Mexican Inspired Vegan Recipes ☀️ Oven Baked Taquitos, 7 Layer Dip And More!

Hey everyone, my name is Nicole, also known as NikkiVegan, and in today's video I'm going to be making some vegan Mexican-inspired dishes that are super colorful, flavorful, and very easy to make. First we've got some crispy oven-baked taquitos that I'm serving with a tangy tomatillo salsa and a vegan sour cream dip that is such a good combination. Then we're going to be making an avocado chopped salad that is literally the opposite of a boring salad. It's got so many colors and flavors and textures, it's so satisfying and really, really quick too. And finally, I'm going to be showing you how to make a vegan version of one of my favorite go-to party foods. This is a major crowd pleaser. It looks really beautiful because it's literally got 7 layers and you can see all of the flavors and textures and colors so you know it's going to be good before you even take a bite. And this vegan version is super easy to make. Thank you to Mi Rancho for teaming up with me on this video and let's go ahead and get started with those crispy oven-baked taquitos. This is a new and improved version of a recipe I made years ago and it starts with some simple mashed potatoes. But this is a great hack that you can use for this recipe or anytime you're making mashed potatoes and that's to mash in some cannellini beans. Cannellini beans are really mild in flavor so they're not going to make the mashed potato filling taste beany, but they do add a nice creamy richness because of the starch in the beans and they also offer extra fiber, protein, and added nutrients like iron. I'm going to mash this together with a little vegan butter, some almond milk, and salt and pepper and then I really like to stir in some fresh scallions. Not only does this offer a lot of flavor, but it also looks really pretty in the taquitos. So I'm just going to mash until this is nice and creamy and I'm going to roll this into some flour tortillas. I'm using the organic flour tortillas from Mi Rancho and I love that they're really soft and pliable. You don't have to heat them up beforehand to prevent cracking. They're really easy to work with. So I'm just going to dollop the potato mixture into the center and then I'll push it back to the lower third of the tortilla and simply roll forward. Super easy to do. The only trick is to make sure that the fold side is placed down onto the cookie sheet. That way they stay closed when they're baking. And normally taquitos get nice and crispy from deep frying, but we're just going to bake them in the oven. What I like to do is roll all six of them at once, then I'll place them on a baking sheet and lightly spray with either avocado oil or I'll brush the tops with avocado oil or olive oil so that they get a little bit crispy and golden brown on top. You also have the option of adding a little vegan cheese on top too because it also gets really crispy and adds extra flavor to the taquitos. So I love to do that. I think these are perfect when paired with salsa verde. There's something really beautiful about the acidity and the brightness of a salsa verde like this one, but I also like to serve it a dish with like extra sauces because just one's not enough, right? So I like to make a sour cream sauce using vegan sour cream, salsa verde, fresh lime juice, fresh cilantro, and then just salt and pepper to taste. It's really quick and easy and it's so good with the potato taquitos. If you think about how baked potatoes are good with sour cream, these kind of have the same vibe except they're crispy, crunchy, and a little cheesy on top, creamy and gooey on the inside and just perfect with that salsa verde and the salsa verde sour cream tip. I really think you're going to enjoy these. These are so good and really nice and hearty too. You'll notice that all of the salsas and the tortillas that I'm using to make these recipes are from Mi Rancho. Mi Rancho makes vegan-friendly organic salsas that are non-GMO and very authentic. It's a family-owned business that's been making tortillas, tortilla chips, and salsas in the Oakland, California area for over 80 years. When they started back in 1939, they were the only Mexican grocery store in the area and even though Oakland is kind of known as a place now where you can get, you know, Mexican chilies and spices and handmade tortillas, at the time they were really the first and they started as a grocery store. They slowly started making handmade tortillas and tortilla chips and selling to the local restaurants in the area and now they have a full line. They have so many different kinds of tortillas including whole wheat and gluten-free options and they are still a 100% family-owned business, which I think is really cool. So if you want to check out their salsas, their tortillas, their tortilla chips, or just read about their family story because I love reading about small businesses, especially like family-owned businesses. I always find that really interesting, so you can click the link in the description box below to check that out and let's go ahead and move on to making the avocado chopped salad. We're going to start by making a corn salsa here and for this, we're just going to go ahead and mix together some thawed frozen corn, fresh chopped tomatoes, some finely diced red onion, and fresh cilantro. I'll bring this together with some fresh lime juice squeezed right over the top and lots of salt and pepper. I find that lots of black pepper is particularly good here, so you can do that to taste. Now I add a little bit of cumin. I like the earthiness and the smokiness that it offers, but that's totally optional. And then I'll set that aside and make the chickpeas, which are also super easy. We're just going to warm them through in a pan with some taco seasoning and then to assemble these bowls, we're going to do some cold crunchy lettuce, lots of that corn and tomato salad, the chickpeas that are still warm, and big chunks of creamy avocado. I love to contrast the creaminess of the avocado with some crispy, crushed up tortilla chips. I find that this kind of acts like croutons in the salad and offers a really nice contrast of textures and flavors. And then I kind of drizzle on that same sour cream dip that I showed you earlier, the one that has the salsa verde in it. This is so quick and easy to make, and I think it looks really pretty. You've got lots of different colors, flavors, and textures, but honestly, this is how I eat it. This right here, all tossed and mixed together. Maybe not as pretty as when it's all divided into rows, but honestly, it's better because it's all mixed and it's got the dressing on every single bite. I also love to serve this with extra tortilla chips on the side. That way I can really scoop up the salad with the crunchy tortilla chip, and it's just so good because you've got the sweet corn and the creamy avocado. It's all good and crunchy and creamy, and you've got to try it. Finally, we're going to be making a seven-layer dip, and I think this is probably my favorite of the bunch just because it's very nostalgic for me. This is a recipe that I used to make all the time before I was vegan, and I just love when I'm able to make something that I used to love before I was going vegan, make a vegan version, and have my friends and family, whether they're vegan or not, enjoy it. And this is just one of those recipes that feels like a little bit of a win for Team Vegan because it's hearty, it's satisfying, people are drawn to it because it's really colorful, and it's super easy to make. So let's go ahead and get into it. The first layer of the seven-layer dip is going to be some refried beans, and if you want to take some help from the grocery store and use refried beans, this is super quick and easy. But it's also pretty easy to make your own, so I do this with some onion and garlic. I just saute that in a pan with some taco seasoning. I like to add the spices directly to the pan so that they can bloom and become super flavorful. Then we'll add our black beans, or you could do pinto beans, and then I'm just going to add some water and mash with a fork. You can really decide how creamy or chunky you want the refried beans to be. If you want them to be perfectly smooth, just mash until they're perfectly smooth. Then we're going to add lots of flavor with some salsa. I like using a nice chunky one like this salsa roja from Mi Rancho, and this one is nice because it has a nice garlicky kick to it. Then I like to use a glass Pyrex dish like this one, especially one that has high sides so you can see all the layers because I think that's part of the fun of a seven-layer dip. I'm going to spread the bean layer on and let it cool so that we don't melt the toppings on top, and then we'll do a nice thick layer of guacamole. I like to use store-bought here, but you could definitely make your own, and make sure that all the layers go to the sides of the dish so that you can see them. Then I'm going to make a quick corn salsa again with thawed frozen corn, some fresh lime juice, salt, pepper, and cilantro. I'm just going to put that right on top, and this adds a nice sweetness that balances out some of the savory garlicky flavors that we've got going on in the beans and in the guacamole. I'm going to add some chopped deseeded tomatoes, and then I'm using Kite Hill sour cream to make this quick taco-seasoned dip. You can use any vegan sour cream that you like, including coconut yogurt. Not all coconut yogurts work for this. Some of them are a little thin, but the ones I put on the screen are perfect. We'll season this with taco seasoning and smoked paprika for some extra kick, and then I like to dollop this right on top of the tomatoes and smooth it out with the back of a spoon. The trick here is not to lift the spoon up, but just kind of drag it, and it will make sure that it kind of glides over the tomatoes and keep all the layers intact. Then we'll do some thin slices of crunchy radish, which offer a nice freshness. Everything else is really creamy, and the crispy crunch of the radish is really nice. The seventh layer is some fresh scallions, which offers a nice kind of onion-y bite without being too strong and overpowering, and I love how all of these layers are flavorful and on their own, but they work together to create something really special. Especially those beans, which has the salsa, the taco seasoning, adds a lot of heartiness and richness. We've got creamy, sweet, crunchy, garlicky, and oh, just so good on a tortilla chip. All three of these recipes really showcase that vegan food can be really hearty and satisfying, vibrant, colorful, and still easy to make. I think a lot of times when we're thinking about making vegan alternatives to some of our favorites or traditional recipes, that it can feel like, oh, we're not going to be satisfied or we're going to be missing the meat or the cheese, but really, there's so many ways to veganize our favorite food and have that good, hearty, full, satisfied feeling, both just because the food is delicious, but also really substantial and nourishing as well. So I hope these recipes showcase that. I hope you enjoy them at home. Comment below and let me know which one you're most excited to try first. All the recipes are going to be in the description box below, and that's also where you'll find a link to check out Mi Rancho. Thank you guys so much for watching, and I will see you in a video very soon. Bye.