Over the holidays, I went on a bit of a Netflix food
documentary binge, which started with renting Fed Up. This is an excellent
movie, and I totally recommend it for anyone who is interested in the way we
eat, particularly if processed food is something you want to know more about.
From there, I ended up watching about six more documentaries, including Vegucated, GMO OMG, and Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead. By
the end of it, I was ready to declare a crusade against sugar.
But since it is a new year, and the time is ripe for
resolutions, I did start thinking about our relationship with eating animals. I
mean, I’m not a full vegan or anything yet, I ate ostrich carpaccio on Friday
night, but I do think that we’ve certainly pushed the limits with meat. We’re
talking about a society in which bacon is its own cultural touchstone here,
people. The excess is now. We’ve put a whole new meaning to “worshipping the
flesh”.
I’m not going to give you stats about health and
meat-eating, watch one of those documentaries if you want to learn more, and
I’m certainly not going to get preachy and post animal torture videos, but I do
want to urge you to think about how we consume meat, and at least consider that
we are eating an animal. That may or
may not have had a nice life, depending on where you bought it, but it was a
thing that was once alive, and now you’re eating it. So eat it, it’s cool, but
let’s just give it more than a second’s pause to think about what we’re doing.
This is difficult, I get it. I still want to eat meat, and I
still want to enjoy it, which after watching all the animal torture videos I
did makes me think I may have an attachment disorder, but anyway. But I have
decided that eating less meat, and really valuing the meat I do eat, is a step
in the right direction. (I may able to separate my meat love from animal
torture videos because PETA’s history
with women is just so awful.) So in the spirit of less meat, more veg, I made
vegan tacos! Yay! They actually turned out pretty fine, so try them and let me
know what you think.
Start with some firm tofu, and crumble it. In a hot pan,
sauté some onions in oil. Add some cumin, coriander, chilli powder, salt and
pepper. I also had some mesquite powder, so I added that. Don’t be shy, because
we are seasoning tofu. And, by the way, it will be similar to beef, and it will
be nice in that sense, but it isn’t beef, so keep your expectations reasonable,
mmmkay?
Great. Now add your tofu, and brown the edges in the pan
with the spices and onion. Give it a taste and add more seasoning if you need
to. You could just use taco seasoning here, but after watching Fed Up, I’m
extremely wary of pre-packaged anything. So making your own taco seasoning is
delicious and easy, and far healthier. Good for you! Think about the
Insta-hashtags you can use when you post it! #Instahealthy #InstaVegan
#InstaSuperior! Add a bit of water to the pan and let it simmer while you get
your toppings organized. Obviously you want an avocado in there, plus tomatoes,
lettuce, and maybe a jalapeno or two!
Now, the other great part of this is your vegan sour cream!
Tacos need sour cream right? Well the healthy bitches over at “Oh
She Glows” came up with a cashew sour cream for us to use. This is
extremely easy; you just soak raw cashews over night, and then blend with lime
juice, apple cider vinegar, and some water. It’s not EXACTLY sour cream, but it
is creamy and it is sour, and so there you go. Close enough.
I actually ate this as a taco salad, rather than in shells,
but just treat the tofu like beef or chicken, and load up or shells or soft
tacos or greens! Bonus- without a shell, it’s gluten-free too!
