Vegan Black Bean Tacos With Mango Salsa is an easy weeknight dinner packed with flavor. Smoky chipotle sauce smothers the black beans and dresses the crunchy shredded cabbage, while soft, warm tortillas hold it all together. Sweet and spicy fresh mango salsa makes these fast soft tacos utterly crave-worthy.
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🏆 Top tip
Make your black beans, salsa, chipotle sauce, and shredded cabbage ahead of time. Then you can warm your beans and tortillas to have dinner on the table in 10 minutes.
⭐ Why it works
- Make ahead meal - for fast weeknight dinners.
- Plant protein - from hearty, savory black beans.
- Creamy chipotle mayo - fiery, smoky, and dairy-free.
- Crunchy shredded cabbage is so good with soft corn tortillas.
- Mango salsa - two tropical recipes to choose from, or use your favorite store brand.
📋 Ingredients
Even though these vegan black bean tacos couldn't be tastier, you can see the list of ingredients is actually quite simple. All you need to gather is:
- Easy homemade black beans - black beans, water, salt, bay leaves.
- Chipotle mayo - vegan mayonnaise blitzed with chipotle peppers in adobo sauce.
- Mango salsa - make fresh with mango, jalapeno, and sea purslane or buy prepared.
- Shredded cabbage
- Corn tortillas
👩🏻🍳 Make ahead tips
Putting your vegan tacos together is a snap. Just cook black beans in advance. Water, salt, and bay leaf are all you need, and full instructions for stove-top or Instant Pot cooking are in the recipe card below.
You can even make your mango salsa and chipotle mayo and shred your cabbage ahead of time. Then you can chill everything in the fridge for up to three days.
With everything prepped, you're ready to go for an almost instant lunch or dinner. All you need to do is pull out your corn tortillas and heat your tasty black beans.
🥭 Mango salsa
Originally I made this recipe just to have a way to enjoy my mango and wild-harvested purslane salsa. It's an absolute win for anyone with access to wild coastline purslane.
I think the marriage of sweet mango, spicy jalapenos, and salty crunch in this salsa is phenomenal. This juicy trio makes these vegan black bean tacos one of my all-time favorite dishes.
But don't worry, if you aren't able to harvest sea purslane, you can use my pineapple mango habanero salsa in its place or purchase your favorite mango salsa from the store.
🌱 What is sea purslane?
If you're thinking at this point, what the heck is this wild edible, and why should it be in the salsa for my vegan black bean tacos, let me explain.
Sometimes called salty nibble, Sesuvium portulacastrum is a delicious wild edible found along tropical coastlines. It's so nutritious it was deemed survival food during World War II.
Two of its star attributes in the kitchen are a naturally salty taste and succulent crunch. The insanely cool thing is what happens when you mix it with sweet, silky, ripe mango and spicy jalapeno peppers to make salsa.
That sweet, salty, spicy combo is fantastic on vegan black bean tacos.
🥣 Creamy chipotle sauce
This creamy chipotle mayo will take you all the way to taco heaven. It's SO good with black beans and shredded cabbage, and it only has two ingredients!
- Place one cup of vegan mayonnaise in a blender with two tablespoons of prepared chipotle peppers in adobo sauce.
- Blend on high until smooth. Transfer to a jar, or better yet, a squeeze bottle, and store in the refrigerator for up to a week.
- Drizzle it over your tacos and prepare to bliss out.
💭 FAQ
Vegan soft tacos made with black beans can easily be substituted with other beans. Small red Mexican beans, pinto beans, mayocoba, and Appaloosa beans all make good replacements.
Sea purslane is crunchy and juicy when it's raw, so lean towards crisp vegetables when substituting in a salsa recipe. You can try cucumber, jicama, sweet corn, and sweet bell peppers. Add a little salt to your salsa to compensate for sea purslane's natural salt content.
🇲🇽 More Mexican recipes
Let us know if you try this recipe! Leave a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ rating in the recipe card below, and don’t forget to tag a photo #poppyswildkitchenrecipes on Instagram @poppyswildkitchen Aloha!
📖 Recipe
Vegan Black Bean Tacos With Mango Salsa
Ingredients
Easy black beans
- 1 cup dry black beans
- 2 ¼ cups water
- 1 ¼ tsp. sea salt
- 2 small bay leaves
Mango & sea purslane salsa
- 1 cup diced fresh mango
- ¾ cup sea purslane nubbins or see substitutes in recipe notes
- 1 TB red jalapeno to taste
Chipotle mayo
- 1 cup vegan mayonnaise
- 2 TB chipotle pepper in adobo sauce
Tortillas and shredded cabbage
- 12 six inch corn tortillas
- 4 cups finely shredded white cabbage
- ½ cup cilantro leaves, optional
Instructions
Easy black beans - stove top
- Soak beans overnight at room temperature. Alternatively, cover beans with boiling water and soak them for one hour. Rinse and drain black beans.
- Place beans in a pot with water, salt, and bay leaf. Bring to a boil and cook at low heat until soft. Fresh beans cook quicker than ones that have been on the shelf too long. Typically though, beans are done in an hour and a half.
Easy black beans - Instant Pot
- Soak beans overnight at room temperature. Alternatively, cover beans with boiling water and soak them for one hour. Rinse and drain black beans.
- Place beans, water, salt, and bay leaves in an Instant Pot. Set the cooker to the high-pressure mode for 30 minutes. Allow pressure to release naturally before opening the lid.
Mango salsa and shredded cabbage
- Dice fresh mango and mince jalapenos. Wash sea purslane and remove leaves from stems.
- Combine diced mango, minced jalapeno, and sea purslane nubbins. Refrigerate for up to three days until ready to use.
- Shred cabbage very thin. A mandoline makes beautiful thin slaw. Alternatively, use a sharp knife. Store shredded cabbage for up to three days before making tacos.
Chipotle mayo
- Place mayo ingredients in a blender and process until smooth. Transfer to a jar, or better yet, a squeeze bottle if you have one. Store the chipotle mayo in the refrigerator for up to a week.
Assemble tacos when ready to eat
- Heat black beans and corn tortillas and keep both warm.
- Put mango salsa, shredded cabbage, and chipotle mayo on the table with black beans and tortillas. Include a dish of fresh cilantro if desired.
Serve
- Let everyone build their tacos to order. Enjoy!
Carmen
Hi, the recipe looks great. But I’m curious where I can buy sea purslane?
Poppy Hudson
Carmen,
Good question! Because sea purslane grows wild and is predominantly a foraged food, I don't believe there are many places you can purchase it. Do you live near a seashore or have an interest in foraging wild edibles? If you aren't so lucky, you could substitute my Pineapple Mango Habanero Salsa for the purslane and mango salsa. It would go beautifully with the black beans, chipotle mayo, and shredded cabbage. Or, pick up a favorite sweet and fruity salsa from the store. Aloha!