Recipe Post: Taco Night!

Depending on whether you are vegetarian or know many vegetarians, you may or may not be surprised to know that almost every time I mention tacos or someone wants to serve tacos or I think too hard about tacos, someone will stare at me with wonder and say, "You eat tacos? What do you put on them?"

Wow that was a run-on sentence.

The same thing happens when I say I can eat subs and sandwiches that are not PB & J. The same look of wonder appears, as well as the sometimes spoken sometimes unspoken questions of "How?", "Why?" and "What is on there?!"

I assure you, I can eat tacos. And they are quite delicious!

Reading through this recipe, as you realize how little work is actually involved to make a taco vegetarian, you may ask, "Why did you even need to write a recipe for this?" The answer to that question is for me to point to the first paragraph of this and remind you that I get asked this all the time. So yes, a recipe was needed.

Pardon any sass you may have noticed so far. I'll keep it to a minimum, I promise.

I am actually not a huge fan of beans as the starring protein of Latin foods, so as a substitution they don't always work for me. (Other than in crunch wraps at Taco Bell. Mmm.) I personally prefer Trader Joe's soy chorizo. I never had chorizo before I was vegetarian, so I'm not sure how authentic-tasting soy chorizo is, but I can say it doesn't really taste like sausage to me. I don't think it's magic-science-trickery the same way that Quorn Turk'y is. It's still dang good, and sometimes doesn't taste vegetarian.

P.S., I personally think the brand on this one is important. I've tried other soy chorizos and they don't work as well. But! They aren't usually terrible, either, so if you don't have Trader Joe's where you live, or your Trader Joe's is out of their soy chorizo, feel free to try others. I just don't have any recommendations.

Let's get down to it:

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 15 minutes

Yields: About 8-9 mini tacos

Ingredients:

For the "meat":
1/2 package soy chorizo
1/2 a yellow onion (Spanish for more heat)
1 clove of garlic

For the guacamole:
2 ripe avocados
1/3 cup onion
1 clove garlic
2-3 tbsp olive oil
2-1/2 tsp, or almost 1 tbsp lemon juice
Salt to taste

For the tacos:
Hard or soft taco shells*
Tomatoes
Onions
Lettuce
Salsa
Sour cream
Cheddar cheese
& whatever else you like on tacos!
(*I used hard-shell this time because I forgot to pick up soft-shell tortillas at the store. I personally usually go for soft corn tortillas, the little ones.)

Warning: Please take the "skin" and the metal ends off the chorizo, especially if you have to microwave them. We all know what happens when metal goes in a microwave, and the "skin" is not edible on this soy chorizo. It is plastic. Please take it off. This has been a public service announcement from the kitchen of Mrs. Webb. Thanks.

Directions:

1. Chop up the onion. Except you will clean off your cutting board first and not have chorizo bits on it, because you are a better person than I am.

Then the garlic.

Add to a skillet over low heat and cook until soft, about 5-7 minutes.

2. Take the skin and the ends off the soy chorizo. Here's what it looks like without the skin, in tact and crushed up.

Mash it up. It's very crumbly as it is so just a fork works.

Add to the skillet with the onion and cook until warm, maybe 5 minutes. I personally like the consistency as-is, but you can let it sit and crisp in the pan a little longer if you like.

I may or may not have forgotten to take a photo of this part.

3. Now for the guac! Start by chopping up the other half of the onion you used for the chorizo mix. You'll only use part of this for the guacamole, and the rest for toppings.

Also mince up the garlic, however big you like your garlic.

Then, slice open the avocados length-wise. Aren't they beautiful? (Ignore those little brown spots, you can just cut them out.)

Remove the skin and the pits. I have seen this done a million ways. Do it however you like!

Mash the heck out of those.

If you're like me and really like avocado, even plain, you can leave some chunks. Or you can make it into such a paste that it's barely recognizable as having come from a solid form. Up to you!

Add the onion, garlic, olive oil, lemon juice and salt, if desired. I didn't add any salt since I was going to be serving it on tacos with other salty elements. Mix 'em all up.

4. Chop up the other ingredients of  the tacos: Tomatoes, onions and lettuce.

5. Bring out the other ingredients: guacamole, salsa, sour cream and cheese. Spoon the chorizo mixture into a bowl and set out with everything else.

The elements are complete! Now, it's your turn to decide how you want to make your taco. Even if all the ingredients are the same, people still stack theirs differently. Do it however you like! Here's how I stacked mine, of course starting with the taco shell:

Chorizo as a bottom layer.

Then the tomato.

The lettuce. I like to add all the stuff that likes to fall off first, so that the weight of the heavier stuff can hold it on.

The salsa next.

Then the guacamole.

And finally, sour cream and cheese!

Mmmm. Check that baby out.

If you're curious (you're probably not) I did actually manage to keep that monstrous thing together until it was gone. No catastrophe befell the shell (hey that rhymed) before it all ended up safely in my mouth. I was impressed with myself, and the heartiness of that taco. It's the little things.

Like I said, this is all about personal preference. Make up those tacos however you like!

But most importantly--enjoy!

Tips:

-To keep the guacamole from browning in the fridge, sprinkle the top layer with lemon juice or lime juice. It will prevent the avocados from oxidizing!

Kitchen hacks for less time/money:

-Substitute all toppings for pre-chopped toppings and lettuce for shredded bagged lettuce

-Substitute prepackaged guacamole for guacamole recipe (but it's so darn good! Please try at least once. :))

Kitchen credits:

-My guacamole was adapted from the recipe in Lorraine Turner's Ethnic Cuisine cookbook.