When pies don’t want to be left out of the savory flavor train, this irresistible, decadent, and wholesome pie is bringing all the must haves of layer goodness. Rich, flavorful, and plant-powered, this crazy delicious Vegan Taco Pie is brimming with all those amazing Southwestern flavors in a fun and festive way. Zesty onions, spicy jalapenos, sweet bell peppers, and hearty beans are perfectly seasoned with Southwestern spices, sandwiched in between layers of tortillas, and smothered in a velvety sauce that is sure to knock your socks off. Top it with some crisp shredded lettuce, refreshing diced tomatoes, cooling avocado chunks, and zippy cilantro and you just know it’s going to be good eats!
Whole Food Plant Based, Vegan, plant based, oil free, refined sugar free, no highly processed ingredients and gluten free.
Hi there, Ameera here!
Ohhhh my goodness, this Vegan Taco Pie is sooooooo GOOD! I mean, seriously DELISH! We gobbled it up like we had been on a desert island for a month without food. LOL
We were licking our plates and wondering why we hadn’t thought to make this sooner! After all, Mom IS all about Southwestern dishes every day of the week! LOL
It will kind of remind you of an enchilada dish but with layers. The sauce is so tangy, smoky, and delicious. It hits all the best notes of a seriously tasty dish! I think I could have eaten the whole thing by myself.
More Work than Usual
This dish does take a little more work than normal since you are building layers. I would liken it to making a lasagna except maybe not quite as labor intensive. We want you to go in understanding that you will need to set aside some time when pulling this awesomeness together.
I’ll let Mom tell you more!
Hi! Robin here.
Oh boy!!!! Monkey said it all. This recipe has got to be one of my top favorites, and I have so many of them! I just truly enjoyed this dish. I think it rivals any non-WFPB dish out there.
Gluten Free Tortillas
Being gluten free and WFPB makes it very challenging to find a flour-style tortilla. We wanted a flour tortillas for this taco pie, so we went with our favorite gluten free alternative, Siete Almond Flour Tortillas.
We highly recommend Seite tortillas, if you can find them. Seite has an amazing 6-inch Almond Flour Tortilla that we just absolutely love, love, love! You can typically find them in the refrigerator or frozen section at your local health food store.
Keep in mind, using almond flour tortialls really creates a decadent dish. With the fat content of these style tortillas, it makes this dish ultra-rich and delicious.
However, if you don’t need to be gluten free, cannot find Seite almond flour tortillas, or choose to go a more low-fat route, any 6-inch to 8-inch tortilla that you enjoy will work for this pie.
Baking Dish VS Spring-Form Pan
We used an 8-inch spring form pan to make this dish simply because it was easy. Feel free to use a smaller casserole dish and adjust the amount of bean mixture in the layers accordingly.
Largely dependent upon the size of the casserole pan, you may end up making 2 (or 3) layers instead of 4. Monkey created a chart on how to cut the tortillas when placing in a round baking form, see the recipe notes.
We certainly hope you give this deliciousness a try.
If you try this delicious dish, we would love to know if you enjoy it as much as we do! Please leave us a review! Post a picture on Facebook or Instagram and tag us! We would love to hear from you.
Products Used:
- Casserole dish (or spring-loaded cheese cake pan)
Vegan Taco Pie
- Prep Time: 40 Minutes
- Cook Time: 20 Minutes
- Total Time: 60 Minutes
- Yield: 4-5 Servings 1x
- Category: Dinner
- Method: Stovetop, Oven
- Cuisine: Southwestern
- Diet: Vegan
Description
This irresistible, decadent, and wholesome Vegan Taco Pie is bringing all the must haves of layer plant-powered goodness.
Ingredients
Sauce Ingredients:
- ½ cup raw cashews, soaked
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard *
- ¼ cup water
- ¼ cup low-sodium vegetable broth *
- 3 Tablespoons nutritional yeast
- 2 Tablespoons + 1 teaspoon distilled white vinegar
- 1 teaspoon tomato paste
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon smoked paprika
- ½ teaspoon sweet paprika
- ¼ teaspoon chipotle powder
- 2 Tablespoons dried minced onions
- ½ teaspoon sea salt (+/-) *
Bean-Veggie Layer Ingredients:
- ½ cup yellow onions, fine dice
- 1 jalapeno pepper, fine dice
- 1 red bell pepper, diced
- 1 – [ 15.5 oz can ] black beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 – [ 15.5 oz. can ] pinto beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 cup frozen corn
- 1 to 3 teaspoons lime juice (+/-)
- ¼ teaspoon chipotle powder
- 1 teaspoon smoke paprika
- 1 ½ teaspoons chili powder
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- ½ teaspoon cumin
- ½ to 1 teaspoon sea salt (+/-) *
Other Ingredients:
- 8 – 6-inch tortillas (or 4 to 6 – 8-inch tortillas) *
Optional Ingredients:
- Chopped fresh cilantro
- Chopped avocados
- Shredded lettuce
- Chopped tomatoes
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 F.
- Line the bottom of a small casserole baking dish (or an 8-inch spring-loaded cheesecake pan) with parchment paper.
- Make the sauce. Place the cashews into a small bowl, cover with boiling water and soak for 15 minutes, or place the cashews into a small stockpot and boil for 10 minutes, drain off the water, then place them into a high-speed blender with all the remaining Sauce Ingredients and blend on high until smooth and creamy.
- While the cashews are soaking, make the Bean-Veggie Layer. Place the diced onions, bell pepper, and jalapeno into a non-stick skillet and sauté for approximately 8 to 9 minutes until tender. If the veggies start to stick splash a little water in the pan.
- Then add all the remaining Bean-Veggie Ingredients into the pan, saute, stirring constantly until heated through, approximately 3 minutes. Then remove from the stove and set aside.
- Crisp the tortillas: Place the tortillas onto a large baking sheet and place into a preheated 400 F oven and toast until lightly crisp, approximately 5 minutes, then remove.
- Assemble the casserole: Place one 6-inch tortilla on the bottom of the spring-form pan, then take one 6-inch tortilla and cut it in half and place it on the sides to cover the bottom of the 8-inch spring-form pan (see notes below). Then take ¼ of the bean-veggie mixture and place it on top of the tortillas and spread into a thin layer. Cover the veggie layer with ¼ cup of the sauce, then repeat 3 more times, ending with sauce on top. Note: Don’t worry if the sauce doesn’t completely cover the entire veggie layers.
- Place the taco pie into a preheated 400 F oven and place a baking sheet over top (cookie sheet) to lock in the heat and bake for 20 minutes until heated through.
- Serve topped with shredded lettuce, chopped tomatoes, avocadoes and cilantro. Cut into wedges, enjoy!
Notes
*Tips for Success:
- Sauce: This recipe makes approximately 1 ¼ cups of sauce. Use ¼ cup of sauce on layers 1, 2 and 3. Then use the remaining sauce on the top. Make sure you scrape out as much as you can out of the blender to ensure you get approximately 1 ¼ cups of sauce.
- Heat/Spiciness: This dish has a nice little kick of heat. Feel free to leave out the jalapeno pepper if you are concerned about the heat of the dish. Chipotle powder also has a small kick of heat as well. You may want to start low and work your way up.
- Optional Toppings: We absolutely LOVED this dish with the toppings suggested. If not using these toppings, you may want to consider vegan sour cream or salsa.
- Spring-Form Pan or Small Baking Pan: We used an 8-inch spring-form cheese cake pan to make this dish. You can make it into a casserole if you use a small casserole dish or something similar to an 8-inch square brownie pan. Anything larger than that will result into not enough sauce or bean mixture to create layers. Or, if you need to, only create two or possibly three layers if using a slightly larger baking pan. You will need to cut the tortillas to fit them into a puzzle-like layers if not using a round 8-inch spring-loaded cheese cake pan. Again, no worries if you don’t have one, it is easy enough to make the casserole, just be intuitive on how many layers you can create in your baking dish. The image below shows an 8-inch spring form pan with the placement of two-6 inch tortillas. The red layer is one full 6 inch tortilla and the light blue shows the placement of the other 6-inch tortilla cut in half.
- Layers: Bottom layer: 2 – 6-inch Tortillas (one cut in half and fitted) or 1– 8-inch tortillas, 1 cup Bean-Veggie Mixture, ¼ cup Sauce, Next Layer: 2 – 6-inch Tortillas (one cut in half and fitted) or 1– 8-inch tortillas, 1 cup Bean-Veggie Mixture, ¼ cup Sauce, Next Layer: 2 – 6-inch Tortillas (one cut in half and fitted) or 1– 8-inch tortillas, 1 cup Bean-Veggie Mixture, ¼ cup Sauce, Top Layer: 2 – 6-inch Tortillas (one cut in half and fitted) or 1– 8-inch tortillas, 1 cup Bean-Veggie Mixture, Final Layer of Sauce (should be slightly more than ¼ cup)
- UPDATE: We have received feedback that Readers love this recipe and some really enjoy doubling the sauce recipe. We enjoyed it with the amount indicated in the recipe card; however, we can totally see how individuals would enjoy more sauce to tortilla/bean mix ratio. We are adding this so Readers can make an informed decision when it comes to deciding how much sauce to make. Additionally, as always when doubling a recipe, do not double the sea salt, just add a little extra to start with, then taste test and add more as needed.
*Notes Continued:
*Tortillas: We used Siete Almond Flour Tortillas. They are Whole Food Plant Based. Feel free to use your favorite tortilla shells. Feel free to use your favorite 6-inch tortilla shell.
*Chili Powder: Chili powders come in varying degrees of heat as well. We prefer Penzeys Regular Chili Powder. It has great flavor without the heat. Feel free to use your favorite chili powder.
*Dijon Mustard: We used Koob’s Dijon Mustard. As you probably know, Dijon mustards vary greatly in flavor and strength. Feel free to use your favorite Dijon mustard. Taste test the sauce after placing in the cashew cream to build the flavor to suit your personal preferences.
*Sea Salt: Please adjust the sea salt based upon your family’s sea salt preferences and/or based upon dietary needs.
*Serving: Makes 4 to 5 servings.
*Storage: Refrigerate and use within 5 days.
*Nutrition Information INCLUDING Siete Almond Flour Tortillas: Serving Size = 1 slice: 367 Calories, 15.5g Total Fat, 0mg Cholesterol, 46.5g Total Carbohydrates, 9.3g Dietary Fiber, 15.1g Protein.
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This is one of the BEST vegan recipes I’ve made, and I’ve made a lot! I did use yellow miso instead of nutritional yeast, and added 1/2 bag of meatless crumbles. it was outstanding!!!!
Hi there Erin 🙂
Yaaaay!!! We are SUPER thrilled to hear that this is one of the best vegan recipes you’ve made. We appreciate you sharing your adjustments and awesome feedback with us. Thank you so much for taking the time to write!
-Ameera and Robin 🙂
Could soft tortillas be used with success??
Hi there LouAnn,
Thank you for your question. You can use soft tortillas, but you will definitely end up with a more soft mush enchilada effect.
-Ameera and Robin
Can’t wait to try this recipe looks delicious! I was wondering if you think I can use white beans in the sauce to replace the cashew’s?
Hi there Darlene,
Thank you for your question. You can try the typical substitutions like white beans, silken tofu, other nuts or seeds with the understanding that the flavor and texture will change accordingly. We have not tested any substitutions.
-Ameera and Robin
Sadly, this recipe was a lot of work, and we didn’t care for the queso sauce. Not sure why there was so much time spent on layering in a pan. Sorry, won’t be making this one again!
Hi there Karen,
We are sorry that this recipe did not work for you.
-Ameera and Robin
We love all of your recipes but when my very picky child described this & said he was craving it, you know it’s a WINNER!! Yes it takes a little more hands on time than most of your recipes but it’s so worth it and I can eat that sauce by the spoonfuls!! Thank you for your incredible generosity in sharing your recipes. You are the first site I go to when struggling to come up with a dinner idea & the one I recommend to those switching to a plant based diet.
Hi there Debbie,
YAYYY!!! We are thrilled that you gave this recipe a try and enjoyed it, especially your “very picky child”. We appreciate your kind words and support. Thank you so much for taking time to leave us an awesome review.
-Ameera and Robin
I’ve made several of your other recipes so count me as a big fan! Vegan Taco Pie is a very good recipe, Non-WFPB husband really liked it. A couple of suggestions for edits: I used my Vitamix for the sauce (didn’t double) and there isn’t enough sauce for the big container to process properly. Also, in the body of the the instructions you call for 1/4 cup of bean/veggies mix between layers which leaves LOTS of leftover (future soup). I see in the Tips for Success you mention 1 Cup veggies. That makes better sense. Thank you for all your… Read more »
Hi there Susan,
We apologize for the late response, this review got away from us. Thank you so much for taking time to leave us a lovely comment. We appreciate you and your support.
-Ameera and Robin