Welcome to my fiesta! Homemade, delicious tacos for celebrating getting older!

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So, I live in Bali which is more on the side of rice and BBQ sate than corn tortillas and guacamole so, I figured in order to get what I want (what I really want) for my birthday, I'd just have to do it myself.

Luckily, I lived in Central America for about 2 years and during that time my diet was pretty much corn tortillas and beans so I know my way around a taco. 😉

In my opinion, every taco needs: chee(z)e, salsa, guacamole so let's start there!

Make sure you've got your: limes, tomatoes and avocados for this recipe!

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Easy Homemade salsa:

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What You Need:

• 3 tomatoes
• 1/2 onion
• 1/2 yellow bell pepper
• 1/ jalapeno
• 1 tbs lime juice
• 3 cloves garlic
• Pink Himalyan sea salt
• Pepper
• Cilantro (optional)

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What to Do:

• Put everything in a food processor and pulse slowly so it stays chunky! Often, I will put the garlic in first so it becomes smaller/more chopped up.

Note: If you use really ripe tomatoes, they will get more mushy/watery so harder skins actually provide for the tomatoes to stay in pieces.

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Guac

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What You Need:

• 1-2 ripe avocados
• 1/2 onion
• 2 tbs lime juice
• 1/2 yellow bell pepper
• 1 semi hard tomato
• 1-2 cloves garlic
• 1/2 jalapeno (or just use cayenne spice)
• 1 tsp pink Himalayan sea salt
• 1 tsp pepper
• Cilantro (optional and to your liking)

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Side note.... I used to think I despised cilantro so I would always ask them to remove it at restaurants but then I realized it's an epic addition to the flavors so, I throw it in all of my fiestas now!

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What to Do:

• In a food processor, start with the avo, garlic, lime juice and spices. Pulse a few times.
• Add in the peppers, onion, tomato and cilantro and pulse until you get chunks.
  Note: You want the secondary additions to be chunky within a creamy base so, sometimes what can be helpful is chopping them and throwing them in yourself OR having them cut into pieces before throwing them into the food processor OR removing the first layer before pulsing the second and stirring the second layer into the first by hand.

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On the Topic of Chee(z)e:

No, that is not a typo... Cheeze with a "z" has been claimed by the vegan community for stuff that tastes and has the texture of cheese but without any of the dairy is scary kind of stuff. I'm not here to preach but there has been a lot of evidence coming out stating what dairy (the milk of other animals) is doing to our minds, bodies and health and so, for that among many other reasons for me, I use plant based products!
Read about it from the Physician's Committee for Responsible Medicine here:

I made a post a LONG time ago showing how I make my vegan queso... check it out here!

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What to serve it in?

I am personally a huge fan of the corn tortilla so, I use organic blue masa harina for my tortillas. GMO corn can be pretty iffy guys so, I suggest trying to use organic, non-GMO sources where possible.

If you don't want the fun of making your own, they are easy to find in stores or by ordering online (same rules apply about organic though!)

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Tortillas

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What You Need:

• organic masa harina
• lime juice
• warm water
• Pink Himalayan sea salt

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What to Do:

• In a big bowl, mix some masa harina with warm water (I start off with about 1 cup of the flour and gently add in warm water as needed.)
• Pour in a bit of lime juice with a pinch of salt
• Knead the ingredients together until you get kind of Play-doh like consistency.
• Make small balls from the mixture
• Put a ball between two pieces of wax paper
• Roll the ball out into a flat tortilla
• Remove, set aside and cut the corners if you want it to look perfect
• Continue with the rest of your mixture and just keep making more as you need
• Place your tortillas on a skillet (likely one by one unless yours is big enough for more at a time)
• Keep an eye on them, (they usually only take about 1 minute on each side)
• Flip them and check the texture, you want them to be cooked but not burnt! (You'll see they look toasted with little air pockets forming!)
• Set them aside, and cover them in a towel until you're ready to serve

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What to Fill Them With?

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Well, this is the best part! You fill them with whatever you want! Tofu, beans, mushrooms, veggies, nuts, salad, quinoa... the options are never-ending and it's YOUR party so choose whatever you like!

I marinated some tofu in my homemade fakon seasoning which I will share with you another post because it's a whole post in itself!

I also created an extremely delicious recipe using grains as my "spicy beef" I want to show you guys how to do it so I'll be posting that here soon as well!

I topped my tacos off with mushrooms that I marinated in Bragg's Liquid Aminos over night and then baked the day of. This gives them a delicious flavor that's rich and adds a lot to the meal!

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And there you have it my dears, a perfect fiesta! I can tell you that this was my birthday gift to myself and I was so grateful to me for making it!

I hope you enjoy making your own fiestas!

Sending plant-based love!

Love,
Cece 😘