Mexican Independence Day is FRIDAY, 9/15. What better way than to cook up some great Mexican food via these authentic vegan recipes! Here are recipes courtesy of the Food Empowerment Project and the relaunched VeganMexicanFood.com. This site and the Food Empowerment Project provided these recipes for some amazingly tasty and authentic foods. Some will take a while to prepare, others won’t take so long! (Cocktails will be a separate post!)
VeganMexicanFood.com relaunched today with a fresh new look and expanded recipes to showcase Mexican dishes without animal ingredients – proving it’s possible to eat vegan and still enjoy the tastes of Mexican cuisine. Recipes include entrees, salsas, sides, drinks, and desserts.
A project of Food Empowerment Project, a food justice organization founded in 2007 by Chicanx and longtime vegan activist lauren Ornelas, Vegan Mexican Food is a user-friendly resource – in English and Spanish – for vegan foodies, the Latinx community, and those who are ready to progress beyond “taco Tuesdays.” Vegan Mexican Food offers popular comfort foods as well as new twists for modern eaters.
Many Mexican dishes are already vegan, such as nopales and salsa, and others are easy to veganize, like posole and tamales. With simple substitutions, those that typically contain animal ingredients can be made healthier and more humane without sacrificing taste or tradition.
Before colonization by Europeans, traditional foods in what is now known as the Americas included a bounty of fruits and vegetables like corn, squashes, beans, tomatoes, and cacao. Spanish and British colonizers brought farmed animals for their flesh and milk, forever changing the diets of the Indigenous peoples throughout the region. This may explain why today, Indigenous, Chicanx, and Latinx peoples are particularly prone to digestive upset from animal milk. What is considered “lactose intolerance” could be called “lactose normal” in Chicanx and Latinx communities, since it is neither natural nor ancestral to consume milk from non-human animal species.
“We updated VeganMexicanFood.com to appeal to a new eater – be they Latinx, vegan, both, or neither – who wants to make more ethical choices,” said Ornelas, executive director of Food Empowerment Project. “Food is a powerful agent of change, and these recipes reflect the increasing interest in compassion towards animals and more sustainable food with the traditions and tastes of our culture.”
Ornelas noted that produce is picked by farm workers, who often suffer and are treated unfairly. Food Empowerment Project advocates for produce workers whenever possible by raising awareness about labor and living conditions, holding school supply drives, and by advocating for their rights via corporate, legislative, and regulatory changes.
A collaborative effort, VeganMexicanFood.com features recipes by noted chefs, cookbook authors, and bloggers. Recipe submissions are welcome; please see the site for details.
I was provided a fair amount of recipes and am only featuring 3 here- but they are 3 amazing ones!
Fideo:
Fideo is a dish with vermicelli noodles in a creamy tomato and cumin-flavored broth.
Ingredients
3-4 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 onion, chopped
1 (5-ounce) box of fideo vermicelli noodles
1/2 cup tomato sauce (which is 1/2 of a 14.5 ounce can)
2 cups water
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cumin
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
Directions
Sauté onion in olive oil on medium heat.
Once onion is pearly and translucent, add in the noodles. NOTE: Don’t expect the noodles to soften completely yet.
Sauté them until they are a bit softer. They change colors quickly, so continue sautéing the noodles until you reach the toastiness you like.
Add in tomato sauce and water. Stir continuously. Raise the heat to high.
Add in salt, cumin and garlic. Stir!
Once it starts to bubble and boil, lower the heat to simmer.
Carefully taste the broth.
Let it simmer about 7-8 minutes until creamy and thick. Stir often.
NOTE: Watch it closely because you do not want to cook off all of your broth before your noodles are done. You want the noodles to cook until completely softened, but don’t let them burn.
It’s ready when the noodles are completely soft.
Borracho Beans
Borracho beans are pinto beans that have been cooked with peppers, onion and tomatoes! We recommend you try these beans with Mexican rice and flour tortillas.
Ingredients
- 6 cups cooked pinto beans and liquid (or 1 recipe of our Pinto Beans)
- 1 large tomato, diced
- 1 medium onion (preferably sweeter varieties like Walla Walla or Vidalia), diced
- 3 to 6 Serrano peppers (depending how picoso/spicy you want it ), diced
- 1 bunch of cilantro, chopped
Directions
- Add the pinto beans, onion, tomato, and chiles into a medium-large pot and bring to a boil over medium heat. Reduce heat and allow to cook for 45 minutes at a rapid simmer, stirring often.
- Lower heat, add chopped cilantro, and allow to simmer on low for 15 minutes.
- Serve and enjoy!
Ceviche
Ceviche is a perfect and refreshing summer dish!
Ingredients
- 1 cauliflower, small-medium head
- 2 cups tomatoes, small dice
- 1 cup red onion, small dice
- 1 cup cilantro, chopped
- 1 cup cucumber, small dice
- ½ cup fresh lime juice
- 1 chile serrano (if you like it spicy you can add more)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon fresh black pepper
- 1 tablespoon ketchup
- Tostadas
- 2 avocados, pits removed, sliced
Ceviche is a perfect and refreshing summer dish!
Directions
- In a large bowl, shred cauliflower with large-hole side of a grater.
- Add tomatoes, onion, cilantro, cucumber, salt, pepper, chile serrano, ketchup and lime juice. Mix all ingredients together and taste for flavor.
- Let the mixture sit in the fridge for about 30 minutes.
- Serve on tostadas and add slices of avocado. Enjoy!
About Food Empowerment Project
Food Empowerment Project (http://www.foodispower.org), founded in 2007, seeks to create a more just and sustainable world by recognizing the power of one’s food choices. In all of its work, Food Empowerment Project seeks specifically to empower those with the fewest resources. Its advocacy areas include fair conditions for farm workers, the availability of healthy foods in communities of color and low-income areas, the protection of animals on farms, and conservation of natural resources. A vegan food justice organization, Food Empowerment Project also works to expose negligent corporations, such as those that push unhealthy foods into low-income areas, those that perpetuate food deserts, and those that sell chocolate derived from the worst forms of child labor. Food Empowerment Project is a registered non-profit 501(c)(3)
These recipes sound so good. There are so many more recipes on the VeganMexicanFood.com for you to check out. It’s going to be fun testing them out!
Stevie Wilson,
LA-Story.com
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