Taco Tuesday/Wednesday/Whenever Veggie Style! (or not veggie!)

One of the greatest aspects of my childhood was growing up in Southern California. That meant that even though my mom was from the Midwest, we ate a lot of tacos. 70s tacos in a vegetarian household, yes, which meant vegeburger sauteed with diced onions and McCormick taco seasoning, spooned into lightly fried corn tortillas, topped with shredded lettuce and American cheese, ketchup, and chopped olives. So easy to feed 4 hungry kids. 

While I'm now a afficianado of the real McCoy--Guisado's Chiles Toreados snuck into the Burbank AMC is my favorite food on the go--I still make a lot of veggie tacos using veggie meat, and gosh darn it, sometimes with McCormick taco seasoning 'cause...you know, childhood. 

And I now add all sorts of other ingredients to those childhood basics.  Tonight's was one of my favorite combos--sweet potato, squash, and vegeburger crumbles.

1 small sweet potato, diced

1/2 small squash, diced

1/4 onion, diced

1/3 pasilla chile

1 cup vegeburger crumbles (or real meat, or just forgo the "meat" aspect altogether)

McCormick's taco seasoning (or combine your favorite chile powder with a little garlic powder)

A little cumin (or a lot)

Chopped fresh or dried oregano

2 cups power greens (baby kale, spinach, etc.)

Zap the sweet potato in the microwave for a couple of minutes to soften. Making a hole in the food helps it cook more quickly and evenly.

Blister the skin side of the piece of chile over gas flame, then put in a plastic bag for a few minutes to make it easy to scrape off the skin. Dice small.

Sautee the potato, squash, onion, chile. Add the crumbles and McCormick's seasoning and/or other aromatics and sautee on low for several minutes.

(If you're using real meat, cook it first until lightly pink, then add the other ingredients and cook until well done.)

Zap the power greens in the microwave for a minute. 

Heat up a few tortillas. Tonight I tried out some Tortilla Factory wheat/corn combo tortillas, which turned out to be pretty okay, but I still like plain corn tortillas best.

The crema in these tacos is simply greek yogurt, and I topped them with my homemade tomatillo salsa (which I make in big batches then freeze into small round cubes--always fresh salsa on hand!).

A great thing about tacos is that you can go purist--simply great carne asada topped with a little cilantro and onion--or you can go off in your own directions. One of the best tacos I ever ate came from an Indian food truck. It was Roy Choi's Korean tacos, by the way, that started the food truck craze to begin with. I keep it simple--butternut squash and slightly smashed black beans with lots of sauteed onions and Anaheim chiles, or imitate Guisado's Hongos con Cilantro, which is sauteed mushrooms, onions, green chiles, and cilantro. Our local Tacos El Afro food truck makes a jack fruit taco that I haven't yet reproduced myself--too easy to zip up to 20th and M on any given weekday for lunch. 

There are way more refined recipes out there for much more authentically Mexican flavors, and there still is nothing like a taco from the hands of a true taco artist, whether on a street corner or in a fine restaurant.  Still, my little home tacos are so easy to whip up, and so satisfying, and so tasty no matter what I pull out of the fridge or pantry to put in there. A little bit of heaven folded in a tortilla, making us so happy and healthy and satisfied.