Mushroom Potato Tacos

I can easily spend hours on hours searching for different recipes. Sometimes I base my grocery list of a couple specific recipes and sometimes I search for recipes based on one or two ingredients I already have. Other times I just come across a recipe and am lucky enough to have the ingredients available. This is what happend when I found Vegan Splendor's Vegan Mushroom Meat Tacos recipe. I honestly don't remember how or why I found this recipe, but I am sure happy I did.

Mushrooms are so versatile. You can pretty much make anything with them, add any seasoning and turn them into something delicious. Mushrooms are thicker and tougher than most veggies and have a consistency that some say is like a meat substitute, which is exactly the idea for these delicious tacos.

Unfortunately I didn't have a few of the ingredients the recipe called for, so I will definitely have to try and make them again (adding in eggplant and the olive mix).  For my version of the mushroom tacos I still put the mushrooms in a food processer but I added the onion, garlic and some grape seed oil and mixed until the mushrooms looked like the texture I desired.

• 6 mushrooms sliced
• half a white onion, chopped
• 1 garlic clove

After I processed the above ingredients I sauteed some slices of red potato in oil and oregano, just to give the taco a little bit more meat to it. 

To get the mushrooms to really soak up some flavor the vegan splendor recipe recommends putting the mush-seasoning mixture in the oven. I thought this was quite strange but I did it anyway. What a great idea! Seriously... 

Heat the oven to 350 degrees.

Before putting the mushroom mix in the oven I added some chile, pepper and cayenne seasoning to them and tried to coat the mix as best I could. 

I laid out the mushroom, onion, garlic mixture on foil and then placed all of that on a pizza pan. I did not have as large of a mixture as the recipe called for so I only set the timer for 20 minutes and kept my eye on the oven to check for the "release of juices" as the recipe said. 

While the mushroom mix was roasting I created a nice slaw for the top of my taco.

• Cucumbers
• Cilantro 
• Pickled red onion

I'll admit, cucumber sounds a little strange, but it gives a nice light, crunchy taste to the slaw. I will definitely be using that type of slaw again in the future. 

All the while I was checking the mushrooms and I noticed that juices were beginning to be released. Once the 20 minute timer went off I felt pretty satisfied the mushrooms were ready. (the juices had started to brown and burn on the outside of the mix on the foil as well)

I put the mushroom mix, potatos and slaw on a whole wheat tortilla and topped the whole thing with siracha. Good stuff! 

Here is a quick recipe for pickled red onions:

• Whole red onion sliced
• 3/4 cup white vinegar
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• any other seasonings you'd like
• garlic
• peppercorns
• salt
• bay leaf
• red pepper flakes

Bring vinegar mixture to a boil. Once boiling add red onions in and let simmer for 1 - 2 minutes or until the onions turn a nice pinkish color. Let the onions cool and add them to a glass jar. Store in refrigerator. These babies last a lot longer than a regular onion, and they have a great taste to them.