Thursday, December 29, 2011

Tap, tap, tap....

Is there anyone still out there? I can't believe it has been 4 months since I posted anything here! So much has happened since I posted last! I joined the SDSU Marching Aztecs as an alumni and played cymbals in the drumline for the last 4 months. It was a crazy busy time at work as well which lead to my not cooking very much. I relied on a whole lot of farmer's market tamales, canned soups, boca burgers and a ton of granola bars. Now that the marching season is over though I am slowly getting myself back in the kitchen but still haven't made it back to many whole foods. Case in point; tonight's post.

Vegan California Burrito

If you've never been to San Diego you may have never heard of this wonderful creation. In my high school days this was a staple of my diet. A couple of friends recently reminded me of it and it made me want to create a vegan version. The staples of a California burrito are:

Carne Asada
Guacamole
French Fries

In addition, they usually include cheese and tomatoes and can sometimes have sour cream.

Here's what I started with:
 
  • Alexia salt & pepper crinkle fries
  •  Daiya cheddar style shreds
  •  Smart Strips chick'n style
  •  Guacamole (I generally would make this myself but this guac is made by a little    start up company run by a guy I used to work with so I thought I'd go with that)
  •  Roma tomato
  •  Tortillas (disclaimer: I love La Fe tortillas and they do make vegan versions that I buy and eat most of the time, but the burrito tortillas unfortunately have whey...but I let it slide when I really want a burrito)

While the oven preheated for the fries, I marinated the chick'n strips in some bragg's liquid aminos to hopefully turn them into more of a carne asada than a pollo asada.


Once the oven was preheated, I cooked the fries. When they were done I put the tortilla on the hot pan to soften it and I added the cheese in hopes it would melt but the tortilla was soft before it had a chance.

While the fries were cooking I heated the carne asada in my tiny cast iron skillet (I wish I had a picture of that...oops. Rusty I guess). It browned up quite nicely and looked quite a bit like carne asada.


Next I added the fries, carne asada and tomatoes to the tortilla and cheese.


Finally I topped the whole thing off with guacamole.


Rolled the thing up, took a bite and died and went to heaven. This may have been one of the greatest things I have ever veganized. Try it. I dare you not to! Only, make sure you ran 5 miles at the gym before you got home so that you do not feel one ounce of guilt for the ungodly amount of calories that is probably in this thing.

I hope you all enjoyed my first post in a long time. No guarantees that I'm back regularly but as inspiration strikes it's nice to have an outlet!

7 comments:

  1. I had Daiya not to long ago. It's a pretty darn good fake.

    I got some masa harina a while back to make fresh tortillas. I don't get to have tamales very often since I can't find veg/vegan ones out anywhere. I might have to make a batch for New Years. Yum!

    Happy (almost) New Year!

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  2. Hi Beti,
    I'm pretty fond of Daiya in most things. I think it is a pretty great cheese alternative. One of the farmer's market in San Diego sells almost 10 different kinds of vegan tamales! I have some pumpkin ones in my freezer I am so excited to try. I know some people who make tamales every year for Christmas. I hear it's a pretty good group activity if you can find the people. Good luck if you make them and Happy New Year to you too!

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  4. oops, accidently deleted my above comment. that looks yummy! but now i want a burrito...

    happy new years!

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  5. Thanks for reading and I hope you you got a burrito and have a happy new years too!

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  6. There are some door-to-door tamale sellers in San Diego who say that there are no animal products in the tamales (assuming you special order "veggie" or you choose the pineapple.) However, I think I should have asked in Spanish since I knew the word for lard (manteca).

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  7. There are some door-to-door tamale sellers in San Diego who say that there are no animal products in the tamales (assuming you special order "veggie" or you choose the pineapple.) However, I think I should have asked in Spanish since I knew the word for lard (manteca).

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