I keep meaning to veganize some Pennsylvania Dutch recipes, because it’s pretty much the least vegan-friendly food out there, but instead I’m finding myself cooking Mexican food. I’ve got one parent who grew up in Pennsylvania around PA Dutch cooking and all, and the other grew up in Tucson, Arizona eating lots of Mexican food. I love Mexican-style food, but not so much the authentic stuff… when I actually visited Mexico I couldn’t really find any food that I liked (and that was pregan, even).
So here is one of my favorite quick gringa Mexican dishes, recipe courtesy of Kittee (who is also the wonderful person who did most of the organizing for VeganMoFo! Go Kittee!). They’re no-queso quesadillas, made with a cheezy nooch (nutritional yeast) sauce. If I’m looking for something quick and junk food-y to eat, I’ll make this. The recipe can be found here.
I had some cilantro that needed to be used up, so I made a cilantro sauce to go on top. I just threw cilantro, olive oil, lime juice, and garlic in the food processor until I reached some sort of thick sauce-like consistency, and spooned it on top of the quesadillas. I could hardly taste the cilantro though, because I put too much garlic in so the garlic flavour overpowered everything else!
My other Mexican go-to meal is veggie fajitas. Like I said yesterday, I like to go to Fiesta Ole for some good ones, but yesterday I didn’t know what to make and my mom had bought this really pretty colourful pepper so I decided to use it in fajitas.
Basically, I just sautee onions, garlic, and red pepper (or in this case orange/green) in olive oil, then add some spices (cayenne, chili powder, cumin, oregano) and maybe some lime juice and/or hot sauce. If I’ve planned ahead I’ll also have a jalapeno to add some extra southwest spice, but this time I didn’t. Mushrooms are also good in fajitas. Then just serve on a plate with some tortillas. Optimally, again, I would’ve had an avocado or two with which to make guacamole, but I was out (I bought some today though, so all is well again in my kitchen!).
Muy bonita, ¿no?
