Happy National Taco Day!

Just because I'm vegan, doesn't mean I can't ROCK THE TACOS!

I plan to read far and wide, through all the Vegan Mofo posts, in search of some of your favorite taco fillings during this whole month of vegan food - so be on the lookout!

Here are a few of mine:


Seitan "Fake Steak" and Green Pepper Tacos (see my review here) served with home made Flour Tortillas


Gallo Pinto (Rice and Bean) Tacos!
Recipe from Viva Vegan, one of my favorite cookbooks.


Home Style Refried Bean Tacos!
Recipe (again) from Viva Vegan


Spicy hummus, taco crumbles, Daiya and XTRA jalapeños!


I'm embarrassed that I have no vegetables whatsoever on this one, but...
The Old Standby: Taco flavored TVP crumbles, Daiya and Tofutti (totally fake, but totally good)


Here, I at least added lettuce and tomato!
Spicy canned vegan refried beans, lettuce, tomato and Daiya - Sprinkled with chili spices


Big, Fat, Taco Salad - from Appetite for Reduction (one of my favorites)  If you have never made Guacamame before, what are you waiting for?!


Sweet & Savory Jackfruit Carnitas Tacos!
Recipe Test from Terry Hope Romero's upcoming book: Vegan Eats World - which is going to be AWESOME and you should all get it!



No cheese of sour cream on my tacos!  It's GUACAMOLE all the way...

Quick & Simple Basic Guacamole
2 avocados
4 scallions or 1/2 a red onion, minced
Juice of 1 lime
1 jalapeño, minced (seeded or not, your choice)
1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
3/4 tsp sea salt, or to taste
*combine and mash



Seitan Chorizo Crumble Tacos - from 500 Vegan Recipes.  These crumbles are great, especially if you are pressed for time and can't make a full batch of seitan chorizo sausages.


And, last but not least: a WTF TACO
We have all been guilty of making one of these, I'm sure.  This was actually cubed up Seitan O'Greatness, sautéed with baby spinach and some Teese... not one of my better creations, but still satisfying.

If you've made it to the bottom of this monstrous post, please feel free share with me YOUR favorite taco creations ^_^

Not Your Average Chopped Taco Salad

Today we have time for a quickie (and by "quickie" I mean a quick and simple, no-fuss weeknight meal).

"NOT Your Average Chopped Taco Salad"
Aptly named by my better-half 

Sometimes I try and challenge myself to make a meal from only the things I have on hand, or leftovers in the fridge or pantry.

Here we have:

• Shredded Romaine lettuce (from the Farmer's Market at work) 
• 1 can of black beans, seasoned with garlic, chili powder, and a wee bit of chipotle powder, 
• 1/2 cup of quinoa, cooked in 1 cup of vegetable broth, with 2 tsp of taco spice and some seasoned salt
• chopped tomato and red onion, salt and pepper

1 avocado cubed with 3/4 cup of shelled edamame (leftovers) tossed with salt, pepper and lime juice*I had steamed up some edamame, which I would take to work as a snack.  These last few pods were the leftovers so I thought I'd toss them in with the avocado cubes, in the style of "Guacamame" from Appetite for Reduction.

Dressing was the juice of 1/2 a lime, 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar, 1 tbsp olive oil and agave to taste!

Ugly phone pic, sorry

Of course, we had to go and crumble tortilla chips all over our individual bowls, just for added crunch. However, I tried to keep the "food porn" healthy looking.  When will we ever learn... ^_^

Big Fat Taco Salad!

I'm jumping back to Appetite for Reduction, because I seriously LOVE this book!!



(Please note, I used a tiny sprinkling of Daiya vegan cheddar cheese, which is NOT in Isa's original recipe, but it was still really good)!!

Now, most folks who like to cook, or have a basic knowledge of cooking, don't actually need a recipe to make a taco salad.  The beauty of cooking with the recipes from Appetite for Reduction is that it you to take a closer look at the amounts and types of ingredients one might use on say, a simple dish like a taco salad.

For example, instead of blobs of Tofutti vegan sour cream, this recipe is topped with GUACAMAME, traditional guacamole's lighter cousin ^_^



What an innovative recipe!  Instead of the full fat and calories from two large avocados, Isa uses ONE avocado and replaces the rest with a cup of edamame (soybeans).  You season and spice the mixture the same as any other guacamole recipe: lime juice, salt, cilantro, jalapeno or cayenne, and then puree everything until smooth in a food processor.  I must say, as a DIE HARD guacamole fan, the end results of this lighter, lower fat version are quite fantastic!

Now onto the dressing...

Many taco salads in restaurants contain ground meat, and the ones that don't, are usually smothered in some cream-tastical, salty, taco-spice dressing, or loaded with cheese.  The dressing we have for this salad is more like a pourable version of a spicy salsa, mixing tomato, lime and fresh jalapeno.  When I made up our taco salads, I decided to mix the dressing right in with the black beans, then top the lettuce with that.

It made for a pretty picture, and was then easily mixed with the rest of the salad to get lots of delicious flavor in each bite.



Crumble a small handful of (baked) tortilla chips of the top from some crunch, and you are good to go.  Two bowls later... we were happy and well fed ^_^