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Veggie taco salad
Living in San Antonio, Mexican and Tex-Mex food are all around. San Antonio is considered the Tex-Mex capital and has been since before 1900. Unfortunately, the style uses a lot of chili.
The “Chili Queens” of San Antonio are credited with popularizing chili throughout the United States. They sold chili each evening at Military Plaza, the main market of San Antonio at that time.
Even the typically safe cheese enchiladas at most restaurants have chili or chili gravy instead of ranchero or red enchilada sauce. I do know a few places that offer veg beans, so if anyone is ever headed my way let me know and I’ll direct you to the right spots.
One of my favorite meal to get at these restaurants is a veggie taco salad. Yeah, the waitstaff always look at me a bit weird when I say no chicken, beef, tongue, intestines — organ meat is BIG in San Antonio — but I persevere. To avoid those eyebrow-raised glances and thanks to soy crumbles there are fast ways have a decent homemade taco salad fast.
Here is what you will need:
Ingredient list
- Soy crumbles (MorningStar, Boca, homemade with TVP)
- 1/2 tsp dark ancho chili powder
- 1/2 tsp regular chili powder
- 1/2 tsp Garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp Cumin powder
- One can refried beans
- Corn tortillas or chips
- One head of romaine lettuce
- Some cherry or grape tomatoes
- Your favorite taco cheese
- Salsa
- Avocado
- Salt and pepper to taste
Recipe
What I start with is putting four corn tortillas in the toaster oven for about 12 minutes on 375F, flipping halfway through and baking until crispy. You could do this in an oven, but a toaster oven won’t heat up the house and you save money on your energy bill. You could just use store-bought chips, but the baked corn tortillas are much lower in fat. No, they won’t taste the same.
I then place the soy crumbles with enough water to make them wet in a pan and cook them for about 15 minutes on medium-low to medium. I find the water to be very important, as the soy crumbles are way too dry otherwise as they do not have beef fat like hamburger does. While they cook I throw in all the spices. The amounts I use are my rough preference. You can certainly go more or less and you will have time to adjust.
While the tortillas and soy are baking, chop up the romaine, tomatoes and avocado. Once done chopping, mix the veggies and set them aside. This is a very flexible recipe, and you could add or omit anything you want. I sometimes add onion, spinach, jalapenos or black olives.
Open the can of refried beans and microwave them. About three minutes should do the trick.
At this point, you are about 20 minutes in and everything should be ready to combine in a medium-size mixing bowl, or something similar. I prefer the following order from bottom to top:
- Beans
- Soy
- Cheese
- Veggies
- Salsa
- Chips tucked around the side
- A little shredded cheese on top for style points
It won’t taste exactly the same as a restaurant, but that is largely because you are skipping a lot of the extra cheese, salt, oil and fats that restaurants use. And no restaurant I have ever been to had soy taco meat for their veggie taco salads.
For meat eaters who have a veggie friend coming over for dinner these are great because only one step would be added — cooking the soy. Or hey, add no steps and give the soy a try yourself. Vegans, you know the drill. Just don’t use cheese or use a vegan friendly cheese.
