I love when you can make a recipe and then use that prepared food in another recipe. That’s what happened for me. I made the delicious Pineapple Salsa last week (link here) and used the leffovers as a toppings for these veggie tacos. It was great double duty and nothing went to waste!

So just like the pineapple salsa, this recipe is from the Thug Kitchen 101 cookbook. Al pastor is traditionally made with pork, but since this is a meatless book, this recipe uses sweet potato and tempeh. I have never tried real al pastor tacos, so I have to assume the seasonings/ingredients used here are relatively traditional, protein aside.

Let’s start with the tempeh because I’ve only eaten once or twice in my life. It is similar to tofu, in that it’s made from soybeans, but it is less processed which makes it nutritionally better for you. The soybeans are cooked and fermented and formed into “cakes”. The fermentation gives it a little ‘funkiness’ when eaten on it’s own but it will take on whatever flavours you throw at it when cooking (just like tofu).

The taco filling was made of tempeh slices, as well as shredded sweet potato, so there was a mix of textures. Those were nicely seasoned with ingredients like chili powder, smoked paprika, lime juice and pineapple. It was a good mix of smokey with sweet and a little acid. Nothing was overpowering, it was a good blend of ingredients. The filling was good on its own too – would be great with some rice or on a bed of lettuce.

I couldn’t find small corn tortillas at my grocery store, so I used whole wheat tortillas instead. And like I mentioned before, I topped my tacos with leftover pineapple salsa. The sweet chunks of pineapple were delicious with the smokey tempeh and sweet potato. Really good combination.

These were some good tacos and I’m definitely going to cook with tempeh again. Give it a try if you’ve never done so!