Get ready for some delicious tacos!

Wow, it's been quite a week! If you follow me on Instagram, you'll know Macky and I flew out to Los Angeles last weekend for a wedding. I love, love living outside Boston but oh my gosh there is such delicious food in Los Angeles. We only had a precious 24 hours to visit all our old favorites (you all know we used to live there before we moved to Boston, right?). Well here are the food places we had to stop by in our whirlwind trip.

Breakfast

La Provence Patisserie & Cafe
French bakery and cafe
Must get: Fresh baguette with homemade raspberry jam, almond financier and anything with their perfectly poached eggs

Lunch

Milo and Olive
Woodfired pizza
Must get: Garlic Knot (a whole roasted garlic bulb wrapped in pizza dough and covered in olive oil and salt...drool)

Dessert

SusieCakes
My all time cake/cupcake bakery of choice
Must get: Carrot Cake AND Vanilla Celebration Cake (I can never chose and either should you!)

Have I made you hungry with all this talk of delicious west coast treats? Let me tell you about my new favorite taco. I cooked up some vegetables in plenty of sesame oil, garlic and ginger and mixed in some quinoa for protein. Then I created the all time best sauce that you can use in many dishes - roasted sweet corn and red peppers and blended with thai red curry paste. It's sweet, it's a tad spicy and it's a beautiful color that will cheer you up before you even take a bite. I topped off the tacos with crispy bok choy leaves (you can easily sub kale), chopped cashews and scallions. The flavors, colors and textures of this one will leave you one satisfied vegetarian, I'm sure of it!

Thai Red Curry Vegetable Tacos

Roasted vegetable tacos with a spicy, sweet sauce made with roasted sweet corn, red peppers and thai red curry paste

Serves: 4

Ingredients:

3/4 cup uncooked quinoa
1 1/2 cups vegetable broth
1 tablespoon coconut oil, melted
1 large red bell pepper, cut into 1/4 inch strips
1 cup frozen corn
1 tablespoon lime juice
1 1/2 teaspoons Thai red curry paste (or to taste)
1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons coconut milk
1 tablespoon sesame oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 inch ginger root, minced
4 scallions, thinly sliced and separated
1 medium carrot, cut into 2 - 3 inch matchsticks
4 ounces shiitake mushrooms, thinly sliced
8 ounces bok choy leaves or kale, cut into 1/2 thin strips
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/4 cup chopped cashews
Corn or flour tortillas
Salt and pepper, for seasoning

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and line two baking sheets with parchment paper
Add the quinoa and vegetable broth to a medium pot over high heat. Once boiling, cover and lower the heat to a simmer. Cook for 15 minutes, remove from the heat and set aside
While the quinoa is cooking, toss the corn and 1/4 of the red pepper in 1 tablespoon coconut oil and season with salt and pepper. Spread out on one of the baking sheets
Toss the bok choy or kale strips with 1 tablespoon olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Spread on the second baking sheet
Roast the corn and red pepper for 15 minutes, remove from the oven and allow to cool for a few minutes. Cook the greens for an additional 5 - 10 minutes or until crispy
Add the roasted corn and roasted pepper to a blender with the coconut milk, lime juice, Thai red curry paste, 1/4 teaspoon salt and pepper. Process until smooth, taste and season with additional salt and pepper until the flavors really sing. Set the sauce aside
Add 1 tablespoon of sesame oil to a large skillet over medium low heat. When hot, add the garlic, ginger and 3/4 of the scallions. Cook until softened (2 - 3 minutes) and add the mushrooms, remaining red pepper and carrots
Raise the heat to medium high, add 3 tablespoons water and cover. Cook the vegetables for about 4 minutes or until tender. Season with salt and pepper
Stir the cooked quinoa into the vegetables
Assemble the tacos by adding the quinoa vegetable mixture to the tortillas. Top with plenty of sauce, chopped cashews, crispy greens and the remaining uncooked scallion