Veg*n Cooking and Other Random Musings: Lindsay's Tamale Pockets and Super Easy Tasty Taco Salad

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Lindsay's Tamale Pockets and Super Easy Tasty Taco Salad

















Over the weekend, I was super lucky to be able to try out a tester recipe for Lindsay's (aka the Happy Herbivore) upcoming cookbook. These are her Tamale Pockets, and man were these tasty. The pictures above do not do this meal justice. I'm not sure what was up with our camera, both Brett and I took TONS of pictures of these and none of them really came out. Oh, and it didn't help that I overstuffed the pockets. :-)

The complimentary textures of the two crusts go perfectly with the seasoning of the filling. Oh my goodness, that filling was amazing. It could have it's own category of recipes dedicated to it! I can't say much more about it, you'll have to wait. But this picky Mexican food lover can happily say "I approve!", as did Brett, so try to be patient as you wait for her much anticipated cookbook to come out!

Anywho....

During the summer, our meals are pretty simple, which is why you will likely see much more ranting and posts about gardening. However, if all goes well, the end of the summer will be filled with posts on food preservation. Anyway, the reason for this is that I don't like to run the oven, stove, or anything if I don't have to when it's hot. So, for example, this weekend I made up a huge batch of traditional refried beans so we could have bean burritos, taco salad, and Local Veggie and Bean Wraps. I also made up some seasoned lentils so we could have Lentil and Potato Tacos, and also taco salad. You see, I like to be able to make up big batches of stuff for us to eat on during the week, but I don't like to eat the same thing all week either. That's the beauty of Mexican cooking, I can simply make up two big batches of beans and lentils and we have 4 different meals using many of the same ingredients. Who can beat that?

Now, this meal isn't really anything special, but it was damn tasty, and I thought I would explain the 'method to our madness' that is our summer eating habits. Eating like this also helps reduce waste, since, with a little bit of planning, you won't be scrambling to figure out what to do with the leftover seasoned lentils or brown rice you have on hand. I don't know about anybody else, but I hate waste. Don't even get me started on the folks who planted their Community Garden plots, never to return, all the while they have perfectly good food rotting on the vine when we are facing a global food crisis. It just gets to me, seriously.

Anyways, back to the taco salad.

















Brett made some tofu sour cream to go with this, and man, it was perfect! He's really getting the tofu sour cream thing down.

Super Easy Tasty Taco Salad
traditional refried beans
seasoned lentils
long grain brown rice, cooked
shredded lettuce
diced tomatoes
tortilla chips
tofu sour cream
Green Chile Taco Sauce

All you gotta do is crush up some tortilla chips and layer 'em in the bottom of a bowl, layer on the beans, lentils, rice, lettuce and tomato, and then top it with tofu sour cream, Green Chile Taco Sauce (or picante) and enjoy!

Mmmm, I could eat this for dinner almost every night, taco salad is one of both mine and Brett's favorite foods, so easy, so tasty, and dare I say even healthy when the taco salad is vegan.

'Til next time.

16 comments:

LizNoVeggieGirl said...

Oooh, the Tamale Pocket looks delicious!! As does that taco salad - I wouldn't blame you if you DID eat that every night for dinner, haha :0)

Alicia said...

It is so difficult to cook in summer... But at least you made yourself a great salad!

Unknown said...

tamale pockets! sounds delish!

i agree though... i hate running the stove in summer.

if they never come back... would they notice if you picked things off their plants? better then it rotting away.

Anonymous said...

You lucky tester you! That just looks amazing! I can't wait for Lindsy's cookbook to come out!

Anonymous said...

Oh man, I love taco salad, and yours looks great! I don't cook much in the summer either...salads just about every night work for me!

Courtney

ChocolateCoveredVegan said...

Now I'm craving taco salad!

ChickPea said...

That tofu sour cream sounds really good...and I don't even like regular sour cream!

jessy said...

i think the tamale pockets look droolworthy! and taco salad = the perfect summer dinner! dan & should make some of those, too. the lentils look sooooooooooo good!

J said...

Veggie Girl - They were both really good. I'm thinking very seriously about turning all my meals into variations of the taco salad. :-)

Alice - It is, but with a little planning and preparation, you can have delish meals all week without living in a furnace.

Selina - They were very good! I recommend this as the first thing to try if (or when) you get her cookbook.

I wondered the same thing myself. I'd even pick them just to take them to the food bank. I don't know what I'd do with them all, but I'd be willing to also try my hand at preserving them too. I've just always figured it would be my luck that they would show up the day I was there cleaning off their plants! It's just so frustrating, I've seen I don't know how many zucchini, summer squash, and tomatoes rotting. Argh!

Shellyfish - I know! And I know! I'm so proud of her, she's worked so hard, and it's so nice to see someone you care about pursuing their dreams.

Courtney - Thanks! Taco salads make very regular appearances in our house during the summer. Not much cooking involved, you get tons of veggies, and we can toss beans, lentils and other sources of protein in there to boot.

Katie (Chocolate Covered Vegan) - Your comment got me craving them again too!

Chickpea - It is, and this comes from someone who doesn't like tofu. Though admittedly, Brett is much better at making this than I am.

Jessy - They were awesome, and my apartment smelled so good while they were baking.

You guys should, the lentils are very versatile, and you could make both the taco salad and Lentil and Potato tacos, no waste, not a lot of effort, and some good food.

I hope you guys like it if you try it!

Lindsay (Happy Herbivore) said...

so glad it gets YOUR mexi stamp of approval! & your salad... a must make this weekend dish!

Anonymous said...

I have not had taco salad in ages! You have inspired me. I remember many years ago when I was in grade school and all the kids would go crazy on taco salad day. I think people even threw food at each other...sigh...

Lisa (Show Me Vegan) said...

Thanks for the sneak preview of the tamale pockets! And your taco salad sounds like a delicious meal for after a long day at work- easy and satisfying!

J said...

Lindsay (HH) - Indeed they did. I hope you like the taco salad!

Vegan Addict - Oh man, taco salad is one of both of our favorite meals, summer = taco salad (and sun tea!) in our house. Hahahahahaha! :-)

Lisa - Thank you, and you are right, it was perfect for an after work meal, just throw it together and you're good to go!

Erin said...

Oooh, the tamale pockets look really good, I'm very interested in her book when it comes out. And your taco salad! I love taco salads. I like to mush everything together so it's more of a taco mush than a salad.

J said...

Erin - They were, especially the filling. I'd like to put the filling on a flauta or something, yum!

Aw, thanks about the taco salad. Brett actually joked that we should post a picture of what the taco salad REALLY looks like when we eat it. I just took a picture of it after I threw everything in the bowl. After snapping the shot, I proceeded to mix it all up into a nasty looking, but tasty mush. Hehehe.

Anonymous said...

Mmm you sure know your way around a tex-mex meal (or two)! yum yum