This is more a concept than true recipe, because like most things I don’t pay much attention to quantities or amounts when cooking, I go by “eyeballing” things. I add some meatless meat, some tomatoes, black beans, stir and…. hmmmm a little dry? Add more tomatoes… then some Taco seasoning… and then hope and pray things turn out nice 😉 This is the reason Bob always jokes about my following a recipe, because he’s right, I don’t. So lettuce wrapped black bean tacos ‘recipe’ coming up:
Black Bean Meatless Lettuce Wrapped Tacos
Serves 2
- 2 serving portion of Trader Joes meatless crumbles (optional)
- 1 cup black beans
- 1 cup canned tomatoes
- 2 cups Rice (precooked day before and reheated)
- Lots of BIG lettuce leaves
- Guacamole
- Trader Joes vegan mozzarella
- Trader Joes Taco Seasoning
- Tapatio
- (optional vegan sour cream – couldn’t find any locally and couldn’t be bothered to drive to get some)
First you’re going to make the ‘mince’ above. That entails throwing the meatless crumbles, black beans, taco seasoning and tomatoes into a pan and heating them through. I will add that I blend the tomatoes a little as Bob hates chunks of tomato in his tacos. Yes I know, I’m the queen of cooking here 😉 Seriously though this is super easy! The great thing about being vegan is cooking, it’s way easier. The crumbles are soy, so just throw this stuff together in a pan and cook it for a few minutes. While it’s cooking prep the rest of your meal.
Prepping the rest of the meal means reheating the rice for 2 minutes in the microwave (tip: add a few tablespoons of water to prevent it drying out), then getting the lettuce leaves cut and washed. Honestly Bob has his in tortillas but I prefer the lettuce wraps. I get the guacamole out of the fridge and then do the one piece of measuring the whole meal: putting the cheese into small dishes so we only have ONE portion. Otherwise that stuff is GONE in two meals. When your plate is prepped with lettuce, rice, guacamole and cheese bowl, then it’s time to add a little tapatio to the black bean mix and serve it. Then the magic happens!
Grab a lettuce ‘boat’ and put a little of the rice, black bean mix, and guacamole in it, top with a sprinkle of the vegan cheese, wrap it into a little bundle then shove it in your face 🙂 You’re gonna get messy, and that’s ok! I’ve also made these without the meatless crumbles and it’s just as nice, you just need a few more beans IMO, though you could use different types of beans. I also like to smush some in the pan to give it more of a thicker consistency.
Honestly these are delicious and one of the few times I eat Iceberg lettuce. So if I get iceberg lettuce from the farm you know I’m making lettuce wrap tacos! The iceberg lettuce from the farm is the BOMB! Seriously good! No chemical taste that you get from the crap in stores. So there you have it, lettuce wrapped meatfree tacos – Simple but delicious!
Are you meat free on Mondays?