Taco John’s Stuffed Grilled Taco (Copycat)

This vegan copycat Taco John’s stuffed grilled taco is like a hybrid, mashup, or inception taco inside of a quesadilla. They are crispy stuffed taco shells filled with plant-based ground meat, cashew cheese, lettuce, tomato, guacamole, hot sauce, and tortilla chips, wrapped in a grilled flour tortilla with melty vegan cheese and refried beans. And these double stuffed tacos are ready in under a half hour! How’s that for fast food?

This recipe makes 6 vegan stuffed tacos.

• Recipe
• Ingredient Substitutions
• Video
• Contact Me with Questions
• Similar Recipes

When I was 13, my older sister worked at Taco John’s. My favorite item they had on the menu was these little mini tater tots, but they were like half tots. They looked like little potato coins, and when you ate them, you felt RICH, lemme tell you. So good. Those were the best thing Taco John’s ever did until they made grilled stuffed tacos. Now, I think it might be a tie.

If you don’t live in a part of the country where Taco John’s exist, just picture a double decker Taco Bell loaded griller mashup. Still confused? Read on and you’ll see what I mean.

Ingredients for this Vegan Stuffed Double Taco Recipe

(jump to the substitutions section to see ingredient details and suggestions for substitutions)

• 6 crispy corn taco shells
• ½ cup cashew cheese
• ½ package (4oz / 113g) vegan ground meat
• ½ cup guacamole
• 3 leaves of romaine lettuce (or any lettuce you prefer), chopped
• ½ cup organic diced tomato or salsa
• tortilla chips
• 1 teaspoon hot sauce (I only use a few drops on each taco)
• 6 flour tortillas
• 1 can refried beans
• ¼ cup vegan butter or margarine, for the pan
• 7-8 ounces (200-227g) vegan grated cheddar cheese

Vegan Stuffed Double Taco Directions

prep time: 5 min + cook time: 25 min = total time: 30 min

Hold a crunchy taco shell up to a flour tortilla to see how close they are in size. I bought the blue corn taco shells because they’re blue!

Trim the flour tortillas if they are substantially larger than the crunchy corn taco shells. You want them to be roughly the same size. If you make your own tortillas, then you can make them the exact size of the crispy corn tortilla taco shells (and you can even make them colored!)

Layer the crunchy taco shell ingredients into the hard taco shells, one at a time or in an assembly line style: cashew cheese, vegan ground meat, guacamole, lettuce, tomato, chip crumbles, and a few drops of Frank's RedHot (if you like a little spice).

Heat a cast iron pan (or other large frying pan) over medium heat.

Add a spoonful of earth balance to the pan, and when it starts to melt, move it around with a spatula to coat the entire bottom of the pan.

Spread refried beans all over one side of a flour tortilla.

Lay the tortilla with the refried beans on it into the cast iron or frying pan, bean side up.

Sprinkle the vegan grated cheddar cheese all over the refried bean covered tortilla.

Cover the pan with a lid to help the cheese melt.

Spread refried beans all over one side of a second flour tortilla.

Transfer the grilled flour tortilla from the frying pan to a plate, once the cheese has melted and the tortilla has browned on the bottom.

Set one of the crunchy tacos in the center of the grilled flour tortilla, and fold the sides up so that you have a taco inside of a taco.

Add a spoonful of earth balance to the pan, and move it around with a spatula to coat the entire bottom of the pan.

Lay the second tortilla with the refried beans on it into the cast iron or frying pan, bean side up.

Sprinkle the vegan grated cheddar cheese all over the refried bean covered tortilla.

Cover the pan with the lid.

Repeat the same steps until all 6 tacos are ready to serve.

Serve these vegan tacos immediately or save some for later. These can be reheated in an oven, toaster oven, or air fryer for a few minutes.

Ingredient Substitutions

• Crispy Taco Shells: I always buy organic or non-GMO corn tortillas because corn is a highly genetically modified ingredient.
• Cashew Cheese: Any spreadable vegan cheese will work for this, but I like my easy homemade cashew cheese. If you’re buying cheese, I recommend Nuts for Cheese, Darë, and Treeline. Those are my favorites.
• Vegan Ground Meat: I like the one made by Alpha Foods the best. If you can’t find this at your store, you can always buy vegan burgers and mash it up yourself. You can also make your own tofu ground beef fairly easily.
• Vegan Butter: I buy the organic whipped Earth Balance. You can replace it with a vegetable-based oil. Or, if you’re oil-free, just omit it altogether.
• Vegan Cheese: My favorite vegan cheese to grate if Violife Epic Mature. Sadly, it’s hard to find in the U.S. You can use any vegan cheese, but it does tend to melt better if you get a block and grate it yourself.

Video

Here’s a video of the process.

Comments or Questions?

If you make this recipe, I would love it if you’d snap a pic, post to instagram, and tag me @vegandollhouse. It seriously makes my day/week/month!

Please message me (instagram or email) if you have any questions or feedback about the recipe.

Similar Recipes

If you like these double-stuffed tacos, you might also like my jackfruit birria tacos recipe and my enchilada cupcakes.

This post may contain links to items I used when I made this recipe. This means that if you click on a button on one of those pages, you may go to a website (like Amazon) where you can purchase a product. Sometimes, I earn money from that purchase from the affiliate partner. I never recommend a product that I don’t use and endorse myself. Read more about this in my privacy policy.

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This post links to items I mention. If you click on one, you will go to a website (like Amazon) where you can buy the product. Sometimes, the store you purchase from (Amazon, Etsy, etc.) will pay me for referring you. This costs you nothing extra, and I would never recommend a product that I don’t use. These affiliate programs help me buy ingredients to create recipes for you. Read more about this in my privacy policy.

I mostly cook with organic ingredients, but only specify organic when it’s necessary to ensure the item is vegan.

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