Chilaquiles, thug style
A couple years ago my husband received a cookbook for his birthday. It’s a fantastic cookbook to say the least, but also a compilation of recipes my husband would have never considered. Much to my meat-loving-man’s-man-of-a-husband’s dismay, there was no meat anywhere to be found within the pages of this book! No meat? No dairy? What? My kind of cookbook! Poor hubby, his gift became my newest delight! Don’t get me wrong, he was indeed very grateful for the gift itself, but just taken aback by the absence of carnivorous ingredients.
We have a feeling the gift givers may not have realized the book was chock-full of vegan recipes, rather, it was the cynical, sarcastic, profane language of the book that made it an entertaining and humorous gift. Let me introduce you to Thug Kitchen. Please excuse the crude verbiage of the books, as I am in no way condoning that kind of filthy language; however, the talented duo behind this vegan approach to cooking has a unique, hard-core, free-spirited flair in the kitchen. The recipes are brilliant, if you can just get past all the curse words.
My hubby got over the fact the book was completely void of meat and actually became really interested in trying some of these vegan dishes. Thug Kitchen was our first introduction to vegan cooking. We have tried many recipes in the book and each one has been even more delicious than the last. We eventually want to cook our way through the entire book, but we keep getting stuck making the same recipes we love because they are just so darn good! One day, we’ll get through the whole book and I’ll be sure to write a post about that too!
One of our favorite recipes from Thug Kitchen is the mixed veggie and tofu chilaquiles. What’s chilaquiles without eggs? Well, it’s outstanding! We’ve made this dish so many times that we’ve tweaked it a bit to our own tastes, and I wanted to share it with you. The recipe calls for tomatillo salsa, but we have made it with both tomatillo salsa and tomato salsa and, while it’s delicious both ways, we found we actually prefer it with the traditional tomato salsa. The recipe is in the breakfast section of the book, since traditional chilaquiles with eggs make for a breakfast of champions, but we’ve always enjoyed it for dinner. There really isn’t a time of day it wouldn’t be tasty though. I also sometimes use broken-up frozen kale in place of the fresh spinach if I don’t have spinach in my fridge. Additionally, I omit the garlic powder because the fresh garlic is pungent enough, and I omit the vegetable broth called for in the recipe, as I find the dish has enough moisture that accumulates when all the ingredients are added together. Finally, I top each bowl with fresh avocado and cilantro for creamy and flavorful finish.
Mixed veggie and tofu chilaquiles from Thug Kitchen
12 corn tortillas
2 tsp. olive oil
1 block firm tofu
2 tsp. soy sauce or tamari
2 cloves garlic, minced
¼ cup nutritional yeast
½ medium onion, chopped
1 bell pepper, any color, chopped
1-2 jalapeno peppers, minced
2 to 3 cups fresh spinach, or chopped kale
2 ½ cups salsa verde, or traditional tomato salsa
Fresh avocado (for garnish)
Fresh cilantro, chopped (for garnish)
1. Preheat the oven to 400 F. Stack the corn tortillas and cut them into 8 triangle sections, like a pizza. Line them out flat on a baking sheet so that none are overlapping. Bake for about 15-20 minutes, or until slightly golden and crunchy. Set aside to cool.
2. Heat the olive oil in a large pan. Add the onions, garlic, bell peppers, and jalapenos. Saute until slightly caramelized.
3. Drain the tofu and squeeze out as much excess water as possible without accidentally discarding any bits of tofu. Crumble the tofu into the pan with the vegetables and stir. Add in the tamari and nutritional yeast. Stir to combine all the ingredients.
4. Turn down the heat to a medium-low and add in half the tortillas. Stir. Then add in the salsa and the rest of the tortillas and stir again.
5. Add in the spinach or kale and stir once more. Place the lid on the pan and allow the ingredients to come to a slight simmer and heat through.
6. Serve immediately and top with fresh cilantro and slices of avocado.