You know, this week we just haven’t had enough greenery in our lives. Forget the soup. Forget the pancakes (just for a minute). Forget that it’s like 0 degrees outside.
No, what we needed tonight was a salad. A hearty, heaping salad with lettuce coming over the side of the plate, with olives and cherry tomatoes rolling onto the table and a warm base of vegan steak nestled deep within a tortilla bowl with a layer of refried beans serving as the base. Yes, a taco salad is exactly what we needed, in fact.
And a taco salad is exactly what we had! I heated up two tortilla bowls in the oven, and as I did, I sautéed a package of Gardein “beef” tips in my new omelet pan, topping them with some chipotle powder for seasoning. As they cooked, I heated up a can of refried beans in my beloved Corningware crockery. After just a few minutes, everything was cooked to perfection, and it was time to assemble the dish!
I placed each tortilla bowl on a plate and then topped each one with several heaping spoonfuls of refried beans. Next, I divided the beef tips evenly between the bowls – no leftovers on these, no way! – and then topped the protein with lettuce, black olives, and cherry tomatoes. Then we dressed our salads with the dressing of our choice – balsamic for LeeLee, Thousand Island for me – and I added a dash of nutritional yeast for good measure. (LeeLee abstained from that part.) Then all that was left was to dig in!
For being so cold outside, this salad was a blast of summer if I’ve ever tasted one. The flavors were so fresh, the composition a mixture of cool and warm temperatures, and we each mowed down the entire salad, bowl and all. I take comfort, however, in knowing we’ve got enough fixins left for another (steak-less) salad tomorrow for lunch! Let’s extend this summertime feeling just as long as we can, OK?
:)