Roasted Cauliflower Chickpea Tacos

I'm BAAAAAaaaaaack!

...with my current favorite recipe to share with you all!

Blah Blah Blah, childhood memories, trip to the seaside, sad story about my grandma, this recipe completely changed my life and turned my health around......

Here we go!

Ingredients:

2 Large Heads of Cauliflower (purple if you wanna get fancy!)

2 Cans of Chickpeas/Garbanzo Beans (drained and rinsed so that these aren't straight up fart tacos)

2-ish Tablespoons of Oil (olive or something that can handle higher heat)

Dealer's Choice amounts of: Cumin, Chili powder, Garlic powder, Salt

1 Pack of Flour Tortillas (if you aren't in a low carb situation)

1 Container of Cotija Cheese or similar

1 Bottle of Hot Sauce

1 Interesting, Unexpected, or Fun Topping, bonus points for some kind of acidic taste or crunchy texture

- My fav is Cleveland Kraut's Beet Red (Red Cabbage, Beets, and Carrots)

Supplies:

1 Large Mixing bowl

2 Sheet pans

IDK how specific I need to get here.... also a knife? a cutting board? a sink? an oven? an oven mitt? plates? ... a mouth?

Instructions:

Step 0: PREHEAT your oven now!

Around 400-425 degrees, I don't know...my oven is weird... but it's about to get roasty!

1. Rinse, drain, and chop the cauliflower into bite size pieces and add to large mixing bowl.

2. Rinse and drain the canned chickpeas (this may help make them more easily digestible and will also decrease the sodium so that you can add more later without feeling guilty). Add them to the same mixing bowl.

3. Drizzle with olive oil and start dumping spices on there. Consider this like your standard taco seasoning so use however much of that you usually would. I use a LOT of cumin especially, probably too much... but I like my food a lil dusty.

4. Mix the filling, oil, and spices until everything looks pretty evenly coated and then pour half onto one sheet pan and the rest on the other. You want the filling spread out so that it can get roasty and not soggy.

5. Into the oven they go! For 20-25 minutes. There will be a lot of steam from all the liquid in the filling, you can (carefully!) let the steam out of the oven a couple of times if you want crispier filling or just leave it alone if slightly soggy doesn't bother you.

6. Pull the pans out and place somewhere to start cooling (and you can start drooling).

7. Place tortillas on TOP of the filling trays to warm them.

8. Put a warm tortilla on the plate, scoop in some filling, add some cheese, hot sauce, and Cleveland Kraut (or whatever your fun topping is... but it should be this). Flip the top of the tortilla over and add another one to the plate to fill. Repeat til you run out of room on the plate.

9. EAT!

PHOTOS of the Process

AAQs (Anticipated Asked Questions)

1. Can I make this vegan?

- Yes. Leave out the cheese or substitute with vegan cheese. Check your tortillas too just in case.

2. How many tacos does this make?

- About 12 tacos depending on how much filling you use and how much you ate straight off the pan.

3. Is it any good leftover?

- It is actually even better. Just heat the filling in a pan on the stovetop.

4. How much protein is in a serving?

- Way more than if you didn't eat any tacos at all because you are vegetarian.

-- Okay, well. Cauliflower is a very high protein veggie and chickpeas also have lots of protein. Tortillas have some, the cheese has some, etc...

-- FINE, I DID THE MATH. It works out to around 10 grams of protein per taco and I usually eat 3 of these in a serving.

30 grams of protein in a meal is a LOT for me

5. Can I use hard taco shells instead of tortillas?

- Go for it! Sounds messier to me but you do you and let me know how it works out!

6. Can I use NO taco shells or tortillas?

- Yep. I recommend a bowl and a spork.

Thanks for reading!

Leave me a comment if you want to make this, would like to dispute my math, or if you have concerns about beet sauerkraut as a taco topping.