Name: Baked Avocado Tacos w/ Roasted Veggie Salsa at Home
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 35 min
Yield: 2 -4
Ingredients: 1 cup cherry tomatoes (quartered); ½ bell peppers (i used green, finely chopped); ½ medium red onion (chopped); 1 tablespoon of oil (olive or avocado); 4 cloves of garlic (left whole); s&p; handful of cilantro; 2 avocados (sliced into ~12 pieces per avocado (so 24 slices total)); 1 tbs of oil; ½ cup of plain unflavored almond milk or other non dairy milk; 1 cup of panko bread crumbs; 2 tbs of nutritional yeast; ½ teaspoon of salt; ¼ teaspoon of garlic powder; ¼ teaspoon of cumin; tortillas; 2 tablespoon of vegan mayo; 1 teaspoon of sriracha; optional for garnish: lettuce (jalapeno, spicy sriracha mayo)

I first had a version of these tacos at Local Taco here in Nashville. I’ve since been back only for these tacos at least 4 different times which to me is a clear indication that I needed to try making them at home. I always ordered the deep fried avocado version (for obvious reason) although you can also order fresh avocado. For my version of the tacos, I wanted to find a happy middle ground that offered the taste of a fried avocado but without all the excess breading and grease.

Here’s how we’re going to do this. First we’re going to slice our avocados. I tried this first with big chunks (cutting each avocado into about 6 pieces) but it was simply too much avocado in one bite (is there such a thing!?). It also meant less of the breading since there were less slices to cover. So the next go around I sliced each avocado into about 12 slices which was perfecto!

Next, we’ll dip each slice of avocado into almond milk mixed with simply a bit of olive oil before covering it in a panko bread crumb mixture yumminess.

The avocado is placed on a baking sheet and eventually baked in the oven for about 15 minutes.

But, before the avocadoes go in the oven, the salsa is made by chopping up cherry tomatoes, onion, green pepper, and garlic and baking it in the oven for 15 minutes.

The first go round, I blended up ALL the salsa ingredients which resulted in a flavorful salsa but it didn’t actually look too pretty. For the next test I tried blending simply about 1/3 of the veggies in with all of the garlic and some cilantro. I then mixed that in with the other veggies and liked this much better. Hence the chunky salsa. I’m a big fan:D

I get the tacos ready to go so that once the avocado is out of the oven, I can plop it into the tacos and eat ASAP because I like it hot.

And because I was making these tacos only for myself, I refrigerated the avocadoes and the roasted veggie salsa to eat for later. I wasn’t sure how well the avocado would re-heat but FYI- it’s still flavor-packed the second go round! I do recommend heating it up in the oven as opposed to the microwave for all of the obvious reasons.

So, do yourself a giant favor and make these tacos THIS WEEKEND! You’ll love them!