Celebrate Cinco De Mayo With Delicious Raw Vegan Tacos

Day 5 of our “One Month Raw Food Cleanse”

No need to miss a holiday like this just because you’re on a raw food cleanse. Besides, I’d never miss Cinco de Mayo. Having lived in Texas for 18 years and over 20 years in California, this is a holiday that is near and dear to my heart. When I was CEO of Ampro Computers, I’d often bring in a pile of burritos and other Mexican food for the entire company at lunch time. OK, they weren’t as healthy as the recipe I’m sharing with you today, but if you can find a white meat chicken or vegetarian burrito on a whole wheat tortilla with little or no cheese, you have a pretty healthy dish.

These soft tacos feature chili flavored “meat” from heart healthy walnuts. With a food processor, you can whip up this dish in 10 minutes and I promise you will not be able to tell the difference between the walnut meat and regular ground meat. Covered with a simple salsa, a couple of these tacos make a great lunch or dinner. For a full Cinco de Mayo celebration, serve these with the “guacamole and raw jalapeno corn chips” posted on April 14, 2009.

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Raw Vegan Soft Tacos With A Simple Salsa [makes 4 soft tacos]
4 leaves of organic butter lettuce, washed

1 cup raw walnuts (NOT soaked)
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 tablespoon Nama Shoyu soy sauce
1 small avocado, diced
1 small yellow or red bell pepper (or ½ cup diced tomatoes)
3 tablespoons minced red onion
1 tablespoon minced jalapeno (more or less to taste)
2 tablespoons fresh cilantro, minced
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
1/2 teaspoon sea salt (more or less to taste)

Please walnuts, chili powder and Nama Shoyu in a food process and blend just until the walnuts are course and resemble ground meat. Set aside. Gently combine the avocado, bell pepper, red onion, jalapeno, cilantro, lime juice and salt. Place 1/4 of the nut meat and 1/4 of the salsa on each of the butter lettuce leaves and serve immediately.

Per taco: 256 calories, 24.3 g fat, 2.5 g saturated fat, zero g cholesterol, 5.5 g protein, 8.8 g carbohydrates, 4.8 g fiber, 2.7 g omega 3 and 11.7 g omega 6 for a healthy omega 6 to omega 3 ratio of 4.3.

Menu for Day 5
Blueberry smoothie for breakfast (I’m still working my way through that big bag of blueberries), an apple with raw almond butter for lunch and for dinner, a few of these wonderful soft tacos with salsa. I just bought 6 pounds of chia seeds so we’ll be having chia pudding for dessert (see April 11, 2009 posting). HAPPY CINCO DE MAYO!