It’s a quick one if you’ve got a buddy to help you rinse, chop, and cook. Using a fakey meat here, Litelife Chick’n Style Strips, but cheaper yet equally easy is reconstituted TVP (texturized vegetable protein). Both TVP and Morningstar Farms Meal Starters, however, make a squishier “meat.”
This cooks up just like the ground beef taco stuff your mom used to make; you brown it a bit first (no oil to drain!) then simmer away some water and your taco seasoning of choice. Read the packages because many of them contain milk products. We have what we call “taco town,” an old maraschino cherry jar that we’ve poured a bunch of different pepper/spice/”taco” blends. I honestly couldn’t tell ya what all’s in there. It’s different every time, and when we do have the perfect blend, that’ll be that; it will never be replicated. Beautiful and sad, I know.
We’ve found that avocado takes the place of cheese in that it’s creamy and offsets the spice. (Of course, Tom also uses cheddar ChReese.) And pico is probably the best taco-dressin’ shortcut ever. I’ve never liked sour cream, but Tom’s used the Tofutti one before and says it does the job.
Oh, wait—here’s taco town:
[...] them smashed up, like in guacamole, but aside from just spooning it into my maw, I dice it up for tacos and cut it in strips for sushi. The firm yet creamy texture and lightly sweet flavor seems to act [...]
[...] I sliced some tempeh super thin and threw it on a griddle with my hodgepodge taco seasoning, “taco town.” A little bit of cucumber, onion, and lettuce later, I had this big taco sort of thing. I [...]