Mushroom Pate with fresh-baked bread
Vegetable Spring Rolls with spicy peanut sauce
BBQ Seitan on a stick
Chocolate Fondue with various fruits
Cashew “Cheese”cake with cherries
Dates with chorizo, herbed “cheese” (nut-based), eggplant bacon, and tomato sauce

This’ll be a really nice setup and with only 25 people, nothing to stress about.  The dates are a recipe I’ve been wanting to veganize for years but haven’t experimented with yet.

I’m off for a long walk.  I ate a huge vegan cookie from the Alternative Baking Company.  If you haven’t tried these, you are seriously missing out!

It’s also a great way to get your family to hate you, at least at mealtime.  So, when invited to a “Mexican” (actually Tex-Mex*) meal with the family last night, I gladly accepted, but I quickly said I would bring some food for myself and enough to share.  So what better way to freak everyone else than to bring raw vegan tacos?  I guess I could’ve talked about wanting a bigger motorcycle, getting a new tattoo, and trying to leave the country.  Oh wait.  I did that too.

Mexican Cuisine is one of my favorites.  Certain ingredients come to mind:
Chilies: dried and fresh, which are best combined with completely different ingredients.  I think dried has a more intense flavor and fresh does better with other fresh foods.  There is a huge variety too, which means different levels of heat and different flavors.  I love chilies.
Corn
Lime
Avocados
Cumin
Epazote: An herb.
Cilantro
Garlic
Peppers
Tomatoes
Rice
Beans
Chocolate
Cinnamon
Vanilla

I suggest printing this list and titling it “Chelsarrr’s Favorite Things”.  This way, when my birthday comes around, you’ll know exactly what I want.

RAW TACOS
Obtain this stuff:

Cabbage, Butternut Squash, onion, garlic, limes, tomatoes, and cilantro

You’re also going to want fresh cumin seeds, paprika, salt, and coriander.  Coriander, by the way, is the seed of cilantro.  Cool!

This is how I peel my squash, but you can totally use a peeler.

Let’s start with the Butternut Squash and Brazil Nut Taco Filling.  Grab your squash.  Kiss him, tell him you love him, then cut peel, cube, and remove the edible seeds.  Roast those suckers with some tamari and cayenne and you’ve got a delicious snack!

I have a thing for kitchen appliances, but my blender is by far my favorite.

Pulse it.  If you really love nuts, you can omit the butternut squash and just use the nuts as your taco meat.  Adding the squash adds texture, color, more water and fiber than nuts alone, and helps me eat less calories overall than if I ate the same volume of nut meat.  Eat whatever works for you though!

This is the texture I like.

Pulse your nuts. Heh.Do the same thing with the brazil nuts. You could use walnuts, sunflower seeds, cashews any nut you like.

Put your pulsed nuts in a bowl with the squash (hehe).

Next, let’s grind come cumin seeds!  As a complete and total food snob, you have the joy of saying things like, “the secret?  I grind the cumin seeds with a mortar and pestle.”

I could use a coffee grinder, but just look how badass and energy efficient this is!

This is not ground. NO CHEATING.

There we go!

Combine the squash, nuts, cumin, some coriander, and some salty thing (NaCl, Bragg’s Liquid Aminos, Tarmari, Soy Sauce, dulse flakes even).  If you want heat, add some cayenne or similar.  coriander is the seed of cilantro, but with a very different taste.

Mix it all together and:you have a taco filling fit for a raw vegan.

You can remove the leaves from the stems of cilantro quickly with a fork. You're welcome!

The taco filling is pretty much boring without pico de gallo and guacamole.

For the guac: cut open, remove the seed, and scrape out the flesh of two perfectly ripe avocados.  Mash them with a fork or whisk.  Add juice from half a lemon and one lime.  More or less, depending on your tastes.  Add some salt (Hawai’i red is my favorite, but any will do) and some minced cilantro.  Eat all of it so you don’t have to worry about it turning brown.

Pico de Gallo is versatile and delicious.  Dice tomato, onion, and a fresh chili of your choosing if you like it hot.  Mince some garlic and cilantro.  Add some lime juice and salt of course.  It really all becomes better then next day.

Use cabbage leaves as your taco shell, the squash/nut filling, pico, guac, and hot sauce and damn it…that’s it.  Now I’m hungry.

So anyway, I took this to my family gathering.  The filling was a surprising hit on several peoples’ nachos.  My dad actually tried the whole shebang and said he liked it.  This is actually really similar to a recipe I made for a chef I used to work for.  He was shocked and surprised that he actually liked it, as he’d only tried it at first to make fun of it.

My favorite part about this meal is the taco salad I made the next day with the cabbage, guac, and pico, plus spicy tempeh taco filling, refried beans, and carrot nacho cheese!