The most delicious and clean tacos ever! Sweet Potato with Greens and Plantain Tortillas, Paleo, Vegan and Awesome

Today is Cinco de Mayo (yay!) it is also the middle of a strict springtime vegan-paleo goal for me. So what to do. I looooove Mexican foods, it will be one of my favorite cuisines ever and always. My eyes were first opened to mind blowing vegan Mexican food at Gracias Madre in SF. I was lucky to eat there many times, but it was a taco plate when I first fell in love. There were piles of cooked leafy greens, spiced sweet potatoes, and all the crunchy toppings. I think there were beans and loads of their wonderful freshly made tortillas. This today is my homage to them.  The tortilla making is easy as pie, but if you love corn tortillas-by all means use those!

Paleo Plantain Tortillas 
with
Chili Sweet Potato, Leafy Greens, and Avocado

Tortillas:
Makes about 14 tortillas (taco "corn-tortilla" sized)

• 4 green plantains
• 1/4 cup hot water (or more)

Leafy Greens:

• 1 bunch collards, swiss chard, or kale
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• salt

Sweet Potatoes:

• 4 sweet potatoes
• 1-2 teaspoon chili powder
• 1  teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• salt

Also: 

• Avocado
• Cabbage
• Raddishes
• Cilantro
• Salsa

For these tortillas I want a savory or neutral sort of flavor so we use the unripe or green plantains. Peeling them can be a little bit of a chore, here is a link to my earlier instructions how to do this quickly. The plantains need to be peeled and sliced into chunks before boiling for 20 minutes. You will see the raw plantain is a very pale yellow color, once it has cooked in the boiling water there's a much deeper yellow color to the flesh. 

When the plantains are fork tender drain into a colander in the sink. Wait 5 minutes so they cool a bit. Place plantains in the bowl of a standing mixer, mix on low for about 5-8 minutes. If you have the plastic guard that keeps things from jumping out the sides of the bowl now is the time to use it. If not you can hold a tea towel around the top of the bowl until pieces stop trying to jump out. 

At first it may seem very dry and crumbly, but there is a nice point when everything comes dough like. Depending on your plantains and how ripe and cooked they are this may take more time than you expect just keep the mixer on. If everything is looking very dry, which happens due to moisture escaping through the steam, add a splash of hot water until you have a consistency like cookie dough. 

With our plantain massa ready we can move onto shaping and cooking the tortillas:

You will need a tortilla press or two rigid cutting boards. Parchment paper folded in half or a plastic bag cut into two pieces.Some coconut oil or other oil of your choice. A hot griddle or frypan. 

1. Heat the griddle.
2. Apply a tiny bit of coconut oil to the inside spots of the full department where you will flatten the dough. 
3. Roll a ball of the dough in your hands.
4. Place in between the two sheets of parchment or plastic
5. Position this parchment sandwich in between your two cutting board or tortilla press. 
6. Press straight down, with all your bodyweight. 
7. Remove the top cutting board and check your tortilla. 
8. Peel off the parchment carefully, this is easier than you imagine.
9. Move the tortilla in hand directly to the griddle.
10. Cook on each side for about 5 minutes. They will look dry, pale, with not much color. The edges will turn out just a bit. 

Repeat until the dough is all used up! 

Cut a bunch of collards or Swiss chard into thin ribbons. Cook on the stove with two cloves of minced garlic, salt, a teaspoon of cumin, and a 1/2 cup of water. Simmer and sauté until the water has about braided and your greens are tender and bright. 

Cube your sweet potatoes into roughly half inch pieces. Toss to coat with olive oil  and 1 to 2 teaspoons of chili powder, 1 teaspoon of cumin and 1 teaspoon of garlic powder. Spread on a sheet pan in one layer. Bake roast at 350° for about 30 minutes, until they're tender. There is no need to stir the sweet potatoes while they are roasting see you can just forget about them until the timer beeps!

Clearly, tacos should be assembled right as you are going to eat them. Place a small bed of greens as a base on the tortilla, followed by sweet potatoes, then topped off with thin slices of avocado, radish, cabbage and cilantro. salsa or hot sauce is always a good idea in my book.

 Enjoy!
***The tortillas will keep for a few days in the fridge kept sealed up in a bag. Very good just microwaved for 20 seconds to warm them up again. Or even better, throw on a hot dry pan till warm.

Warming Sweet Potato, Cabbage and Black Bean Vegan Casserole

Aren't sweet potatoes the most pleasing things? Comforting, soft, warm, bland but not tasteless. And they come in different colors, I got orange ones and white ones with purple skins for this recipe. They look stunning in alternating rows. This recipe takes just a bit of roasting, and is so pretty presented on the table. I made a southwestern inspired casserole here, some chipotle, some wine, some beans. All the good stuff. 

Savoy cabbage waits next to a bowl of sliced sweet potatoes tossed in olive oil, salt, pepper, sage and mexican oregano. This way they are nicely coated with oil to brown up in the roasting of the casserole process.

One head of savoy cabbage is sliced up into roughly 1/2" - 1" wide pieces. Rustic is ok! White wine, olive oil, and a sprinkling of chipotle powder are added into the pan for flavor. Lets begin the roasting, 350°.



Look, after 15 minutes or so in my convection oven the cabbage is won over. Wilted into silky strips, with charred tips which say lots of flavor.



The sweet smokey cabbage is placed in the bottom of my most beloved baking pan. (Anthropologie makes the craziest dish-ware, I love it!)
What is a casserole anyway? Instead of describing the food, its comes from the French word for the pan itself, used in both the oven and serving of the food. Casserole meaning both the very cool cookware one receives as awesome wedding gifts, and of the vegetables layered inside of it. Clearly casseroles have an image problem in popular culture, but I have no problem with them. I think anything baked together is probably better than baked alone!



Spoon a layer of black bean on top of the cabbage. Next time I make this casserole I will experiment in putting the beans at the bottom and cabbage on top of them. I feel it would make the beans more succulent. You could try it either way. So, about beans, I made mine using a dried heirloom variety, soaking and then cooking in my pressure cooker for 20 minutes. You can use black beans or pinto beans out of a can, that is easy. Remember to rinse them.



Sprinkle some chipotle on top of the beans if you are in the mood. Next comes the very fun part. Craft time with food! Arrange the slices of sweet potato in scolloped rows, alternating by color.




Bake entire cassarole in a 350° oven for 30 - 45 minutes. Crisped sweet potatoes and warmed through.

The potatoes retain their color difference after roasting, although I lack a really good photo because the evening lighting in my house is lacking and it didn't look pretty the next day. We had devoured it and it was a mangled mess of leftovers. We will make do with this one until I make this again!  Or you make it and send me the photo perhaps?

It was really impressive looking. Dinner party or pot luck worthy. Even Thanksgiving perhaps? We ate it along with salad and mustard on top. It served about 6  portions that way. Next time Ill take better measurements in the kitchen, but honestly it was really good, just wing-it, you can't go wrong.

Warming Sweet Potato, Cabbage and Black Bean Vegan Casserole

4-6 sweet potatoes
1 savoy cabbage
1 1/2 cups cooked pinto or black beans
1 teaspoon dry sage
1 teaspoon Mexican oregano
olive oil
salt pepper
1/3 cup white wine
1 teaspoons chipotle powder

Kale Salad and a Secret Skill that will wow your friends

 The other day, I made kale salad three times! Firstly, for my husband to bring to work for his lunch (he is very close to finishing this degree, I am maximizing his study time by doling out lunches and dinners).

Secondly, for lunch while at my friend's home.

Finally, for myself for dinner, because the fridge was full of kale and that was the smart thing to do.

I could have made one big batch if I knew. I best like kale salad after it has sat in the fridge for 6 hours or so, the citrus in the dressing marinates the leaves, it is very nice.








Most of us have made kale salad (right?) So I am going to start right out with this 
Secret Kitchen Skill which will WOW your friends:
Most people have never seen this. Unless you have worked in restaurant kitchens, then maybe you have.

I learned it while working at a bakery in SF where needed to do cases of greens to cook into our quiches.

Do YOU enjoy TOUGH chewy FIBROUS stems in your kale dishes? Do you like carefully cutting the stems out of collard greens? NO, of course not, neither do I.

This is the fastest and easiest way to strip leafy greens from the stems. This works with kale,  swiss chard, collards, and most other vitamin filled leafy greens you could ever find.

Grab your bunch of farmers market kale, four fingers (two on each hand) and here is a (WOW) movie of my kale technique to explain it all better than my words will.

If you are right handed: take the base of the stem firmly in you left hand, and pinch with the thumb and forefinger of your right hand right at the place where the leaf begins on the stem. Keep pinching firmly, and rapidly pull your hands in opposite directions.

Watch your friends' jaws drop open. They will say, with quizzical looks "Whaa, how did you...do that again!"

Collect the leafy greens in a pile and sent the stems into the juicer or compost pile.

*Disclaimer: If your kale is old as the hills, near dead and limp, this technique wont work. Get yourself to the market and buy some new vegetables.

Now that you have a beautiful pile of stem-less kale lets daydream about all the wonderful things you can do with it. saute, lasagna, chips...

I'm still on the salad. When the kale is super fresh, straight from the farm, it is sinful not to eat it raw! The fresh leaves is have such a great crunch. They are still full of water and life.

I like dinosaur (lacinato) kale, cut crosswise into 1/4 inch ribbons.

I also like the crinkly green kale, like the one in these photos, if it is young and tender. Just ripped off the stems, like I just showed you, and torn into a few smaller pieces.

Lemon or lime, sometimes a bit of apple cider vinegar and plenty of good olive oil makes the perfect dressing. And dont forget the sea salt, very important to generously salt the salad.

After that, it is all about what is around in the pantry. My favorite topping is toasted pumpkin seeds. Goat cheese or avocado, if I have one. Cold boiled potatoes are also really good in there.

For those craving animal protein, hard boiled eggs, sardines, or tuna fish turn it into a hearty meal.

Kale Salad with Pumpkin Seeds

a bunch of kale leaves
juice of lemon or lime
olive oil
pinch of salt
handfull of pumpkin seeds (pepitas)

Remove tough stems for kale with fantastic method mentioned above. Tear or slice leaves into bite sized pieces. Put into a bowl.

Squeeze citrus juice over the leaves (about 1/2 a lime per serving, 1/2 a lemon for 2 servings.) Drizzle olive oil on and a hearty pinch of sea salt.


With one (clean) hand, massage the kale. This is a important step if you cant wait around 6 hours for it to marinate. Just squeeze it and let it go, squeeze it again, like you are trying to wring out a sponge. Take about a minute massaging the salad.
Yup.
Now taste a piece, is it good? Does it need more salt? If you pucker from the sour citrus, add more olive oil. Yup.
Now you can wash your hands.

Put the pumpkin seeds into a small dry fry pan. Turn the heat on, in a minute or two they will begin to toast on the bottom and puff up. Shake the pan around a few times. When they are overall, toasted and puffed, turn off the heat and tip them on top of your salad.

toasting pumpkin seeds

If your eyes were bigger than your stomach, it does keep very well for a day or two (covered & in the fridge.) Bring it for lunch to work and you can brag about your new kale prepping skill.

If you try it, send me a comment, will this change how you prep leafy greens in the future?

Kale salad with toasted pumpkin seeds and peppered goat cheese