{"id":468,"date":"2020-05-14T10:06:51","date_gmt":"2020-05-14T10:06:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/new.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu\/europe\/?p=468"},"modified":"2020-07-12T11:32:28","modified_gmt":"2020-07-12T11:32:28","slug":"vegetarian-tacos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu\/europe\/2020\/05\/14\/vegetarian-tacos\/","title":{"rendered":"Deconstructed Vegetarian Tacos"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Name: Courtney Hopf<br \/>\nClass Year: 2001<br \/>\nCountry of Residence: England<\/p>\n<h5>Why is this recipe great? What\u2019s its backstory?&nbsp;<\/h5>\n<p>This recipe was born out of a craving for the (completely inauthentic) tacos I ate as a kid and the general dearth of Mexican flavours to be found in the UK.&nbsp; A few years into my life abroad I found myself desperately wanting an Upstate-NY-backyard-birthday-party taco and discovered I could get Old El Paso taco seasoning mix in my local supermarket.&nbsp; I have always found crunchy tacos messy and annoying to eat, though, so I decided to turn it into a salad, with the added bonus being I could ramp up the lettuce and tomato content and pretend I was being healthy.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Over the years I have tweaked it to make it vegetarian (though it still works great with minced beef if you prefer that!) and pumped up the flavours with extra chili, onion and garlic.&nbsp; So yes, it\u2019s tacky as hell, and you are basically using broken up tortilla chips as salad croutons. But that\u2019s what makes it so satisfying.<\/p>\n<h5>Deconstructed Vegetarian Tacos<\/h5>\n<p><em>Serves 3. Takes approx. 30&nbsp; minutes<\/em><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">Ingredients:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>1-2 tbsp olive oil<\/li>\n<li>\u00bd large yellow onion, chopped<\/li>\n<li>1 small chili, minced<\/li>\n<li>2 cloves garlic, minced or crushed<\/li>\n<li>2\/3 cup water<\/li>\n<li>1 packet Old El Paso original taco seasoning<\/li>\n<li>1 400g tin black beans, drained and rinsed<\/li>\n<li>1 400g tin beluga, puy or brown lentils, drained and rinsed<\/li>\n<li>200g tomatoes, diced<\/li>\n<li>1 small head of iceberg lettuce, roughly chopped<\/li>\n<li>80g cheddar, grated<\/li>\n<li>1 bag salted tortilla chips<\/li>\n<li>Salsa, to taste<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">Instructions:<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Heat olive oil on a medium-low flame in a large saut\u00e9 or frying pan with high sides and add the chili. Roll it around for a minute to season the oil, then add the garlic and cook for 1 minute or until fragrant.&nbsp; Add the onions and cook until softened, stirring occasionally, about five minutes.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Add the lentils and black beans and get everything mixed together, then add the packet of seasoning mix and 2\/3 cup water (as per instructions on the packet).&nbsp; Stir to coat.<\/p>\n<p>Turn the flame to low and while the bean and lentil mixture reduces chop up your tomatoes and lettuce and shred the cheddar.<\/p>\n<p>To assemble the salad, divide the lettuce into four bowls and add a large handful of tortilla chips to each.&nbsp; I like to break up the chips with my hands and toss together with the lettuce.&nbsp; Put a large scoop of the bean and lentil mixture in the middle and top with cheese so it can melt.&nbsp; Scatter tomatoes and top off with dollops of salsa and\/or sour cream if desired.<\/p>\n<p>NB:&nbsp; If you cooking for two instead of four, halve the lettuce, tomatoes and cheese and save half of the cooked bean and lentil mixture for another salad the next day; it keeps perfectly.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-470\" src=\"http:\/\/new.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu\/europe\/files\/2020\/05\/Courtney-Hopf-2--1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"Vegetarian Tacos Cooking\" width=\"604\" height=\"453\" srcset=\"https:\/\/new.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu\/europe\/files\/2020\/05\/Courtney-Hopf-2--1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/new.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu\/europe\/files\/2020\/05\/Courtney-Hopf-2--300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/new.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu\/europe\/files\/2020\/05\/Courtney-Hopf-2--768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/new.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu\/europe\/files\/2020\/05\/Courtney-Hopf-2--31x23.jpg 31w, https:\/\/new.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu\/europe\/files\/2020\/05\/Courtney-Hopf-2-.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 604px) 100vw, 604px\" \/> <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-469\" src=\"http:\/\/new.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu\/europe\/files\/2020\/05\/Courtney-Hopf--1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"Vegetarian Tacos\" width=\"604\" height=\"453\" srcset=\"https:\/\/new.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu\/europe\/files\/2020\/05\/Courtney-Hopf--1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/new.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu\/europe\/files\/2020\/05\/Courtney-Hopf--300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/new.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu\/europe\/files\/2020\/05\/Courtney-Hopf--768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/new.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu\/europe\/files\/2020\/05\/Courtney-Hopf--31x23.jpg 31w, https:\/\/new.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu\/europe\/files\/2020\/05\/Courtney-Hopf-.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 604px) 100vw, 604px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">Source:<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Own invention<\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Name: Courtney Hopf Class Year: 2001 Country of Residence: England Why is this recipe great? What\u2019s its backstory?&nbsp; This recipe was born out of a craving for the (completely inauthentic) &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/new.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu\/europe\/2020\/05\/14\/vegetarian-tacos\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Deconstructed Vegetarian Tacos<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":243,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[33046],"tags":[33259,185,355,33175,4285],"class_list":["post-468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-home-cooking","tag-mains","tag-mexican","tag-salad","tag-tacos","tag-vegetarian"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/243"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=468"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}