Hello friends! Sorry I’ve been MIA for the last several days. Turns out, wedding our haste to flee to Chicago with a pragmatic zeal for unplugging appliances meant we accidentally unplugged our router–oops!I had hoped to blog my food adventures from the windy city, but that inability means I’m just gonna have to catch up now, from Richmond. Le sigh.
Relatedly, tonight marked a glum return to cooking for myself. After spoiling ourselves with Chicago Diner, vegan marshmallows, an Indian buffet, plenty of stuff from the vegan+macrobiotic bar at Whole Foods, and not to mention the fact of other people cooking, serving, and cleaning up, I sought the most fuss-free dinner imaginable. To be completely honest, this was only after resisting cooking anything for about 2 hours. Yeah, I whined.
But it is wonderful to be able to eat, to have full pantries from which to cook, to own all the tools necessary for the job, and to have the energy and ability to make something tasty. Noting these blessings (albeit a bit grudgingly), I settled on tacos. They may be embarrassingly easy to make (see below), but they’re special in their own way: tacos are one of the first main courses I learned to make vegan.
The year was 2002 and I sought something to serve to my then-major-meat-eating BF. Using the Boca crumbles, a dash of spice, and the ability to lie well, I totally passed em off on him. Not only that, but I taught my best friend (a very lovely, very Southern lady called Jessica) how to play the same trick on her flesh-loving country husband. Veg evangelism, I tell ya what.
For those who are interested in spreading the good news: Reconstitute some veggie beef crumbles (these days I use the dry stuff from Dixie Diner) in boiling water with vegan bouillon. Saute an onion in oil with garlic and whatever seasonings one prefers. Add the veg*meat and cook. Add more seasonings. Stuff taco shells, bake at 350-400 for a few minutes, serve.
They’re not fancy, complex, or even all that attractive, but tacos get the job done.
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