Meal of the Week #3

Last week I shared breakfast for my meal of the week, so this week I am presenting a dinner. We actually ate this dinner last week, but I am feeling motivated to show this taco meal after last evening's episode of Top Chef. On the show the guest judge, Chef Rick Bayless, challenged everyone to make upscale tacos. Several of the contestants were not happy about it, one whined loudly saying that Mexican food is not gourmet. I'm not claiming that my tacos are upscale or gourmet, I'm just saying that tacos can be made with anything, so to me the challenge was really not a stretch.

We have been on an habanero kick since returning from Yucatan. Asparagus is not ordinarily eaten with habanero. In fact, my Mexican mother-in-law had the first asparagus of her life only a few weeks ago. But, that didn't stop us from pairing the two. A lot of the tacos that DH and I eat are not what the typical American or even a typical Yucatecan would eat as a taco. Tacos work very well with fusions of many different cuisines.

I roasted asparagus with white onion, garlic cloves and shitake mushrooms that had been lightly coated with olive oil and very simply seasoned with salt and pepper. In the same roasting pan, I added two slices of tofu that I liberally coated with some homemade salsa de chile ancho. It didn't take long to roast in a hot oven of about 400 degrees F. I stirred the vegetables and flipped the tofu after about 5 to 10 minutes, then they cooked only a short time more.

We made homemade corn tortillas and then served the roasted tofu and veggies with refried black beans, lime wedges and two different habanero salsas. We sprinkled everything with lime juice and each taco we made had a different combination of the ingredients.

Summary of Meal:

protein: black beans, tofu, and corn tortillas
whole grain: corn tortillas
dairy: none
fruits/vegetables: onion, mushroom, asparagus, chiles, limes
fats/sugars: minor use of olive oil