In our experience, vegetarian tacos can sometimes be kind of blah if people get lazy with veggie tacos fillings. Too often it’s just a pile of steamed or lightly sautéed vegetables piled inside a taco, with no regard for seasoning or what flavors actually make sense in Mexican food. So we were delighted to come across this recipe in the New York Times: it uses not just any mushroom, but oyster mushrooms, which are great because their thin and small shape makes them crisp up nicely rather than become too thick and rubbery. As a fun bonus, these tacos are also vegan, so they get all their flavor from a great veggie combination instead of relying on cheese or other dairy products. When we decided to adapt this recipe, we sourced our mushrooms from Bulich Mushroom Farm in the Hudson Valley – they set up a stand at farmers markets in New York, so we were lucky to be able to find some fresh, local oyster mushroom pods to use in these tacos. We really recommend using this variety of mushroom to get the nice taste and crunch that make these tacos so good.
To make them, you’ll need:
- An avocado
- A large tomato
- Cilantro
- 2 jalapeños
- A lime
- A pound of oyster mushrooms
- Vegetable oil
- Cumin
- A 10-pack of corn tortillas
- Mexican hot sauce – we used Cholula Sweet Habanero
You can first make the pico de gallo for these tacos: core and cut up your tomato into small pieces, chop up your avocado and jalapeños, and pluck off 1/2 cup of cilantro leaves. Combine these all together in a bowl and set aside while you make the tacos.
Now tear your oyster mushrooms into bite-sized pieces and warm 3 tablespoons of oil in a large pan over medium-high heat. Place half the mushrooms in without overlapping and let them cook, moving them around every so often, for 15 minutes, until they’re browned and crisp.
Take this batch out and add in the rest of the mushrooms to cook in the same way.
Once the second set of mushrooms is cooked, place the first batch back into the pan and mix everything with salt, pepper, and 1/4 teaspoon of cumin. Then warm your tortillas a little in a microwave and start piling them with some mushrooms, then some pico on top, and finally add in some hot sauce over everything – and there’s your tacos!
These tacos were pretty easy, but more than that they used mushrooms well as a meatless, vegan filling. This wasn’t a case of just throwing some undercooked mushrooms inside a tortilla and calling it a day – instead, you cook these small, curly mushrooms well until they get soft and a little crispy, then mix them with some spices, and what you get is a nice meat substitute that pairs well with the tomato-avocado-jalapeño topping. These are so good that you won’t even remember that there’s no cheese or crema in them. So if you’ve been disappointed in the past with vegetarian and vegan tacos, put that all behind you because this version satisfies your taco cravings with some great and interesting ingredients.