Vegan Taco Bake

Trust me, this tastes much better than it looks :)

2015-02-18 19.32.58
Served with fresh salsa, guacamole and Red Hot Blue chips. PLEASE ignore my finger. I know I desperately need to get my nails done!

Vegan Taco Bake 

  • 1 large red onion, chopped
  • 1 bunch (about 6) scallions, chopped (remove bulb, use both white and green parts)
  • 1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped
  • 2 poblano peppers, seeded and chopped
  • 1 Tbsp minced garlic
  • 1 package Lightlife Smart Ground (Mexican-style)
  • 1 Tbsp taco seasoning (or 1 tsp cumin + 1 tsp coriander + 1 tsp chili powder)
  • 1 (4oz) can chopped ripe olives
  • 1 cup vegetable broth
  • 1 cup corn grits (Polenta), prepared (see below)
  • Chopped cilantro to garnish (optional)
 
Instructions:
  1. Preheat oven to 375* Fahrenheit
  2. Spray a large frying pan with PAM (or whatever cooking spray) or a splash of veggie broth and put on high heat. Saute the onion, scallions, garlic, peppers, and garlic until they start to brown.
  3. Add the ground “beef,” taco seasoning, broth, and olives.
  4. Stir to combine, then reduce heat to low and let simmer while making the polenta:
  5. Bring 3 cups water (and a pinch of salt) to a boil. Once boiling, slowly pour in the corn grits, stirring constantly. Reduce heat to medium-low and continuously stir/whisk for about 5 -10 minutes, until it thickens up.
  6. Add the polenta to the “beef” mixture and stir it all together.
  7. Pour into a (PAM/cooking spray- sprayed) 9×13 casserole dish, garnish with cilantro, and bake for about 30 minutes.
  8. Serve!

2015-02-18 19.25.51

Note: I originally cut this into 8 servings but they seemed a little small, so after re-portioning I ended up with 7 servings. My suggestion is if you’re eating this as a meal by itself, to make 6 servings. If you are going to add stuff (salsa, guacamole, wrap/chips, salad, etc) or want smaller portions, go with 8. Either way, it’s pretty healthy and low-fat :)

Here’s the nutrition info (per serving) with 7 servings: 188 calories, 1.2g fat, 33.6g carbs (4g fiber, 2g sugar) and 12g protein.

5 thoughts on “Vegan Taco Bake

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s