100 Vegetarian Taco Project

[whatshouldwecallme]

Guys with tattoos

[100vegtacos]

Taco #4 - Roasted Garlic Potato, ‘Chicken’ and Cannellini Bean Tacos w/ Truffle Salt and Pico de Gallo

I'm dumb and can't figure out where saved posts go to die. I'll figure it out for #3 but for now you get #4, which even I have to admit was one of the lesser tacos. I did not finish mine, as #5 was extra delicious and some nights I'm just not a two-taco gal. 

There is an ongoing joke between my sister and I about truffles(alt) being the answer to just about everything. Unfortunately here it was not the case. If it were up to Chris, only the successes would make it onto the blog but I explained that this is about quantity, not quality. 

P.S. HEY this is already predictably difficult, but perhaps moreso because there is someone involved in the project who doesn't eat butternut squash/yams/sweet potatoes.

Roasted Garlic Potato, ‘Chicken’ and Cannellini Bean Tacos w/ Truffle Salt and Pico de Gallo

 Makes four tacos

What You’ll Need:

1/2 pound baby potatoes

8 cloves garlic, whole

1 tablespoon olive oil

1/2 teaspoon truffle salt

Cookie sheet

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1/2 yellow onion, chopped

15 ounce can of cannellini beans

9 ounce package Beyond Meat ‘Beyond Chicken’ Grilled Strips

4 tortillas, warmed

4 tablespoons prepared pico de gallo

Fresh cilantro, chopped, to taste

Lime wedges, for serving

Step 1: Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Meanwhile, toss the baby potatoes, garlic and olive oil with 1/2 teaspoon truffle salt. Place the potatoes and garlic on a cookie sheet and bake them on the center rack for about 30 to 35 minutes, flipping them to ensure even browning.

Step 2: Heat 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil in a saucepan and cook the yellow onion over medium-low heat until soft and translucent, about 2 to 3 minutes. Add the cannellini beans and reduce the heat to low. Simmer for 10 to 12 minutes or until all of the water is absorbed and beans just begin to break.

Step 3: Add 1 tablespoon vegetable oil to a large sauté pan over medium heat. Add the ‘chicken’ and cook until warm and browned on both sides, about 10 minutes. Toss the ‘chicken’ regularly to ensure even browning. Chop the chicken into small pieces while hot.

Step 4: Remove the potatoes and garlic from the oven and quarter the potatoes. Roughly chop the garlic.

Step 5: Plate your tortillas and spoon about one tablespoon of cannellini beans in the center. Top the beans with the chopped chicken.

Step 6: Place two tablespoons of the chopped potato and garlic mixture to one side of the tortilla. Add the prepared pico de gallo to the other side.

Step 7: Top the whole taco with fresh cilantro to taste and serve with a lime wedge.

Verdict: You'd think as a former hardcore carnivore (with the occasional lapse) I'd be grossed out by fake meats. But I find them, and this fake chicken in particular, pretty inoffensive and actually enjoy the texture a lot. But the combination of flavor-beans and salty potatoes and truffle salt was too much and too salty. 

[100vegtacos]

"That's just a shitty salad."- Chris on using lettuce wraps instead of tortillas.

[100vegtacos]

On Recipes

It should be noted that my recipes (as well as the recipes of my mother, my aunts, my grandmother, and presumably my sister) go something like "add spice until you don't need any more, then cook it until it becomes whatever it is you are cooking." This made for an incredibly frustrating learning curve when I got my first kitchen, as I would call my mother and ask, "How do I know when the chicken is done?" and she would reply "When it looks like chicken."

On the other hand, Chris uses wildly fancy things like thermometers, timers, measuring devices, and even on the rare occasion kitchen scales. 

Rest assured, the recipes on this site will be primarily written by Chris.

[100vegtacos]

Taco #2 - Blackened Tempeh and Indian-Spiced Black Bean Tacos

When Chris came home from the store with more taco supplies, I tried to explain that by "100 tacos" I didn't mean tacos for every meal until the project was over. He sang a song called "tacos every day" and it wasn't encouraging.

The tempeh and black bean tacos tonight fell on the side of vegan friendly with nary a cheese nor cream in sight. Therefore, I hope Larkin considers this a challenge (when she's done with school and life-pressures and whatever) to beat us at our own game.

~~~~~~~~

Chris's Highly Precise Recipe:

Makes six tacos

What You’ll Need:

4 tablespoons vegetable oil

Medium sauté pan with tight-fitting top

1 white onion, roughly chopped

4 cloves garlic, crushed and finely chopped

15-ounces canned black beans (prepared dried beans with 1/4 cup water or stock if you prefer)

Large non-stick sauté pan

8-ounce tempeh ‘slab’ (Don’t use the sliced or crumbled stuff if possible)

1/4 teaspoon dried turmeric

1/4 teaspoon dried cumin

1/8 teaspoon dried coriander

6 flour or corn tortillas, warmed

1 avocado, thinly sliced

2 yellow or Roma tomatoes, chopped

1 bunch chopped cilantro, for garnish, to taste

2 limes, for squeezing and serving

Hot sauce, for serving, optional

  How To Cook The Thing

Step 1: Heat 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil in a medium sauté over medium-low heat until hot. Add the onion and cook until translucent and softened, about 2 to 3 minutes. Add the garlic and sauté for an additional minute.

Step 2: Drain half the liquid out of the black beans and add the rest to the saucepan with the onions and garlic. Cover the mixture with a tight-fitting top and continue cooking over medium-low heat, checking and stirring the beans regularly.

(They should be a thick, almost paste-like mixture. You want them to have just enough moisture to spread on a tortilla without caking and drying out.)

Step 3: Heat 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil in a large non-stick sauté pan and heat on high until just smoking. Add the tempeh and cook for about 3 minutes on each side or until the outside is just blackened.

Step 4: Remove the tempeh from heat and place it on a cutting board. Roughly chop the tempeh into a crumble or into small cubes. Dealer’s choice.

Step 5: Add the turmeric, cumin and coriander to the beans. Remove them from heat and stir the mixture to thoroughly combine the dried spices with the hot beans.

Step 6: Plate your tortillas and divide the beans among them, using a spoon to place them in the center of each tortilla. Top the beans with an even amount of the tempeh mixture.

Step 7: Place the avocado slices to one side of the tempeh on each tortilla, making sure to divide the avocado evenly. The person who doesn’t get as much avocado as everyone else WILL notice.

Step 8: Top each taco with chopped yellow or Roma tomatoes and cilantro to taste. Squeeze a lime wedge over each taco and serve with plenty of extra lime wedges and your favorite hot sauce.

  Tempeh Tip! You don’t want the tempeh to be a uniform black color on the outside – you just want about half of the surface blackened. The other parts should be a deep brown color. Watch your tempeh and pay attention to how it changes color the first time you cook it. And don’t worry, it’s not like meat, so flipping it over too much isn’t a problem as long as you’re careful not to break your tempeh ‘slab’ into pieces.

~~~~~~~~

Verdict:

Chris thought that more lime could have been used throughout. I went a little too insane with the hot sauce and jalapeño slices. I have no one but myself to blame for my face being on fire for half the meal.

It was agreed that I am incapable of writing decent reviews because every time a taco is placed in front of me, I'm really happy there are tacos in front of me. That task will have to fall to one of my comrades.

Up next: more planning and better photography!

[100vegtacos]

Taco #1 - Soyrizo, Potato, Sour Cream, Salsa

Today we woke up late. I called into work, and it was 2pm before either of us moved from the bed, as the dog was blessedly quiet after his breakfast at 10. "How do you want your coffee?" Chris asked. "Tacos." I answered.

If he knew this would be taco #1, he may have cared more or attempted a fancier showing. Or not, I'm not sure that he cares or believes this is really happening.

The lazy afternoon breakfast tacos consisted of soyrizo, sour cream, leftover salsa from a party, potatoes and canned chopped jalapeños on flour tortillas. 

Verdict:

He felt the soyrizo was a little too sweet, but it's the only brand I've ever been able to find in my area so I don't know the difference.The flour tortillas were an anomaly, but he doesn't trust the older (staler), name-brand corn tortillas sold at the store by my house. There was some disagreement over the jalapeños, as someone learning the joys of hot food for the first time, I feel the jarred variety has something less of a kick than the whole, canned variety. The potatoes...were potatoes.

Tips:

Plan out your jalapeño slices so you get one per bite. Use as much Tapatio as is allowed by law.

("Have you considered food writing?" "No, are you kidding?" "Yes." "Fuck off I'm doing this for fun." Guess who doesn't get to read the next 99.)

[100vegtacos]

A Longer-Than-Necessary Introduction

Last year, my sister (a vegan) came up with the idea of trying 100 different vegan tacos. But after three attempts and starting her final semester of school, the idea was abandoned.

Cut to months later, my boyfriend spent his first weekend at my house. He loves to cook and spends a good deal of time thinking of how to make things-- what to make, in what quantities to make them, how to make them different or exciting. "I'd like to make you tacos," he said. "Fine by me," I said. He asked steak, chorizo, or chicken? I shrugged, and learned the first and most important lesson- if you shrug, you get every option. For a week we ate nothing but tacos, with the same handful of ingredients to make slightly different variations every time. I gained five pounds in about as many days.

Fast forward again, and Chris and I have decided to return to vegetarianism, which we had both abandoned years earlier for flimsy reasons. This gave him new challenges in the kitchen, and helped me get my steak consumption under control. But the tacos never left my mind.

The idea of 100 tacos suddenly didn't seem too crazy. It seemed just right. And of course, with the help of my sister for the vegan edge, it would be easy, right?