Tacos for the Soul (Recipe)

Tacos para el alma

→ OK. Food post time. And I will try to make this a little quicker. I know I’ve said that in previous posts only for it to be the same length. This time however, I am pressed for time so I have no choice.

For a decent chunk of my life I lived on New York’s Long Island. A place that is not necessarily sparse population wise. This fact is both what made me like, and dislike it there at the same time. Another reason why I liked it (at times) was that it was a bit of a melting pot of different religious, ethnic, and racial backgrounds. Not surprising being it is so close to the largest melting pot on planet earth, New York City. As a result of all these qualities, there was a lot more cuisine options for when I didn’t want to cook for myself.

The very first meal I ate when I moved there was at a Tex-Mex restaurant. And I proceeded to eat there once a week on average for the entirety of my stay, roughly twelve years. I can be a picky eater according to some of my friends so this apparently is high praise.

The reason I liked it so much is just how fresh, nutritionally dense, and flavorful the food was. All three qualities are of maximum importance to me. So when I was hungry, and not prepared, um, to prepare a meal for myself at my apartment, I ate at this gem of a spot.

As I was not totally in love with long island, after a year or so I started to reverse engineer my favorite orders from this place. Why? Well I wanted to enjoy their food made by myself, after I left. This is the recipe for one such order.

The Soft Taco.

Really quick and simple to do on your own if you’re handy as a cook.

Step 1:

Cook a meat of your choice with nothing more than olive oil, salt, pepper, dried oregano or basil as a base. If you like, include ground coriander, onion powder, and garlic powder. You can go a little more with the flavor but in my opinion this won’t pay dividends. Keeping it simple is best.

Step 2:

Shred some radicchio.

Step 3:

Thinly slice up some scallion.

Step 4:

Prepare a pico de gallo (salsa fresca). Real simple this one. Dice up some ripe plum tomato. Finely chop some onion. Finely chop up some fresh (washed and towel dried) cilantro. Combine in bowl and mix all these ingredients together with some salt and lime juice.

Step 5:

Assemble all ingredients from steps 1–4 in a warmed flour tortilla, taco sized.

(Note: There is a quality brand on the market that is sans any crazy preservatives or untoward ingredients. Just look for the brand with the mexican flag on them, they are tasty. You can readily find these in a mexican grocery. Some large retailers even carry them. If you have time on your side, and own a tortilla press, you can make your own. The ingredients are just flower, salt, water, and oil.)

Step 6:

Enjoy.

These are delicious. Between two prepared tacos, I probably use about 5–6 ounces of meat. On top I put the shredded radicchio and scallion. Then top that with the pico de gallo. So fresh, so amazing.

Two tortillas of taco size will probably yield about 30–35 grams of carbohydrate. Five to six ounces of meat will yield about the same amount of protein in grams. Aside from the olive oil on the meat, and any saturated fat IN the meat, this will be a low fat meal. Although fat from olive oil is not bad.

In terms of the macro balance (or balance of calories from the macronutrients) these tacos will be equal parts carbohydrate and protein with little contribution from fats. The toppings of radicchio, scallion, and pico de gallo give a refreshing complement to the meat and tortilla while providing a whole host of micronutrients (vitamins and minerals) our bodies really need.

I no longer live on long island, but all my reverse engineering of these tacos back in the day, when I ate at this restaurant, has served me well because I still make these when I get a chance. If I had a tortilla press I would make my own (tortillas) and prepare these at least once a month. They are that good.

Oh, and if you want to give these a bit of a fusion accent to them add some crumbled feta cheese on top. The meditarranean meets mexico vibe is serious when done so…

These will satisfy your taste buds and nourish your mind, heart, body, and soul all at once. Give them a go and comment on the results below…!

There is one more ingredient that brings everything together in the recipe. But that will be saved for another post in the future. Stay tuned…!