Vegan Tacos

I Love Mexican Food!  Well, perhaps Americanized Mexican food is more like it.  I think it is one of my favorite cuisines - something that I never get tired of eating.  Enchiladas, corn tortillas, empanadas, tamales, tacos, burritos, the list goes on and on.  And it is one of the easiest cuisines to make vegan in my opinion (minus the huge amount of seafood!).  Tacos are one of my favorite things to make and eat.  It comes together very quickly, is very low maintenance.  Since I have made this for the Hubby, this is his go-to meal request.  And most of the time, I don't really mind, especially if I already have the "meat" aka seasoned tvp made.  I prefer making soft tacos just because they are so much easier to make and eat, and are not crunching and breaking all over your lap like hard tacos.  Hubby and I were at Whole Foods a couple weeks ago and actually saw a container of hard taco shells and made a mad grab for them.  So, we made those (it's the first time I have had those in the longest time - since I was back in MI, living with my family) and they were delicious, and spilled the fixings all over my lap of course.  But it was great.    

I love anything spicy, so I try to add a hint of spiciness to the marinated tvp, but where I really like to add it is with the siracha on top.  I do a layer of sour cream, then the siracha because the creaminess helps to tone down the spiciness.  Sometimes Hubby can deal with the spiciness, and sometimes not.  In DR, they really do not eat spicy food at all.  I know that when I first cooked spicy food for him he had a hard time eating it without sweating bullets, even though it really wasn't that spicy.  I also remember that when both of his cousins moved to ny from dr and stayed at our place for several days, I cooked for them and added my customary dash of chipotle pepper powder, both of them took forever to eat, pasusing to drink glass upon glass of water.  Cracks me up becaue it really wasn't even that spicy.  That is the one thing, by the way, that I missed the most about food when I was in DR - spiciness.  The food had lots of flavor, just no heat.  So glad I have my container of chipotle pepper powder and my bottle of sriacha!

All The Fixings!



Mama's Taco Ready to be Eaten!

Ingredients:

Seasoned TVP/other beef-style replacer
Soft or hard shelled tacos
Shredded Daiya
Green Peppers, small diced
Red Peppers, small diced
Red Onions, small diced
Tomatoes, small diced
Lettuce, shredded
Olives, chopped
Vegan Sour Cream
Salsa or hot sauce (I love sriracha)

1.  This is really a easy recipe.  Just prep all the veggies and make a simple seasoned tvp or you can even pick up a package of frozen/refrigerated pre-made mock meat crumbles.  Warm your soft shelled tacos in a dry pan on both sides for about 30 seconds, until heated through.  Or for hard shelled tacos, pop them in the oven for several minutes until heated through and nice and crispy. 
2.  My favorite way to assemble them is the same every time: hot seasoned mock meat, followed by daiya, so it is nice and melty.  Then, all the chopped onions, peppers, tomatoes, olives, shredded lettuce, sour cream, and finally salsa or hot sauce.  Eat and be happy.  Seriously the easiest and most delicious thing ever!

Enjoy!

-K