These are the BEST vegan tacos, made with simple ingredients, super healthy, and so filling. A delicious and easy vegan dinner in just 20 minutes!
Black beans are a great substitute for ground beef or pork, packed with good quality plant-based protein, and also so inexpensive. They work really well as a replacement for taco meat.
These vegan tacos are made with some of my favorite ingredients, like tortillas, avocado, or black beans, and they can be endlessly customized to use any veggies or toppings you like or have on hand.
This is an essential and extremely easy-to-make recipe, which makes it perfect for Veganuary, or if you're new to plant-based cooking, but it's also great for a tasty and quick lunch or dinner to enjoy all year long.
Wondering what to serve with your vegan tacos? There are endless options, but some of my favorites are vegan chipotle sauce, pico de gallo, vegan cheese, vegan refried beans, or mango salsa.
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🌟 You'll love this recipe because it is
- Made with only 9 simple ingredients, plus your desired toppings.
- Ready in just 20 minutes.
- Very affordable and easy to make.
- Extremely healthy and full of flavor.
- So versatile you can add pretty much any sauce or veggies you have on hand!
🧾 Ingredients
- Extra virgin olive oil: I use extra virgin olive oil for cooking most of my recipes. However, any type of oil is okay.
- Black beans: canned or cooked from scratch.
- Ground cumin.
- Dried oregano.
- Garlic powder.
- Salt: I used ionized salt, but any salt will do.
- Ground black pepper: fresh ground black pepper tastes amazing. However, I find store-bought more convenient and also easier to measure with a teaspoon.
- Store-bought or Homemade Chili powder: If you can't find it, you should try my recipe, which is extremely simple and easy to make. If you're not into spicy food, omit this ingredient.
- Corn or flour tortillas: both works just fine, but I prefer flour tortillas.
- Toppings: use your desired toppings. I like to add corn, avocado, onion, vegan sour cream, cilantro, and lime juice to my tacos, but it's up to you.
See the recipe card below for a full list of ingredients and measurements.
🔪 Instructions
Step 1: Heat the oil in a skillet, add the beans and the spices, stir, and cook over medium-high heat for about 3-5 minutes or until the beans are hot, stirring occasionally. Set aside.
Step 2: Heat the tortillas according to the package directions. I usually toast both sides of the tortillas just until hot and barely starting to turn golden (about 15-30 seconds per side).
Step 3: Assemble by adding some black bean filling to a tortilla, then sprinkle with your desired toppings. Squeeze fresh lime juice just before eating.
Step 4: Repeat this process with all the remaining tortillas and serve immediately.
📋 Substitutions & variations
- If you want to cook your beans from scratch, use 2 cups (520 g) of cooked black beans.
- I like to cook the beans from scratch in my Instant Pot following my Instant Pot black beans recipe, which is extremely easy to make, but you can use a regular pot as well.
- I like to use ground cumin, but please feel free to add any spices you like or have on hand.
- Oregano is my favorite dried herb for this recipe, but any other will do.
- Garlic powder can be replaced with onion powder. You could also sautée some minced fresh garlic instead, but I prefer to use garlic powder to save some time and effort.
- This recipe calls for traditional American chili powder, not cayenne. Cayenne and international chili powders are usually incredibly spicy.
- So if you live outside of the United States, please keep that in mind. If you can only find cayenne, add it to taste until the sauce is okay for you, but not too spicy.
- Feel free to use any other source of plant-based protein instead of the black beans, like other beans or legumes, tofu, tempeh, seitan, or textured vegetable protein.
- You can customize this recipe with veggies like tomatoes, jalapeños, sweet potato, or mushrooms.
- If you don't like vegan sour cream, you can mash the avocado with a fork or use some guacamole instead.
🍽 Equipment
To make this recipe you'll need:
- Measuring tablespoons and measuring cups (or a scale) to weigh your ingredients.
- A skillet and a wooden spoon or a spatula to cook the filling.
- Another skillet to heat the tortillas, although you can also use the microwave if you want.
- A regular spoon to add the black bean filling to each tortilla when assembling the tacos.
❄️ Storage
- Refrigerator: store the black bean filling in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. Assemble the tacos just before serving.
- Freezer: store the black bean filling in an airtight container in the freezer for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the fridge.
- Reheat: reheat the black bean filling it in the microwave or on the stovetop over medium heat until warmed through. Add a little oil, or water if needed.
💭 Expert tips
- Toast the tortillas just before serving to keep them warm and fresh. Always use a dry skillet with no oil and don't overheat them or they will become dry.
- Transfer them to a plate after heating and cover them loosely with foil to keep them warm.
- If you want to prepare the toppings in advance, add some lemon or lime juice to the avocado to prevent it from oxidizing and turning brown.
- Use your favorite type of tortillas. Compared to corn, flour tortillas are softer and more flexible, but don't have as much flavor.
- You can also use tortillas made from a mix of corn and wheat flour, or even lettuce leaves for a lighter alternative.
- Put all the toppings in separate bowls so that people can add what they like and make a customized taco.
❓Recipe FAQs
Of course! Prepare the taco filling and the toppings in advance, then everyone builds their own tacos.
You can store the taco filling in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. The toppings are best when fresh, but they can be stored for several hours before serving.
There are so many options out there!
Some of my favorite ones are canned corn, diced avocado, onion, Vegan Sour Cream, cilantro, lime cut into wedges, guacamole, shredded lettuce, sliced jalapeños, diced tomatoes, pico de Gallo, Soyrizo, or Vegan Cheese.
Yes, you can. Just use corn tortillas instead of wheat flour tortillas. All the remaining ingredients are gluten-free.
Add some crushed red pepper as needed for more heat.
🌮 More vegan Mexican-style recipes
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The BEST Vegan Tacos
Ingredients
For the vegan tacos:
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 2 15-ounce cans of black beans, drained and rinsed, see notes if your want to cook them from scratch
- 1 tablespoon ground cumin
- 1 tablespoon dried oregano
- 2 teaspoon chili powder, optional
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
- 8 small corn or flour tortillas
Toppings (optional):
- ½ cup canned corn
- 1 avocado, diced
- 4 tablespoons red onion, finely chopped
- 1 cup vegan sour cream
- 2 tablespoons fresh cilantro, finely chopped
- 1 lime, cut into wedges
Instructions
- Heat the oil in a skillet, add the beans and the spices, stir, and cook over medium-high heat for about 3-5 minutes or until the beans are hot, stirring occasionally. Set aside.
- Heat the tortillas according to the package directions. I usually toast both sides of the tortillas just until hot and barely starting to turn golden (15-30 seconds per side).
- Assemble by adding some black bean filling to a tortilla, then sprinkle with your desired toppings. Squeeze fresh lime juice just before eating.
- Repeat this process with all the remaining tortillas and serve immediately.
Notes
- If you want to cook your beans from scratch, use 2 cups (520 g) of cooked black beans.
- I like to cook the beans from scratch in my Instant Pot following my Instant Pot black beans recipe, which is so easy to make, but you can use a regular pot as well.
- I like to use ground cumin, but please feel free to add any spices you like or have on hand.
- Oregano is my favorite dried herb for this recipe, but any other will do.
- Garlic powder can be replaced with onion powder. You could also sautée some minced fresh garlic instead, but I prefer to use garlic powder to save time and effort.
- This recipe calls for traditional American chili powder, not cayenne. Cayenne and international chili powders are usually incredibly spicy.
- So if you live outside of the United States, please keep that in mind. If you can only find cayenne, add it to taste until the sauce is okay for you, but not too spicy.
- Feel free to use any other source of plant-based protein instead of the black beans, like other beans or legumes, tofu, tempeh, seitan, or textured vegetable protein.
- You can customize this recipe with veggies like tomatoes, jalapeños, sweet potato, or mushrooms.
- If you don't like vegan sour cream, you can mash the avocado with a fork or use some guacamole instead.
- Refrigerator: store the black bean filling in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. Assemble the tacos just before serving.
- Freezer: store the black bean filling in an airtight container in the freezer for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the fridge.
- Reheat: reheat the black bean filling it in the microwave or on the stovetop over medium heat until warmed through. Add a little oil, or water if needed.
Richard Buckdale says
I loved this recipe—so easy to make yet so delicious! I spread the avocado on the warm tortillas, used vegan mayonnaise instead of sour cream, home-grown tiny tom-thumb tomatoes instead of corn kernels (as I found out too late that I was out-of-stock of the corn kernels), home-grown mint & parsley for the herb topping and some pickled jalapeños to hot it up a bit! Yum yum!!
Iosune Robles says
Hi! Sounds so good 🙂
Alfreda Williams says
I Really Enjoyed See All The Recipes I Think I’d Like The Only Thing I Wish you Had Is Whole Wheat Taco I Thing It Would Be Better For Me
Iosune says
Hi Alfreda! Feel free to use any type of tortillas you want 🙂
Brandon Wood says
This website needs to put more info about nutritional values
Iosune Robles says
Hi Brandon! You can find the nutritional info below the recipes 🙂
Ellie Hagg says
Thank you so much for this! I am 12 years old, and the only vegan in my family. I am just getting into being vegan, so it is taking me some time. My family was having taco night with meat, and so I just ate mine with beans, and got some ideas for toppings off of here.
Iosune Robles says
Hi Ellie! Thanks for your kind comment 🙂