late July brands – non-GMO, organic
• Two big bowls for salad eatin’

Instructions:

1.  In a large skillet with minimal olive or other oil, take the can of chickpeas and toast for a minute or two to drive off excess water and get a little added flavor.
2. Add the Frontera skillet sauce and simmer until you get the consistency desired.  I usually go about 5-7 minutes.
3. Remove from heat and set aside.
4. Add half of the chopped Romaine to each bowl and squish out one avocado half per bowl.
5. Crumble up your desired amount of tortilla chips to each bowl – you choose the size of the crumble and how many chips to add.
6. Add your desired amount of salsa and sour cream.
7. Add half of the chickpeas mixture to each bowl.
8. Mix thoroughly and enjoy!

Taco Salad Verdict:

We really enjoyed this meatless version of the taco salad and will be continuing this practice as this substitution provides a high-protein, low-cost alternative to meat, is just as flavorful and provides adequate mouth-feel and ‘chew’, and we really couldn’t tell the difference.

In terms of savings, the can of organic chickpeas was $0.99 and the a pound of organic ground beef is $6.99.  That is a cost savings if multiplied over a year equates to over $300.  Pretty significant.

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