Tofu Taco Tuesday

This post goes out to Carolyn, Carolyn Dempsey, who has been holding very successful taco nights in her Brooklyn apartment. She was telling me how much fun it was, and I got pretty jealous. However, I decided to use my jealousy as a motivator (which I read about doing in a Cosmo article) and make my own tacos. Beans were obviously an option, but I feel like that one has been played out. I've had tofu burritos before and always thought that they were delicous, so I decided to give tofu tacos a spin.
A note on tortillas: This is a situation where you need to check your labeling. The tortillas that I buy from Trader Joes have 2 ingredients corn flour, water, and lime. These are good tortillas. Some tortillas are made with lard. Lard comes from baby animals. Eating baby animals = not vegan. Also, who really wants to be eating lard anyway?
Which brings me to my semi-sequitor of the day. Did you know that Guiness beer is not vegan? It's finished with something called isinglass, which is a nice way of saying that they add fish scales to the beer during post-processing as a clarifying agent. I've had a lot of fun over the past couple of days pointing this out to people and watching them make faces. Now, I'm not usually one of "those" vegans who tells you about how bad your food is, but this one really grossed me out. Also, I love random trivia and anything involving beer clarification gets filed under random trivia.



Any-day Tofu Tacos

• 1.5 oz. firm tofu, cut into 1/4" cubes
• 1 tbsp. chili powder
• 1/4 tsp. garlic powder
• 1/4 tsp. cumin
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• pinch of fresh ground black pepper
• 1/4 c. water
• 1 tbsp. cornstarch plus extra for coating
• taco shells
• 1 oz. cheddar daiya cheese
• your choice of shredded lettuce, tomatoes, salsa, or vegan sour cream.

1. Rinse and pat dry your tofu and cut into 1/4" cubes. Place these in a Tupperware container and add about 1.5 tablespoons of corn starch. Put the lid on the Tupperware and shake to coat.
2. In a separate bowl, mix chili powder, garlic powder, cumin, salt, and pepper. Whisk to combine the spices and add to your tofu. Close again and shake to coat. 
3. Spray a pan with non-stick cooking spray and bring it to medium-high heat. Add the tofu and water and cook for about 5 minutes, or until it's firm.
4. Serve in a taco shell or two with cheddar daiya and your choice of accouterments.