My third taco recipe of May is a blend of two of my fave recipes: Poblano & Portobello Tacos and TLT Sandwiches. Sundays are typically a very hectic day at my house cramming all the stuff we should have done on Saturday AND Sunday into just Sunday, so I wanted leftovers for Sunday that I could reheat and not have to spend time on din-din.
Enter, the Tempeh, Poblano & Portobello Taco for dinner guests on Saturday. Most of this can be done in advance and kept warm in a 200 degree oven until company arrives. This recipe looks long and drawn out, but it’s mostly done in stages so you don’t even notice it.
Components:
- 3 packages portobello mushrooms, de-stemmed and sliced then roasted
- 4 poblano peppers, roasted, skinned and sliced into strips
- 3 red bell peppers, roasted, skinned and sliced into strips
- 2 boxes grape tomatoes, roasted
- dairy or nondairy cheese
- tortillas of your choice
- dairy or nondairy sour cream
- cubed avocado
- lime wedges
- store-bought salsa (I used Newman’s black bean and corn)
First things first…the prep for the roasted veggies is not difficult, they pretty much do the work for you…it’s magic, but takes time to get that roasty goodness, so plan accordingly. Before you dive in, read below to prepare your dressing for the slaw and your marinade for your tempeh, get those two things started and then get your veggies goin’-you will want your tempeh to marinade for about 30 minutes before you bake it off.
Roasted peppers from a jar or the frozen food section are adequate, but who the hell wants to be knows as the adequate taco maker? Not this chic. Plan ahead and then deny the time it takes to make these the right way like every other reasonably awesome at home chef. Easy peasy. Preheat a grill or your oven to super hot (for the oven we’re talking like 450 and open up the windows just in case). Preheat your oven to 450 and roast the mushrooms and tomatoes indoor while you soak up some vitamin D outside grilling your peppers. Since it’s summer, grill them your peppers, then you won’t have to disable your smoke detectors to get the perfect charred pepper. Take clean, dry peppers and drop them on the grill, wait for smoke and or charring and then turn until every side is burned but yet still moist-ish (yeah, it is a word now). Transfer these little beauties to a bowl, cover in plastic wrap and then wait until they are cool to remove the charring. After this is done, you will be left with succulent, sweet and smokey roasted peppers. Resist eating them all before company arrives. All that goodness and NO oil needed.
Take your washed and dried tomatoes and chopped mushrooms, place on baking sheets in the oven (use the ones with sides to contain the liquid or you will have a fire, and jerky instead of roasted veggies). Spray with a little cooking oil, pop in preheated oven and wait. The tomatoes are done when their skins are bursting. The mushrooms are done with them are still glistening from moisture, not dry like rawhide. Watch those, they will burn and then you have mushroom chips. Gross? Or maybe a new blog post..hmmm.
Tempeh “Meat”
- 2 bricks tempeh (any flavor), steamed and sliced into strips
Marinade
- 6 T extra virgin olive oil
- 1/2 C tamari or soy sauce
- 4 T balsamic vinegar
- 4 T maple syrup or agave
- 6 T chipotle en adobo
Toss all marinade ingredients into a food processor and whirl away. Pour over the top of the tempeh strips that you have nestled into a 9×11 baking dish and let sit for 30 minutes or longer. When your oven roasted veggies are done from above, reduce the oven temp to 350 degrees and slide the tempeh into the oven. Bake until the marinade has become basically a syrup. Watch it though, don’t let it burn. It will look very dark. Reduce oven even further to 200 degrees leave in tempeh, then toss back in the tomatoes and mushrooms to keep them warm until guests arrive.
Honey Cumin Slaw
- 1/2 large green cabbage, shredded (could also use a bag of cole slaw mix)
- 5-8 radishes, grated and patted dry
Combine both items in a large bowl. Just before service, top with dressing below. Serve on top of or along side tacos.
Dressing
- 1/3 C fresh squeezed lime juice
- 1 T vegetable, grapeseed or extra virgin olive oil
- 2 T honey or agave
- 1 tsp cumin
Easiest. Dressing. Ever. Combine items in a Ball jar, give it a good shake and let it sit for 30 minutes before topping slaw above. Serve immediately.
Finally, assemble tacos with your choice of tortilla (I prefer corn), roasted peppers, mushrooms, tomatoes, tempeh, dairy or nondairy cheese, avocado, dairy or nondairy sour cream, salsa, slaw, squirt of lime and prepare for leftovers.
From this recipe, I was able to get dinner on Saturday night for four, TLT’s from the leftovers with the help of some bread from the freezer toasted for two for Sunday night dinner, two lunches of black bean/mango bowls on Monday, and finally…dinner on Monday night for two, roasted veggie quesadillas. Not bad for a bunch of simple ingredients, a little prep work, and some help from the freezer.
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