Vegan tacos with chickpeas are a super quick, easy and tasty taco recipe for lunch or dinner. Protein-packed chickpeas, juicy cherry tomatoes and fresh cilantro combine on a bed of crispy baby spinach leaves to make a simple and healthy taco filling.

No need for waste, use the chickpea water to make a smoky vegan aquafaba mayonnaise flavoured with smoked paprika, cumin and lime. You’ll have these vegan tacos on the table and ready to eat in only 15 minutes!

It’s no surprise that everyone loves tacos. What could you not put in a taco? Got a bunch of odds and ends in your fridge? Make tacos!

Our local veggie store sells huge bunches of cilantro for one-fifth the price of the supermarkets, so I always go there. Unfortunately, it’s usually more than I need for any given recipe and I’ve got to come up with cilantro recipes for the rest of the week. Good thing I like cilantro enough to name my blog after it.

So with one of these huge bunches of cilantro leftover from my curried black-eyed peas recipe and threatening to go bad in my fridge, I came up with this recipe for vegan tacos with chickpeas.

Nothing could be simpler, really. Just drain a can of chickpeas (reserve that liquid for later), mush them up with your hands a bit – chickpeas do have a tendency to roll away on you, and toss with some quartered cherry tomatoes, minced red onion and chopped cilantro. Now for the good part: the sauce.

I love smoky flavours (have you tried my vegan pho with smoky marinated mushrooms? OMG, so good!), so it’s no surprise that I wanted to make a smoky aquafaba mayonnaise for my vegan tacos.

What’s aquafaba, you ask? Remember I told you to reserve the water from your can of chickpeas - that’s aquafaba. It has properties that allow it to act like an egg white and is useful for all manner of vegan recipes from aioli to meringue pies to mousse cakes.

This basic vegan mayonnaise recipe is a great base on which to add any seasoning you like, in this case smoky paprika, cumin and lime juice, but vegan sriracha mayo is great too. Got some favorite herbs and spices? Throw them in and create a tasty new sauce for your vegan tacos!

Vegan Tacos with Chickpeas and Smoky Aquafaba Mayo

Yield: 4 tacos

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 15 minutes

Protein-packed chickpeas, juicy cherry tomatoes and fresh cilantro combine on a bed of crispy baby spinach leaves to make a simple and healthy taco filling.

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Ingredients

• One 560 gram (20 oz) jar of chickpeas
• 250 grams (9 oz) cherry tomatoes, quartered
• ⅓ cup (packed) chopped fresh cilantro
• Half a red onion, finely diced
• 3 tablespoons aquafaba
• 1 clove of garlic
• ½ cup neutral-tasting oil
• 2 teaspoons smoked paprika or 1 chipotle pepper in adobo if you like spicy
• 2 teaspoons lime juice
• 1 ¼ teaspoons cumin
• ½ teaspoon salt
• Four 20 cm (8 inch) tortillas
• 75 grams (2.5 oz) baby spinach

Instructions

1. Drain the chickpeas and reserve the liquid in a small bowl, this is your aquafaba. Place the chickpeas in a large bowl and mash them a little with your hands. This will keep them from rolling out of your tacos. Mix in the cherry tomatoes, cilantro and red onion.
2. In a tall container place 3 tablespoons of the reserved aquafaba and garlic. Using an immersion blender running the whole time, pour in the oil in a steady stream. Mix in the paprika or chipotle, cumin, lime juice and salt. It may seem overly salty, but we didn’t put any salt in the chickpea mixture so it balances out in the tacos.
3. Spoon about half of the smoky mayo into the chickpea mixture and mix well. Reserve the other half to serve in a small bowl for smearing on the tacos.
4. Place a small handful of baby spinach leaves on each tortilla, top with the chickpea mixture and roll up your tacos. Serve with remaining smoky mayo on the side.

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