Alkaline Tacos – The Blender Girl’s Special!

The magic of Tess Masters, The Blender Girl is seen here in this tasty alkaline version of everyone’s favourite, the taco!  I just had to give it a whirl, and of course put a wee spin on it since it is rare that I ever use a recipe. (I also have a serious fetish for reading healthy cookbooks.) The Blender Girl – 100 Gluten Free, Vegan Recipes is Tess’s first cookbook.  It is chalk full of delicious, healthy recipes including many alkaline ones which makes me soooo happy that I just HAD to share it with you!  She’s a kindred spirit as she´s blending up alkaline juices, smoothies, and soups year round, building the foundation of her healthy lifestyle and her inspiring journey, and sharing recipes through her blog, and now her cookbook.  But it’s not only blended recipes you´ll find as you’ll see here with Alkaline Tacos. If you have a food processor, you’re good to go with this one.

It’s important to know, especially if you aren’t a seasoned cook, that most recipes are just guidelines for you to build upon.  Playing with ingredients, either with what’s in season or with what you have on hand, and adjusting amounts is par for the course with most of my recipes and Tess’s as well.  We encourage you to get creative as you’ll probably come up with something that tastes even better to you!

I typically make a taco meat filling with soaked and cooked lentils, and Mexican spices, but this combination with simply soaked raw nuts is a winner and is even more alkaline!  I decided to whip up a guacamole in place of avocado wedges, and I quickly threw together a tasty cilantro cream in place of her vegan sour cream just for fun.  And YUM was it ever good!

I love recipes like this because there is a good ratio of veggies to the nut mixture when you add generous scoops of guacamole, fresh tomatoes, and romaine leaves as your shell.  This recipe is perfectly balanced to promote alkalinity in your body to keep you healthy.  I also love how easy this is for a quick snack or lunch when you have the nutty taco mix done up in advance. Then you simply serve it with chopped avocado and tomato.  Sometimes I toss the tomato and avocado with extra virgin olive oil,  cilantro, and sea salt, and I pile it on with the taco mixture either onto each lettuce leaf or on a chopped bed of lettuce. So easy and deelish!

Alkaline Tacos

Yield: serves 8 as a starter, 4 as a light lunch or main (makes 16-20 tacos)

Filling
1/2 cup raw walnuts (no need to soak)
1/2 cup of raw blanched slivered almonds (I used whole soaked almonds, patted dry)
1/2 cup soaked, drained and roughly chopped sun dried tomatoes
2 tbsp cold-pressed extra-virgin olive oil
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp ground cumin
1/8 tsp garlic powder
1/8 tsp onion powder
1/8 tsp chili powder
1 1/2 tsp Bragg liquid aminos, wheat free tamari, or coconut liquid aminos
1/8 tsp natural salt (I used a fine Himalayan salt.)
1 tbsp chopped flat leaf parsley

Pico de Gallo
1 cup diced tomato (I used cherry tomatoes)
1 1/2 tbsp finely chopped cilantro, plus more to taste
1 tbsp diced red onion (I used a sweet white  onion.)
1 tsp  cold-pressed extra-virgin olive oil
1 tsp freshly squeezed lime juice, plus more to taste
1/4 tsp minced garlic, plus more to taste
1/4 tsp minced serrano chile, plus more to taste
natural salt (Consider the fine Himalayan type.)
pinch of freshly ground black pepper

Cilantro Lime Cream (optional but deelish!)
1/4 cup cashews, soaked for 15 mins
1/4 cup Brazil nuts, soaked for 15 mins
1/3 cup chopped cilantro
2 tbsp cold-pressed extra-virgin olive oil
3 tbsp freshly squeezed lime juice
natural salt (I use fine Himalayan)

Have ready…

20 medium and large romaine leaves or other foldable, not-too-soft leaf lettuce, washed and dried
1 or 2 avocados, pitted, peeled and sliced to garnish (or 1 recipe of *Guacamole Dip)

Methods

To make the filling, put the walnuts and almonds into your high-speed blender or food processor and pulse until broken up.  Add the sun-dried tomatoes, olive oil, spices, liquid aminos, salt, and parsley and pulse until well incorporated and the mixture is “red & meaty” looking. Tweak flavour to taste (you may want more liquid aminos and salt) and set aside.

To make the pico de gallo, combine the tomatoes, cilantro, onion, olive oil, lime juice, garlic, chile, 1/4 tsp salt and the pepper. Tweak flavours to taste (you may like more cilantro, garlic, chile, lime juice, onion or salt)

To make the cilantro lime cream place all ingredients into a blender and process until smooth. Tweak salt and cilantro if needed.  Any leftovers make a wonderful salad dressing.

* My Quick Guacamole Dip
Scoop 2 nicely ripe, pitted avocados into a medium sized bowl and roughly mash with a fork.  Add 1/3 cup finely diced sweet white onion, juice of 1/2 lime, and sea salt to taste. Combine the ingredients leaving them somewhat chunky or to your desired consistency.  Cilantro is optional, and remember you´ll have it in the other toppings.

I’m excited for you to check out Tess’s book as she shares the ‘low down’ on ‘how to blend in healthy ideas’ that embrace living an alkaline lifestyle.  This may very well be my first book review, if you can call it that, but most certainly not my last as the realm of truly nourishing cook books is expanding rapidly because of passionate, talented and health conscious individuals like Tess.  So be ready; I may have a few more marvelous books up my sleeve for you to explore.

Oh and I almost forgot! Tess has also expanded her reach to a new App that makes it easier to access healthy recipes in a jiffy! Check it out here.  And she is such a Speedy Gonzales that she has her 2nd cook book Blender Girl Smoothies launching June 30th.  You can jump over to Amazon and pre-order it if you feel so inclined.  And guess what? The recipes are labelled with the alkaline icon to make it easy for people to stay alkaline. Yay!

I hope you get a chance to make this tasty alkaline taco business and let Tess and I know how you like it!

Have a great weekend and be well my friends:)

Your Alkaline Sister,

Julie