Veggie and tempeh tacos

Tonight on my way home from work, this idea popped in my head. What about a chunky, "chutney-esque" vegetable mix with a chipotle-style dressing, tempeh crumbles, Daiya cheddar cheese shreds, on a whole wheat tortilla? Convincing myself that it would be the perfect quick dinner, I made a quick stop at Whole Foods for a few ingredients then got myself home, anxious to get started putting this together.

For the veggie mix, I decided to dice the following:

• tomatoes
• red onion
• cucumber

Then to this mix I added canned black beans (after washing all the goop off) and corn.  How much of each depends on your preference. I kept all of them more or less even in amount. In retrospect, I should have picked up some cilantro, but I didn't think of it until I got home. 

For the dressing:

• organic vegan ranch dressing (I use Organic Ville)
• Vegenaise (reduced fat)
• hot sauce
• Mrs. Dash Southwest Chipotle seasoning mix (I'm nuts about this thing!)

I started out with about 1/4c. of dressing. Wanting to make it a little richer in texture I added one heaping tablespoon of Vegenaise to it. After that, a couple of dashes of hot sauce went in. This gets whisked together and then it was time to add the Mrs. Dash. I added quite a bit, tasting along the way.  As with the hot sauce, the amount of this seasoning would be to taste. I can't have enough of this Mrs. Dash mix.

Oh yeah, the tempeh. This is pretty quick - just take some organic smoky tempeh strips (a.k.a. Fakin' Bacon) and brown in a little olive oil. Drain in a paper towel and crumble up once they're cool to the touch.

After stirring a little of the dressing in with the vegetables and adding the tempeh, it was starting to look exactly as I envisioned it.

Meanwhile out came the whole wheat tortillas (the kind made fresh at Whole Foods), which I just heated in the microwave a bit.  On them I placed the Daiya cheddar shreds so that the 'cheese' could warm up a little from the hot tortillas. A couple of big dollops of the veggie mix completed the taco.

I would have loved some chopped cilantro in this, but otherwise I'm nuts about this mix!  I'm thinking of making a dessert version with various diced fruits, mixing in some of that awesome coconut yogurt (kind of like an ambrosia), all on a homemade sweet crepe on which I've spread a little bit of melted vegan chocolate chips. But first I gotta figure out how to make vegan crepes.

In the meantime, these tacos are a definite keeper!