Taquitos! Vegan, Whole Food, Plant Based

You may have noticed a taquitos theme in my previous posts.  All roads (or recent posts it seems) lead to taquitos.  

What can I say, other than we've missed them and these were pretty fabulous?

Be warned that this recipe contains several links to full recipes of some of the ingredients. If you don't already have the bouillon, ranch dressing, or salsa this recipe can be time consuming (but oh so worth it!), then again, if you are cooking or eating wfpb, you probably expect time consuming cooking anyways.


Taquito Shells - plan for 4-6 per person (this should allow for leftovers/lunch the following day)
1 Vegan Meat recipe
(1 cauliflower, 1 cup walnuts, 4-6 large shiitakes, 2 T. soy sauce or liquid aminos)
1 onion - diced
4 large garlic cloves - minced
1-2 T. chicken bouillon (vegan)
1 t. cumin
salt to taste (if needed)
2 medium potatoes - baked and peeled (cooked for 6-8 min in microwave until soft, then placed in plastic bag to sweat for 10 min., (to allow for easier peeling) then peeled)


Toppings
Ranch Dressing - vegan & oil free
Taquito Salsa - oil free
chopped spinach, arugula or lettuce
chopped tomatoes

Meat Filling:
Place vegan meat into large fry pan. Add peeled potatoes, onion, garlic and bouillon and mix with a potato masher, until potato is thoroughly mixed into the meat mixture.

Heat through with the addition of a couple of tablespoons of water (to keep it from sticking).

To assemble taquitos, place meat filling in the bottom of taquito shell, add chopped greens, tomatoes, then taquito salsa and finally vegan ranch.
 

Salsa for Taquitos

Salsa para los taquitos - continuing with the taquitos theme, these are a requirement for eating taquitos - at least good, homemade ones.

I was a little dubious about omitting the oil from these when cooking them, but it turned out great. The consistency is a little bit thicker, but the flavor remained unchanged.

10-15 dried red chiles (arbol or japones) - usually found in the latin spice section at store

6 cloves of garlic, smashed and half set aside

1 coarsely chopped onion, half set aside

1 can 14 oz. tomato sauce 

1 T. chicken bouillon - vegan 

Using gloves (or sandwich baggies which I always have on hand (clever huh?) but not so much with the gloves) crush or break the chiles and remove and discard seeds and inner veins (or save these and use them for crushed red pepper seasoning).  

Place in a frying pan with 3 T. water and sautee until they become slightly tender. Add half of the onions and half of the garlic and continue to sautee until tender, adding additional water as needed so that it doesn't stick.  

Place pan contents and remaining ingredients into a high powered blender and puree until smooth. 

Salt to taste (if needed). 

Serve over taquitos.

Taquitos and Salsa

My dear friend Berta gave me the mexican cooking 101 class. This recipe is my family's favorite dinner - even the picky kids clamor for taquitos!
(I'll post the photo at a later date)

Taquito filling:
1-2 lb. hamburger
1-2 baked potatoes (or microwave baked)
1/2 onion chopped
1-2 garlic cloves minced
chicken bouillon
salt to taste

Cook the hamburger, and onion, mash in potatoes, add 1-2 garlic cloves, salt and bouillon to taste.

Salsa:
8-15 arból chilés (whole, don't seed them)
1/2 c. chopped onion
1-2 garlic cloves minced

Cook chilés, onions, and garlic in olive oil to release their oils, until softened.
Blend in blender along with 1-2 cans of tomato sauce and 1-2 cubes of chicken bouillon.

To assemble:
Wrap approximately 12 white corn tortillas in a dish towel and microwave on high for 2 minutes to steam. In a large frying pan, heat oil. Spoon a small amount of filling into tortillas, folding in half (like a taco,) and fry until crisp. Careful not to overfill, or the filling will seep out and pop in the oil, causing burns. Turn onto other side and repeat.

To serve:
carefully open each 'taco' and top with lettuce, tomatoes, salsa, and ranch. The ranch seems a little non-traditional, but it somehow combines with the salsa to make something absolutely amazing, and just isn't as good without it.