Healthy vegetarian tacos without cheese! Wait, what? How? Lightly pickled red onions, cilantro garlic yogurt sauce, creamy avocado, and crunchy roasted chickpeas with caramelized cauliflower guarantee these tacos have a lot of texture and flavor without tons of fat and calories. These are extra-approved by my husband! He was thrilled with them. We’ll definitely be making these again soon!
This recipe was passed along to me from my friend and colleague, who was so adorably excited about the healthy tacos she made from a Plated.com recipe that she shared the recipe with a few of us at work. I wish I could link directly to the recipe, but I can only link to Plated’s home page since I’m not a member. Plated is a weekly delivery service for ingredients and recipes, including everything you need to make their recipes at home. I made a few modifications to their basic recipe, including bumping up the spices and adding smoked paprika, as well as including fresh cilantro and garlic in the yogurt sauce. You could easily make these vegan by skipping or substituting another sauce for the yogurt sauce, and they are gluten-free if you make sure to use gluten-free corn tortillas (which I think they naturally are, but I’m no expert).
- FOR TACO FILLING:
- ½ head cauliflower, trimmed and divided into bite-sized florets
- 1 15-oz can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
- 1 T. olive oil
- ½ tsp each: ground cumin, chili powder, dried oregano, smoked paprika (optional but adds a nice smoky touch)
- Sea salt & freshly ground pepper to taste
- FOR PICKLED RED ONIONS:
- 1 T. sugar
- ½ c. red wine or sherry vinegar
- ½ red onion, halved and thinly sliced (I used a mandoline)
- FOR AVOCADO:
- Avocado
- Juice of ½ lime (you'll use the rest of the lime for the yogurt sauce)
- FOR YOGURT SAUCE:
- 1 c. low-fat Greek yogurt
- Juice of ½ lime
- 1 clove garlic, pressed
- ¼ tsp. sugar or agave syrup, more or less to taste (this cuts down on the tartness of the yogurt and lime)
- ¼ c. chopped fresh cilantro
- Sea salt & freshly ground pepper to taste
- TO ASSEMBLE:
- 2-3 oz. shredded red cabbage or any kind of greens
- 6-8 corn tortillas
- To make the taco filling: Preheat oven to 425 F. Cover a baking sheet with aluminum foil (optional, but helps make cleanup easy). On the baking sheet, toss cauliflower and chickpeas with 1 T. olive oil, the seasonings (cumin, chili powder, oregano, and smoked paprika), and salt and pepper to taste. Arrange in a single layer and roast for 20 minutes. Wrap your corn tortillas in some aluminum foil and stick them in the oven for the last 5 minutes to warm them up.
- To make the pickled onion: Mix the 1 T. sugar and a pinch of salt with the red wine or sherry vinegar. Add your thinly sliced red onion and let pickle while the veggies roast. Drain before using.
- To prep the avocado: Peel, pit, and slice the avocado. Toss with juice of ½ lime.
- To make the cilantro garlic yogurt sauce: Mix together yogurt, juice of ½ lime, garlic, cilantro, sugar or agave nectar to taste, and salt & pepper to taste. No really, taste it! It's pretty tart without the sugar or agave nectar, so make sure you're satisfied. Adjust seasonings as needed.
- To assemble: Make your tacos by filling each corn tortilla with some roasted veg, pickled onions, avocado, and yogurt sauce. Ours made 6 full tacos but you could probably make them smaller and fill 8. Enjoy!!
