Chickpea Tacos with Special Sauce

I call the sauce "special" because I'm not quite sure what to call it, but it is silky, creamy, and full of flavor and spice. It starts with my Cashew Sour Cream inspired by My New Roots, which I also use as the base for my Cashew Ranch Dressing. For my Special Sauce, I add roasted garlic and jalepeno, just like I did for my Roasted Garlic and Jalepeno Aioli. I always keep jalepenos from the farmers market in my freezer so I have them on hand.

• First remove the paper from 1 large head of garlic
• Seed and dice 1 jalepeno pepper
• Put garlic and jalepeno into small rameken
• Drizzle over 1 Tb olive oil to coat the garlic and jalepeno
• Cover with tin foil and bake in a 350 degree oven for 30-40 minutes. I usually don't preheat, and ovens vary. Just make sure the garlic is soft enough to mash with a fork, but not burnt, just a slightly more brown color.

This is what it looks like before going into the oven

This is what it looks like out of the oven

In a magic bullet or other high speed blender, put in

• roasted garlic and jalepeno, including the bit of oil left in the rameken 
• 1 cup raw, whole cashews
• 1/2 cup plus 2 Tb filtered water
• 2 Tb Lemon juice 
• 1 ts salt
• 1 ts paprika
• 1 ts cumin

Blend until smooth and silky. It should look just like nacho cheese. In fact, if you add 2 Tb of nutritional yeast it would be the best nacho cheese sauce ever.

For the chickpeas, you need

• 1 15 oz can chickpeas, drained
• 1/2 ts salt
• 1-2 Tb olive oil or coconut oil (I prefer coconut oil for frying, but I used olive oil this time)

Mash chickpeas with your hands but not completely so they still have some texture.

Heat oil on medium heat
Add chickpeas and leave undisturbed until edges are golden brown
Flip chickpeas and continue to cook until golden brown

Assemble the tacos however you want! I did mine in this order:

• corn tortilla
• special sauce
• lettuce leaf
• chickpeas
• tomatoes

I made these for my two special guys, Jason and his best friend Gil. This is the time of year when he comes by every sunday and watches football. He's always been a big lover of my cooking, and these were thoroughly enjoyed by the three of us. See, even meat eaters can love plant based food if its made with flavor, passion, and love. Enjoy!