Vegan Taco Night

Happy Monday ya'll!  I have an amazing taco-filling recipe for you today, as well as lots of tales of kitchen fails.  Cooking (especially vegan cooking) is a learning process... one that I'm obviously still going through.

Last week Jana and DeAnna came over for dinner and I was excited to use one of my vegan cookbooks to put together a fun meal.  I chose a Mexican theme because for some reason I think Mexican food always sounds delicious when it's this hot.  Maybe I just think margaritas sound delicious when it's this hot.

All of my dinner recipes came from Veganomicon, which I could just sit and read for hours.  This is actually the first time I've prepared anything though.  For the taco filling, I prepared their recipe for Black Beans in Chipotle Adobo Sauce.  It was a very easy recipe... if you actually followed the recipe.

I skimmed through and only after I'd added an entire chopped onion to my saucepan with all of my black beans and water did I read the line that said "Remove the onion before serving."  What???  How am I supposed to remove an entire chopped onion from a pan of beans??? 

Oh.  I wasn't supposed to chop the onion.  My bad.

So I ended up rushing to Hen House for more black beans and another onion.  One which I would not chop.  The thing is... Hen House has the dumbest set up in the entire world of grocery stores.  I hate going there because it doesn't make sense!!!  I searched all over that GD store and finally found the black beans... and they weren't even the kind I like.  I do not like you Hen House. 

Anyways... despite the set back, I was able to serve up some tasty black bean tacos with a side of Mexican Millet.  Fun fact:  millet is a grain that is often used for bird seed.  But people like it too.

Black Bean Tacos & Meximillet.

Our fiesta dinner also included home-made salsa and white sangria.  Que yum!

Ole!

That's a vegan with a happy plate.

How do you say "nom nom nom" in Spanish?

However successful dinner was, dessert was the opposite.  The authors of Veganomicon also have a sweet little book called Vegan Pie in the Sky which is loaded with yummy looking recipes and encouraging words about how easy vegan baking is. 

The book is a liar.

Vegan pie slop.

I went for the key lime pie because earlier this year I tried out a non-vegan key lime pie on these ladies because I wanted to test it out for class.  I figured I owed them a vegan version. 

Vegan Pie Essentials.

Traditional key lime pie is made using gelatin AKA pig cartilage.  Not very vegan friendly.  Vegan pie subs in agar-agar powder, which is made from seaweed and {supposedly} has similar gelling properties. 

You have to go to an Asian market to purchase it.  Let's all take a minute to visualize how much fun Drew had when I dragged him into the Asian market.
 

Gel-icious.

So, I don't really know where I went wrong, but the pie did not set up.  Like, it was straight key-lime soup.  Jana was super sweet and told me to call it deconstructed key lime pie.  So I will.

Deconstructed pie.  I totally did this on purpose.

The girls were also nice enough to eat the pie soup in bowls with spoons.  D even said that if it had worked it might be the best key lime pie she'd ever had.  The smirk on her face makes me think she's lying.

No really... it's good!  I swear!

Mmm... soup!

Well... besides the pie soup, I'd like to think the night was successful.  It's pretty hard to screw up a night with the three of us and a pitcher of sangria!

If you're looking for a yummy alternative to the stand-by ground beef taco filling, give these black beans a try.  Just make sure you read the whole recipe or you may end up ripping your hair out at Hen House.  FYI: they keep their black beans on the bottom shelf of the Mexican section, away from all the other beans.  Makes perfect sense.

Black Beans in Chipotle Adobo Sauce

Ingredients for the beans:

• 2 (15 oz.) cans black beans, drained & rinsed
• 1 bay leaf
• 3 cups cold water
• 1 large onion, peeled & halved {DO NOT CHOP}
• Salt & Pepper

Ingredients for the sauce:

• 1 large onion, diced
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 3 Tablespoons olive oil
• 2 chipotle peppers in adobo, minced
• 2 Tablespoons adobo sauce from the chipotles

Method:

1. Combine the beans, onion {DO NOT CHOP}, bay leaf, and water in a large sauce pan.  Bring to a boil for 1 minute. 
2. Lower heat to medium and simmer, uncovered for 40 minutes.
3. Remove the onion and bay leaf before serving.
4. Prepare the sauce while the beans are cooking.  In a skillet over medium heat, saute the onion and garlic in olive oil about 10 minutes.  Stir in the chipotles and adobo sauce and cook for 30 seconds.
5. Remove from heat and allow to cool for a few minutes.  Empty the sauce into a food processor bowl* and briefly pulse until a chunky sauce forms.
6. Mix sauce into beans and serve with taco shells and all the fixin's.  Enjoy!

Happy {meatless} Monday!

*How did I ever survive without a food processor?!?