Raw vegan tacos

When I was a kid, Mexican food was a bowl of Doritos smothered in salsa from a jar (never fresh) and grated cheese, and then chucked into the oven – or microwave, depending on hungry we were! – until the cheese was all nice and melty. Then we’d add sour cream, occasionally avocado, and I remember once being really fancy and adding a sprinkle of paprika.

When I was at University, Mexican food was a bowl of corn chips with dips (spicy tomato and guacamole) to share whilst my friends and I drank as many fishbowl margaritas as we could within the happy hour at the local Mexican joint.

These days, Im a bit more adventurous – and for the most part, far healthier – when it comes to Mexican food.

I whipped up these raw vegan tacos, using walnuts and spices as the “meat” the other night for dinner and they were too good not to share. I’ve been seeing walnut “meat” in Mexican dishes on the internet for a while now but not yet tried it – Im now wishing I hadnt waited so long – this stuff is good. I used the same spice mix for the walnuts that I normally use when making bean tacos and it worked a treat. My local corner store has just started stocking fresh corn so I grabbed some of that to throw in with my usual salsa, and then served it in baby cos leaves. This dish came together really quickly and makes the perfect light, healthy dish for a warm spring evening, and goes down really in the backyard with a cold beer :)

 

Raw vegan tacos

 

Walnut “meat”

1 cup walnuts

2 tsp soy sauce

2 tsp water

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp cayenne pepper

1 tsp dried oregano

1/2 tsp dried chilli

salt and pepper to taste

 

Corn salsa

1 tomato, diced

1/2 small red onion, finely chopped

kernels off one fresh corn cob

small handful chopped coriander leaves

Juice of 1/2 lime

1/4 tsp paprika

salt and pepper to taste

 

Cos lettuce leaves, to serve

 

To make the walnut mixture, add all the ingredients to a blender or food processor and mix until combined and crumbly.

To make the salsa, combine the onion, tomato, corn and coriander in a bowl, stir through lime juice and season with salt and pepper.

To serve, place a few small scoops of salsa into one of the cos leaves, add a scoop of walnut mixture and enjoy :)

 

Serves 2