Food & Beverage

Taco Bell brings back cheddar chalupa + vegetarian version

Taco Bell's black bean cheddar chalupa. (Photo provided)

October 23, 2020

Following its introduction last year, Taco Bell is bringing the toasted cheddar chalupa back, but this time it's offering a vegetarian rendition in the form of a black bean toasted cheddar chalupa, the company said in a news release.

The popular LTO has aged cheddar toasted onto the shell and has previously already come back for Round No. 2 in Canada but is now heading south to the U.S. for its reappearance on the QSR's menus nationally beginning on Nov. 5, along with its black-bean spinoff for the non-animal-product-consumers in the bunch.

In fact, the brand said that's just for warm-ups because beginning next year, Taco Bell will be pouring more vegetarian versions of LTOs onto store menus to build a meatier, meatless menu it calls its Veggie Cravings menu.

This chalupa spinoff this year is certified vegetarian by the American Vegetarian Association and uses black beans as its protein instead of the seasoned beef, grilled chicken or marinated steak on the carnivores' edition of the same item.

In fact, the brand said that before the toasted cheddar chalupa was developed, Taco Bell's classic chalupa was the menu item in which customers most often replaced meat with beans.

The Veggie Cravings menu also includes the new black bean chalupa and veggie nachos party pack, along with the brand's 13 existing vegetarian items.