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Roasted Cauliflower and Black Bean Tacos

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These Roasted Cauliflower and Black Bean Tacos are topped with a zesty tahini-cumin-lime crema, they’re naturally gluten-free and vegan, and so delicious.Roasted Cauliflower and Black Bean Tacos Recipe

One of the random questions I love asking our expat friends here in Barcelona is where they go when they’re craving some comfort food from home. Everyone’s eyes always light up when you ask because, as we’ve learned, everyone has those days when all you want is a bite of something nostalgic that tastes like home. And sure enough, everyone has their go-to spot.

Our Irish friend immediately told us where the perfect pub is located in Barcelona to grab a pint and some stew. Our Romanian friend whipped our her phone to show us which restaurant is legit authentic in town. Our Swiss friend brought some of her favorite chocolates over to share with us. Our German friend told us where to we need to go for our next dinner date. And hey, as you might have caught in our (new!) January monthly update video, our local friends here also don’t want us to miss any of their favorite comfort food traditions, and baked us our very own king cake for Epiphany, and invited us along to experience our very first calçotada this month, just so we didn’t miss a thing.

Love it.

Ha, that said, whenever the comfort food question gets turned back on us, Barclay and I have realized that we still have yet to visit a single “American” restaurant here in Barcelona. Whenever those homesick days and cravings hit, we’ve realized that we turn to one thing instead…Mexican food. ?

As you might remember, our first date was a 7-hour chips and salsa-a-thon…eventually followed by a surprise proposal party at the same Mexi restaurant…followed by a wedding full of tacos…followed by a honeymoon in Oaxaca…and a zillion chips and salsa happy hours in between. So it probably should come as no surprise that when we’re feeling all those feels and craving some comfort food from home, we tend to reach for tacos over burgers any day. Thankfully, we’ve finally found a killer Mexican restaurant here in Barcelona, when we feel like going out for some authentic food. But most of the time, we opt for taco nights in, with homemade salsa and margaritas and comfy pants.

And this past weekend, we had the double treat of enjoying some tastes from home, created by some friends from home, when we tried these yummy Roasted Cauliflower and Black Bean Tacos from Sonja and Alex’s new cookbook. Totally our kind of comfort food. ?

Vegan Roasted Cauliflower and Black Bean Tacos

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Do you know Sonja and Alex from their vegetarian food blog, A Couple Cooks?

Somehow, I still have never crossed paths with these two kindred spirits in person yet. (Although I think we’re finally going to remedy that with their upcoming trip to Spain, yay!)  But we have been internet buddies and I have been following their blog for years. And amongst the many things I love and admire about these two, I especially appreciate how beautifully and honestly they have written about their story, I love thumbing back through the archives of their Healthy and Whole series for inspiration in the kitchen, I tune in regularly for their podcast (and love their focus on the stories and people behind the food), plus I’ve gotta say, their cute little son, Larson, always makes Instagram a brighter place.

I’ve also always appreciated their thoughtful approach to creating delicious and simple vegetarian recipes for years, which they regularly share on their blog. So the release of their very first cookbook is an exciting one! It’s aptly named Pretty Simple Cooking. And in addition to 100 recipes (with photos for each), this book is filled with beautiful original watercolors, lovely “life lessons” essays at the beginning of each chapter, and tons of helpful tips and inspiration to make cooking all the more delicious and enjoyable. I totally recommend checking it out.

And…totally recommend these tacos!

When Barclay and I were thumbing through the book, trying to decide which recipe to make, these tacos jumped out at us on a cold and rainy day when we were craving some comfort food. And sure enough, they totally hit the spot.

Roasted Cauliflower for this Vegetarian Black Bean Tacos Recipe

The base of the recipe is a huge pan of roasted cauliflower, tossed with turmeric and other zesty spices, which Barclay and I could have easily just enjoyed as a meal on its own. But when paired with refried black beans and their cumin-lime crema (which is actually vegan, made with tahini), and lots of fresh avocado, lime juice, cilantro and pepitas…these tacos came together to be a totally hearty and totally delicious meal.

I should mention that Sonja and Alex recommend topping their tacos with sliced radishes, which sound delicious, but are impossible to find in our neighborhood here in Barcelona. (I know, weird.)  So if you’d like an extra crunch, add those to your shopping list too. ;)

Roasted Cauliflower and Black Bean Tacos with Crema

A great recipe, created by two great people. Be sure to check out their cookbook, and enjoy these tacos!

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Roasted Cauliflower and Black Bean Vegetarian Tacos Recipe

Roasted Cauliflower and Black Bean Tacos

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star 5 from 52 reviews
  • Prep Time: 25 minutes
  • Cook Time: 25 minutes
  • Total Time: 50 minutes
  • Yield: 0 About 4-6 1x

Description

These Roasted Cauliflower and Black Bean Tacos are topped with a zesty tahini-cumin-lime crema, they’re naturally gluten-free and vegan, and muy delicioso.


Ingredients

Scale

Taco Ingredients:

  • 1 batch Turmeric Roasted Cauliflower (see below)
  • 1 batch Black Beans (see below)
  • 1 batch Cumin Lime Crema (see below)
  • corn tortillas*
  • toppings: diced avocado, chopped fresh cilantro, fresh lime wedges, pepitas, and/or thinly-sliced radishes

Turmeric Roasted Cauliflower Ingredients:

  • 1 large head cauliflower (about 2 pounds)
  • 4 medium garlic cloves, peeled and minced
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 teaspoon each: ground cumin, kosher salt, paprika
  • 1/2 teaspoon each: crushed red pepper flakes, freshly-cracked black pepper, ground turmeric

Refried Black Beans Ingredients:

  • 1 small white onion
  • 2 (15-ounce) cans black beans
  • 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1/2 teaspoon each: chili powder, Kosher salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon freshly-ground black pepper

Cumin Lime Crema Ingredients:

  • 1 small garlic clove, peeled and minced
  • 1/4 cup lime juice (about 2 limes)
  • 3 tablespoons tahini
  • 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1 tablespoon Mexican hot sauce (such as Cholula)
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

Instructions

To Make The Tacos:

  1. Prepare the cauliflower, refried black beans and crema as directed below.
  2. To serve, place a layer of refried black beans in a tortilla, top with roasted cauliflower, a drizzle of the crema, and your desired toppings.

To Make The Turmeric Roasted Cauliflower:

  1. Heat oven to 450°F.
  2. In a large bowl, mix the cauliflower, garlic, olive oil, cumin, salt, paprika, crushed red pepper flakes, black pepper and ground turmeric until evenly combined.
  3. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone mat, then place the cauliflower in a single layer on the sheet.  Roast for 25-30 minutes until it is tender and browned, stirring once halfway through.
  4. Serve immediately.

To Make The Refried Black Beans:

  1. Peel and halve the onion, then slice into half-moon shapes.  Drain the beans, reserving 1/2 cup of the can liquid.
  2. In a medium saucepan, heat the olive oil over medium heat.  Add the onion and sauté until translucent, about 3-4 minutes.  Add the beans, reserved can liquid, kosher salt, chili powder and black pepper.  Turn the heat to medium low and cook for 10-15 minutes, stirring often and smashing the beans toward the end of the cook time, until most of the liquid has cooked out and the texture is mashed and thick.  Scrape the bottom and sides of the pan as necessary.  Taste and season with additional salt as desired.

To Make The Cumin Lime Crema:

  1. In a small bowl, stir together the garlic, lime juice, tahini, olive oil, hot sauce, cumin and salt until evenly combined.  Add 1-2 tablespoons water if necessary to achieve a creamy consistency.

Notes

*If you’d like to char the tortillas, turn on a gas burner to medium heat and place the tortilla directly on the grate.  After about 15 seconds, once the edges are lightly charred, use tongs to flip the tortilla.  Then heat on the opposite side until lightly charred.  Repeat for all tortillas, keeping a close eye on them while cooking so that they do not catch fire.

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71 comments on “Roasted Cauliflower and Black Bean Tacos”

  1. Awesome, I’ve been looking for more vegetarian taco recipes lately! Look forward to trying this one.

  2. I’m in Barcelona this week. Can you please tell me the name of your favorite Mexican food restaurant? We are from Texas and have been traveling for a few weeks so we are craving some good Mexican food. I already have Mendizabal on our list of places to try. Thank you!

  3. Ali, thank you SO MUCH for featuring Pretty Simple Cooking and being overall incredible! We truly appreciate you listening along on the podcast and following our story with Larson. (He says hi, BTW!) Here’s to a meet up in Barcelona and I’m so, so looking forward to an in-person visit. (And maybe some tacos!) Sending big love to you and B.

  4. I can’t get enough of cauliflower lately and I love tacos so win win! Thanks for sharing.

    Alexis | Simple Health Style
    https://simplehealthstyle.com

  5. Made these tonight. Recipe came just in time. Had an abundance of cauliflower to try new recipes. These were amazing. So flavorful and a definite keeper.






  6. I’m always looking for Meatless Monday ideas. Thanks for sharing!

  7. Made this tonight. The spice on the cauliflower is great and I love all of the balance of flavors in the beans, crema, and cauliflower. I may have needed to go a little easy on the lime juice but I liked the tartness since I didn’t add extra salt to the beans. Thanks for this great recipe!






  8. Oh my god, this is hands down the best cauliflower I’ve ever had. SO flavorful and delicious! (Actually, I can’t decide what’s better – the cauliflower itself or the minced garlic that gets all crunchy in the pan – YUM). Love the crema too, so many flavors I wouldn’t have thought to mix. I will be making this again soon, thank you!






  9. I think I can convince my family to eat plant-based for a night with a recipe like this! I love the beautiful color you get with the turmeric (not to mention the health boost)!
    https://www.slackergirlfitness.com/

  10. That was excellent, just made it tonight, it was wonderful. Bonus: I made more of that delicious sauce, so can put it with chickpeas later this week, and have more refried beans so halfway to more tacos or burrito bowls. Thanks!






  11. I made these for dinner tonight! I subbed brown rice for the tortillas (I forgot to get them) and it was still DELICIOUS! Thanks for the recipe!

  12. I made this for my family and it was a hit! I couldn’t find tahini so I cheated and added some plain organic hummus that I had in the frig in the place of the tahini and it worked out just fine. I also sautéed some shrimp in oil and seasoned it with chili powder and garlic to add on top of the tacos, for my family to try, and the flavors went well together.






  13. I wanted to make this but didn’t have some of the key ingredients. So I chopped up tomatoes, cucumber, and broccoli and tossed that in with the spices that would have been for the roasted cauliflower. I set that aside (and left it raw) and cooked up the beans but instead of black beans, I used white navy beans. I also didn’t have any tahini so I used softened cream cheese in place of that. (Which surprisingly turned out amazing). Then I got a low carb wrap and fried it on a skillet with olive oil. When I assembled my wrap I sliced some avocado and lemon and placed that on top. I am so pleased with how it turned out even with all of my substitutes. I encourage anyone who doesn’t have all of the ingrediants to mess around and see what you come up with. Mine turned out delicious.






  14. Absolutely fantastic recipe! Thanks for sharing. So flavorful and healthy. I can’t wait to make it again. It was a huge hit with the husband too!






  15. Sooooo fabulous!! Making it a second time tonight!






  16. I made this dish last night. Superb! It is National Vegetarian Week here in the UK and your recipes came to me through a campaign by the Vegetarian Society which is running on Facebook. Your recipes are accessed through their website. My daughter is vegetarian so I am always looking for new ideas of dishes to cook. This one was a big hit.

  17. This does look very tasty, thanks for the Vegan foods.






  18. I’ve been trying out your recipes for years, and when I stumbled across this one today, I realized that you are in Barcelona…me too! And I think we must have moved here around the same time. I am originally a Texan, and have been on the search for good Mexican food, as well. I’ve found some tortillerias, but I would love to know the restaurant that you and your husband love. Thanks for always inspiring!

  19. The roasted cauliflower was wonderful, nice spice balance without overpowering the delicate veggie flavour! This was a winner.






  20. This recipe will definitely be in our normal rotation. The cauliflower had so much flavor and my two toddlers loved it! This is easy to follow and simple ingredients. Thank you for this idea!






  21. I’ve been trying to nudge my family away from meat, but finding vegetarian recipes that my kids love has been a challenge. This recipe, however, has been a huge hit. My daughter loves taking the leftovers – bowl style – to school for lunch.






  22. These turned up on a search for a way to use up cauliflower and black beans and they did not disappoint. I’ve been raving about them to anyone that will listen!






  23. This is one of my new favorite recipies! It gets easier to make each time. The tahini lime crema is to die for!! These are my guilt free tacos! Lovee it! Thank you for sharing ?❤






  24. I just made these tonight for me and my husband and they were amazing!! We are trying to eat better and I was impressed with how good these turned out. I could eat the cauliflower by itself!






  25. Awesome recipe…Made it with a couple of twists.. used chick peas instead of black beans … why? I didn’t have black beans ; )?‍♂️. Used hard taco. Didn’t have tahini either so used crushed cilantro in a blended yogurt sauce. Amazing!!






  26. I have been trying to incorporate more vegan meals in my rotation. These were DELICIOUS!! They will for sure be on the regular Taco Tuesday menu. Thanks for sharing!!






  27. Everything about this dish is delish! And so quick and easy. I actually roasted the cauliflower and made the beans two days ago but only just fixed for myself today. I followed your suggestions to a tee, word to the wise don’t omit the radishes, that added crunch is so good along with the fresh avocado, lots of cilantro and fresh lime juice. I wonder if I could pass these off on my kids, if not more for me!






  28. The flavors of the cauliflower mix, black beans, and tahini sauce are incredible together! Love these tacos!!






  29. Absolutely perfect! The cauliflower was smoky and “meaty,” and there were enough leftovers for another dinner. Thank you!






  30. These were ABSOLUTELY delicious! Mine didn’t necessarily look the most beautiful, but they were so balanced in flavor. A nice kick and prepped well for a few nights’ dinners.






  31. Best. Tacos. Ever. I didn’t make the crema but added chopped avocado and sour cream to my taco. Absolutely delicious! Thank you for the great recipe.






  32. Made this because cauliflower is in season and I didn’t want to just smother it with cheese like everyone else does. This was amazingly flavorful and a huge hit! The cauliflower has great texture and flavor; I added fresh avocado and tomatoes and served them on some really nice table side fajita sized tortillas. Thanks for the flavor party ??






  33. I’m making these tonight for the fourth time and they are SO good! Thanks!

  34. This was seriously delicious. The perfect weekday meal that really puts a smile on your face. Nothing beats hearing your roommate say your dish had “restaurant quality” written all over it!






  35. So, so good!! That cauliflower was amazing! My husband said it was one of the best dinners I’ve ever made and requested to have this once a week!






  36. I’ve made this recipe at least twice a month since it was published- so for about 2 years! I LOVE it. Realized it was high time I left a review :)






  37. So good! These tacos are my current favorite recipe! My partner loves them too & he’s a meat eater (I’m vegetarian). I also use the refried black beans from this recipe for other meals because they’re so tasty!






  38. This recipe is ABSOLUTELY delicious. I made it exactly as written.. my husband and I both loved it. It will now be put into our rotation of meatless meals. Thanks so much for creating this recipe! It’s a keeper for sure.






  39. This is absolutely delicious!! Restaurant quality!






  40. So SO good! Best tacos I’ve ever made, maybe the best I’ve ever had? I wish I found this recipe sooner. THANK YOU!






  41. This is my new favorite taco! I used jicama tortillas and pre shredded cauliflower. Everything else I followed to a T. I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THIS!!! THANK YOU!!!






  42. These are hands down the best tacos ever! I’ve made this recipe 4 times and it’s perfect every time. The cauliflower is INCREDIBLE, my house smells so amazing while it’s cooking and it’s perfect level of spicy kick. The beans are also super delicious and fresh. I skip the crema and top with hot sauce and avocado. I could eat this every day.






  43. Had almost everything we needed to make this while we isolate at home during the coronavirus pandemic. The only thing we were missing was lime juice, so I subbed plain yogurt with a little vinegar in the dressing (really liked the added coolness and creaminess of the yogurt, so will repeat this substitution). This was truly delicious and so easy.






  44. Seriously the best tacos I’ve ever made in my entire life!!! SOOO flavorful! Soooo delicious!! THANK YOU!! Already made twice since I found this recipe last week.

  45. This recipe was simple and delicious! I’m sensitive to raw garlic so I left it out, but the crema sauce was yummy nonetheless. Will definitely make it again. Thank you!






  46. Sooo yummy!! Didn’t miss meat at all. Way better. I could eat the cauliflower cooked like this daily. I added avocados and chopped cherry tomatoes on the tacos.






  47. As a relatively new vegan, dropping dairy 3 months ago, I can say this is one of my favorite go tos. Super flavorful and the cauliflower makes a great rice bowl too. Thanks for this!






  48. Made as written with one change. I didn’t use parchment paper when roasting the cauliflower because that actually inhibits the roasting and browning. Otherwise, a really delicious recipe, albeit one that does take some time to prepare. This is not a quick weeknight recipe. I will definitely be making it again!






  49. Delicious!!! Tons of flavor! Filling! Thank you!!!