I haven’t been this excited about a recipe in a while.
Some of you might recall the Vida Vegan Conference I attended last summer – an awesome weekend with 200 vegan bloggers, running around this beautiful city I live in! (Tickets are now on sale for the next one – May 2013 and once again in Portland).
As it should be, one amazing aspect of that weekend was the food (recap here). A favorite of mine was our lunch on the last day – a taco bar that included a raw walnut chorizo. I have had plans to recreate that for a while, and I had some fun ideas for unique flavors to add.
In my plans to recreate my own taco filling, I wanted a mix of subtle sweet and spicy. Sweet comes from pecans and currants (stay with me here), shiitake mushrooms add a savory heartiness, chipotle and arbol definitely bring some heat. After having this on my mind for a year, I can absolutely say I nailed it.
Inspired by the taco filling at Vida Vegan Con (recipe from Chic Vegan), spices mirror those in Noocho Cheese.
‘raw’ taco filling
dairy and gluten free, vegan
1 cup raw pecans, soaked
1 cup raw walnuts, soaked
2 arbol chiles, re-hydrated, chopped
1/2 can (7 ounce) chipotle in adobo (peppers and sauce), chopped
1/2 cup dried shiitake, re-hydrated, chopped
1/4 cup sun dried tomatoes (packed in oil), chopped
2 tablespoons oil from sun dried tomatoes
2 tablespoons tamari
1/8 cup currants
1/2 small sweet onion, diced
10-12 leaves fresh basil, chiffonaded
1 tablespoon onion powder
2 teaspoons paprika
1/4 teaspoon chili powder
Combine all ingredients into the bowl and stir to incorporate thoroughly. Transfer to a food processor and pulse* into a crumbly texture.
*Several pulses should work, simply turning to ‘on’ position may over process into a paste.
We enjoyed tacos with both soft and hard corn shells. Lots of crunchy lettuce (iceberg and kale), tomatoes and avocados were perfect toppings, along with a chipotle cream.
chipotle cream
dairy and gluten free, vegan
1 container dairy free plain yogurt (So Delicious)
1/2 can (7 ounce) chipotle in adobo (peppers and sauce), puréed
pinch sea salt
Combine yogurt and pureed chipotle/adobo, add salt to taste.
Flavorful and filling, we will be celebrating Taco Tuesday with these a lot around here!
Olé - Happy Tuesday!
{ 27 comments… read them below or add one }
yum! it has been years since I made raw tacos…mmm, so good!
I was pretty dang excited with the flavor of these, I wish I hadn’t waited so long!
Happy Tuesday indeed! YUM!
Those definitely look great!
thank you SO much, Gretchen!
Happy Taco Tuesday. I am planning on taco salad bowls (or maybe just breaking the tortillas up on the side). So how many pounds of nuts do you go through?? LOL.
haa… so funny you ask that – when I was thinking of what to put in this recipe, I went to my cabinet that has all my bulk nuts and dried fruit… thinking I’d make a list for the store. I had everything I needed already.
We always have almonds and cashews (I cook with cashews a lot, Jason loves to snack on almonds…) and I randomly had walnuts and pecans left over from a project, so… um, yeah I go through a lot.
ole indeed! sounds delicious! i love that there are walnuts and pecans in it! so fabulous!
the meat sounds great and anything with chipotle cream has my vote!
yep, hand me a straw…
very creative, the currant don’t even phase me now
ha, you are used to my unique (weird) ingredients by now?
These look so great! So perfect for a summer dinner!
I want so badly to experiment with raw walnut “meat,” but the husband is allergic to walnuts. Do you think it would work with just pecans?
hi Kristy, this would absolutely work with pecans only – they give a sweeter flavor with the same texture. I would love to know what you guys think of this, please let me know if you make it! Cheers and enjoy!
Will do! Thank you so much!
Good heavens, those look DELICIOUS! Now that’s something I need to try! First, I should make Tuesdays “Taco Tuesday”. Next week!
thanks, Tiffany – I hope you do try them – enjoy!
Yummm.. this post makes me even more happy that tacos are on my menu tonight. Yours look awesome!
Taco Tuesday is awesome. wait, it’s now Wednesday. sheet. YOU are awesome.
So, one of my co-workers read that article about the study that says that swearing is good for you. (Excellent sentence, eh?) And now, since “holding it in does more harm than good”, she’s become a regular F-bombing machine, which is hilarious, since I never knew she had it in her. [... getting slowly to the point...] She just walked out of my office before I surfed over here, and so, naturally, given my foodie interests of late, I took one look at this and went, “holy &#%@!”
This one… it’s like your read my MIND!!! I will never stray again!
hee, I love a lengthy story. I ramble on, so I can appreciate a fine yarn.
I love that this made you curse out loud – as they should! really, I meant it when I said I have not been this excited about a recipe in a while. so SO good! please make this. you could sandwich it between the savory waffle?
Love the sound of this! Ever since I had the raw vegan taco salad over at Prasad (again, in your beautiful city!) I have always wanted to make something similar.
Mmm, Prasad, yes! Please try this, Cara, I am very excited by it
Now this looks like my kind of meal! I don’t eat the frozen soya-mince my bf loves in taco’s, so I tend just to have veggies in mine. This looks like something we’d both love =D (And I think I’d have to use some iceberg as my “taco shell” too!) x
a veggie taco is great too, I do that often! I hope you try this, I think you both would like it! (and I LOVE lettuce shells too!).
your taco filling sounds so good!
thank you Lindsay, I am very happy with it!
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