Thursday, May 5, 2011

Big Fat Taco Salad

Big Fat Taco Salad, page 22


Feliz Cinco de Mayo! I hope yours was much more exciting than mine; I spent the day on the go around town yet again, getting home just in time to make dinner. Is this week over yet?

I started with making my own oven-baked tortilla chips, like these, because I needed to use up some corn tortillas getting stale in the refrigerator. Easy enough.

Then I made the Fresh Tomato Salsa Dressing. Since I was going to need the food processor for the Guacamame, I went ahead and used it with plenty of pulse action to make the salsa dressing as well. Also easy. As this recipe uses red wine vinegar for the sour and cayenne hot sauce for the spicy, it is a pretty good recipe to keep around for an easy salsa when my kitchen is lacking fresh limes and fresh serranos.

After washing and chopping the romaine lettuce, I started on the Guacamame. This is the part I was particularly curious about; I adore guacamole, especially El Hombre's, so I wasn't sure how we were going to feel about a version made with basically about half avocado and half pureed edamame. We were pleasantly surprised! There was enough avocado to keep the flavor and consistency about right, while the edamame cut down on the fat while boosting the protein. And it was also easy. A win! The only thing I would do differently next time is in the technique: instead of using the pulse mode on the food processor to get the onion and tomatoes chopped up, I think I'd rather chop those ingredients finely by hand and just fold them into the avocado-edamame mixture. Pulsing with the food processor seemed to make the otherwise lovely green color get a bit muddy.

6 comments:

Belle Dee said...

I LOVE the Guacamame! I love Guacamole, so I had to try that recipe right away. I wasn't sure if I'd like it, but had to give it a go. I thought it was fantastic!

Sophia said...

I made the Guacamame a few months ago for m Plant Strong Superbowl Party. I was so excited about the potential of it, but I thought that as a substitute for real guac, it was a difficult sell. Now as a "dressing" as part of a salad--that's a great use for it. Just don't try to fool anyone that this is guacamole! And I agree--much better to chop the tomatoes and onions and then fold them in.

Shannon Drury said...

Ok, I'm hungry.

Laura said...

I just made this too and I agree that the Guacamame wouldn't be fantastic by itself... mine was too chunky, even with a Vitamix. Next time I am going to try cooking the edamame first.

Great chips! Great picture!

Julie Ann said...

Hmmm. I actually munched on some of the Guacamame with a few chips while I was making dinner, and I enjoyed it as a dip, apart from the salad. I used edamame that comes in one of those microwave steamable bags, that I had microwaved for about 5 minutes. And, I forgot to mention that I also pureed the edamame to smithereens in the food processor with the water and lime juice, before adding the avocado... mine didn't seem too chunky to me, so maybe that helped? I don't know.

Veggie Love'n Mom said...

Looks fantastic! I am going to make it on our Mexican night.