- Mayte Velasco Nicolas
- Wednesday, August 04, 2021
Let's see, all my life I have thought with my stomach. Since I can remember, eating is one of my favorite hobbies. Today, food is still a pleasure, and at the same time, food is a way to keep the body healthy.
My mother cooked lots of vegan and vegetarian dishes. And one of my favorite ingredients was beans: kidney beans, white beans, fava beans, the versatility of beans is almost infinite. What can I say about sweet potatoes? It has fewer carbohydrates than potatoes, reduces the glycemic index, provides fiber, potassium, magnesium, calcium, and vitamins B, C, and D. The wonderful black beans provide eye health, cancer prevention, regulates blood sugar, and they are great for your heart. These tacos have two very powerful ingredients with a potent nutritional value.
My arrival to the United States introduced me to the brilliant, unique, and delicious: TACO. One of my culinary habits is to adapt "omnivorous" recipes and transform them into vegan or vegetarian.
This particular recipe was born out of desperation. I wanted something fast, vegan, and healthy (not all vegan dishes are healthy). As always, I opened the refrigerator and I saw red onions, cabbage, green onions, and garlic. I opened the cupboard and saw a can of black beans. I opened another cupboard and I saw sweet potatoes. Well, I have dinner. Corn tortillas, pumpkin seeds, limes, zucchini, or coriander are ingredients that I usually always have in my kitchen. If you want to maintain a healthy pantry, these ingredients are essential in the kitchen.
These tacos can be vegetarian, you add cheese and that's it. For vegans, add vegan cheese or tofu. In the following recipes, I describe how to make tofu as a topping. In this case, I added vegan cheese. Thyme is important in this recipe, you can always use fresh, but in this recipe, I prefer to use it dry. If you use it fresh; duplicate the amount and add it to the dish at the last minute. Always FRESH cilantro. Here are the recipes:
Vegan Tacos
- Fresh or canned corn, well-drained
- 1 red onion
- 2 cloves of garlic
- I can of black beans
- 1 medium zucchini
- 2 green onions
- 1 tablespoon of paprika
- 1 tablespoon of cumin
- 1 tablespoon dried thyme or 2 if the thyme is fresh
- 2 tablespoons of olive oil
- ¼ cup of pumpkin seeds raw
- ½ cup of fresh coriander chopped
- Salt to taste
- Vegan cheese (Optional)
Chop the onion and saute it with a little olive oil. Cook the onion for five minutes. Add the diced sweet potato. Prick the sweet potato with a fork until it has some resistance, add the diced zucchini, and the black beans. Cook until the sweet potato is completely cooked. Add spices, salt, the amount of salt is a suggestion, many canned beans come with a lot of sodium. Heat a pan over medium heat and toast the pumpkin seeds and reserve for later. In the same pan heat the corn tortillas at a higher temperature. The toppings can vary, in these tacos, I have green onions, jalapeños, cilantro, corn (if the corn is fresh, just separate it from the cob), coleslaw, lime, pumpkin seeds, and vegan cheese.
For the coleslaw:
- A small cabbage or half a large cabbage
- 1 clove of garlic
- The juice and zest of two limes
- Salt to taste
- Fresh coriander
Cut the cabbage into a very fine julienne, and add the remaining ingredients. The coriander is finely chopped. This salad requires at least an hour marinating with the juice of the limes.
Tofu as a topping in vegan tacos:
- Precooked firm tofu
- ½ tablespoon of cumin
- ½ of paprika
- ½ of hot paprika (to taste)
- 1 tablespoon nutritional yeast (not fortified)
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
Crumble the pre-cooked tofu (if it's raw, grill it a bit, raw tofu doesn't digest very well) and crumble it. On low heat, heat the oil, spices, and nutritional yeast. Pour it on top of the crumbled tofu.
Serve the tacos with the toppings; Minced coriander, onions, fresh corn (if you have any), pumpkin seeds, jalapeño slices and the green part of the finely chopped chives. I forgot, serve them with fresh lime and your favorite hot sauce.