It’s safe to say that cauliflower is having a bit of a moment. While the vegetable used to be considered a bit of a bland addition to dinners, it’s now being incorporated into a huge number of vegan recipes. Whether it’s being roasted, marinaded, or even made into rice, cauliflower is becoming increasingly popular. If you’re looking for new and exciting cauliflower recipes, we present to you: spicy cauliflower tacos.

Tacos are a hugely popular dish, served at parties, date nights, or just nights in alone all over the world. They are a traditional Mexican food, and refer to small corn or wheat tortillas filled with a variety of foods. While many taco recipes contain meat, cream, and cheese, they couldn’t be easier to make without using animal products.

This vegan taco recipe, which comes from Ashley Madden, features black beans (or chickpeas) for its protein source, as well as salad like avocados, tomatoes, onion, and lettuce. They’re topped off with a vegan sour cream of your choice.

Benefits of cauliflower

Cauliflower is regarded as a highly nutritious vegetable. It’s a source of vitamin C, vitamin K, vitamin B6, and folate, as well as potassium and manganese. It’s also a source of fiber, which helps digestive health.

If you’re entertaining guests this weekend, or just fancy cooking something a bit more exciting for your midweek dinner, here’s how to make these spicy cauliflower tacos

Spicy cauliflower tacos recipe

These sheet pan cauliflower tacos are spicy, packed full of flavor, and easy to make

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Servings tacos

Ingredients

Spice blend

2 tbsp (8g) nutritional yeast
1 tbsp (8g) chili powder
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp sweet paprika
Pinch of freshly ground black pepper

Cauliflower and black bean filling

1 medium-sized head cauliflower, cut into 1 inch (2.5cm) florets (about 5 cups [500g]
1 ½ cups (285g) cooked or canned black beans or chickpeas, drained and rinsed
¼ cup (60ml) vinegar-based hot sauce (e.g., Frank’s RedHot)

To serve

8 (5 inch [12.5-cm]) corn tortillas, or sturdy lettuce leaves
1 head leafy green lettuce, chopped, or ¼ head purple or green cabbage, shredded
2 cups (520 g) salsa of choice
1 red onion, finely diced
2 tomatoes, diced
2 avocados, pitted and peeled, sliced or diced
Vegan sour cream
3 limes, sliced into wedges

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 400ºF (200ºC) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Make the spice blend: In a small bowl, combine the nutritional yeast, chili powder, cumin, onion powder, garlic powder, paprika and black pepper, and set aside.
Make the filling: In a large bowl, combine the cauliflower florets and beans. Drizzle the hot sauce over the top and toss to coat everything evenly. Now, spread half of the spice blend over the top and mix again. Then, add the rest of the spice blend and mix again until all the cauliflower and beans are coated.
Transfer to the prepared baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes. Flip and redistribute in a single layer, then bake for another 10 to 15 minutes, or until the cauliflower is fork-tender and might be beginning to char on the edges.
Meanwhile, warm the corn tortillas in the oven or in a large sauté pan over medium heat.
Layer each tortilla with lettuce, salsa, spicy cauliflower and black bean filling, onion, tomato, avocado, cashew sour cream (if using) and a generous squeeze of lime juice.

This recipe was republished with permission from Ashley Madden (owner of Rise Shine Cook). It features in her book, Plant-Based Delicious. You can follow Ashley on Instagram here.