Tamales are a warm and comforting dish that is great for feeding a crowd because its almost impossible to make just one. If you’ve ever made tamales in the past, you probably remember eating them breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the days after. Unfortunately, for those who are eating plant based or a vegan diet, vegan tamales are hard to come by.
This vegan take on the classic offers same comforting feeling with a hearty plant based filling of mushrooms and dried peppers.
Vegan Tamales VS Regular Tamales
What in Tamales is not usually vegan in the first place?
- The filling, which is usually chicken, pork, beef, or cheese.
- The dough, which is often mixed with lard, a saturated fat made from rendered pork fat.
For this recipe, as mentioned, we are changing out the filling for one with a mushroom base. Additionally, for the dough, we are using avocado oil instead of lard. This switch not only makes the dish vegan, it also helps to reduce the saturated fat content as well.
If the rest of your family or friends are not vegan, you could also just make the dough with the modifications. Then have a separate vegan filling option to use from some, while others can use the same dough to fill there own with what they desire.
Vegan Filling Variation
Although this recipes uses mushrooms and dried peppers, you can also used other vegan filling such as refried beans, seitan, or textured vegetable protein (TVP) in the same dried pepper sauce. These changes can alter the flavor, texture, or protein content. This can help the dish better meet the goals of the plant-based eater.
Other vegan filling options include:
- Plant-based cheese
- Plant-based cheese and beans
- Refried beans
- Tempeh crumbles
- Shredded Seitan
- Jackfruit
- Roasted poblano pepper and corn
When to make them?
Tamales are usually made for celebrations such as Christmas, New Years, Día de Los Muertos, and Cinco de Mayo. However, they can also be used for other gatherings or as a casual delicious meal prep option that is easy to reheat and take on the go.
Step-by-step guild to filling tamales
Step 1:
First, place a ~1/4 cup masa dough ball in the center of your corn husk.
Step 2:
Next, spread the masa dough ball on the top 3/4 of your corn husk.
Step 3:
After the dough is spread, place vegan mushroom filling length wise in the center of spread masa dough
Step 4:
Then, fold in the sides of your spread masa dough by gently pulling over the sides of the corn husk, and peeling back slowly one at a time.
Step 5:
Finally, fold the sides of the corn husk over to wrap the dough and filling of the tamale. Finish by folding up the bottom of the corn husk and placing in your steamer basket.
Print
Vegan Tamales
This comforting and sharable dish is to cook with friends or family to form new or continue old traditions. With its vegan modifications, it’s great for the meat-eaters, plant-based, and vegan eaters alike.
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: 30–35 1x
Ingredients
Corn Husks:
- Water
- 35–40 dried corn husks*
Filling:
- 3 lbs sliced white button mushrooms
- 3 guajillo chilis
- 3 ancho chilis
- 2 New Mexico chilis
- 1/2 large yellow onion
- 5 cloves garlic
- 2 peeled carrots
- 2 tsp dark chili powder
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 2 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp of died amchur (mango powder)- optional
- 1 tsp oregano
- 1 Tbsp sugar
- 1 Tbsp kosher salt
Dough:
- 4 cups masa harina
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 Tbsp baking powder
- 3 cups warm water
- 1/4 cup avocado oil
Instructions
- Fill a large wide pot and a small pot 3/4th of the way with water. Heat over high heat until the water comes to a boil.
- Once your large pot comes to a boil, remove from the heat, add dried corn husks, cover, and set aside.
- While waiting for your water to boil, in a heavy bottom pan toast your chilies, cinnamon, and bay leaves over medium heat. After the chilies become aromatic and pliable remove stems and seeds. Remove the cinnamon and bay leaf once they are aromatic and set aside.
- Once your water comes to a boil in the small pot, remove from the heat and add your chilis. Put another heat proof object on top of your chilis to weigh them down.
- While your chilis soak, heat a large pan over medium heat with avocado oil. Add your mushrooms and sauté until excess liquid is removed and remove from heat.
- Strain your chilis. In a large blender, add your chilis, onion, garlic, carrot, chili powder, smoked paprika, cumin, amchur, oregano, sugar, salt and 2 1/4 cups fresh water. Blend until smooth.
- Reheat your mushrooms on high heat making a small well in the middle. Add your oil, cinnamon stick, bay leaf, and the contents of your blender. Be careful as the liquid may splatter. Bring your filling to a simmer and cook for 5-10 minutes. Depending on the thickness it may need 1-2 extra cups of water.
- While your filling simmers, make the dough. Start by mixing your Masa with salt, baking powder and water with a stand mixer and a paddle attachment or by hand until smooth. After your mixture is smooth, mix in your avocado oil and knead again until thoroughly incorporated. It should be the consistency of Play-Doh. Make sure to add you water slowly it may require slightly more or less to meet this consistency.
- Starting from the long end, smear 1/4 to 1/3 cup of dough about 3/4ths of the way down the inside of your corn husks. Place 2 teaspoons to 2 tablespoons of filling down the middle of your dough length wise. The amount of dough and filling will depend on the size of your husks. Gently fold in the sides of your flattened dough over the filling. Then wrap the sides of the corn husk around the dough and filling and fold the bottom end up before placing in the steamer. See images above for step-by-step guild to filling you tamales.
- Place filled tamales upright in a deep steaming basked or shingled in shallow one. Steam for 25-30 minutes.
Notes
*If there are rips or tears in some of your corn husk, you can double layer some or use a smaller husk to cover it up.
- Prep Time: 30
- Cook Time: 30
- Category: Lunch/Dinner
- Cuisine: Mexican
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