Crispy, tasty and healthy? Yup, It’s true! I’ve found an alternative to Corn-tacos.
You may know..from the other site I’ve been super busy over the past few days and not had much time for blogging but It’s always on my mind! I love sharing my ‘interesting’ recipes with you, that’s what my dad calls them. For the life of me I can’t get them to think vegetables are normal foods.
Me and Tom regularly eat Mexican style food, admittedly we use packet mixtures for 2 nights a week but they’re relatively basic mixes with no preservatives in, so don’t judge us. We try. So anyway, I really wanted to sort out some gluten free alternatives to the wheat & flour taco and tortillas we use at the moment. So I searched for “Alternative taco shells” there are dozens of different recipes for these.
I knew I wanted them to be a yellow or orangey colour so I settled on the carrot Taco shells by Sweetashoney, I’ve altered the recipe a fair bit but all credit must go to her for such a great idea. You can also find all the nutrient information on her website too!
They’re around 19g of cheese per taco shell and just under 120 calories for these shells, but remember they’re rich in fiber, protein and ‘healthy’ fats instead of processed carbohydrates, refined sugars and preservatives so in the long-haul these healthy, gluten free, spicy crispy shells are much better for you!
- 5 Large carrots
- 70g Cheese (Medium/high fat)
- 1 Medium Egg
- 2 tablespoons GF flour
- 1 Pinch Paprika Salt and Pepper
- 1/2 Tsp of Flaked Chilli or 1/4 of a red chilli
- Switch your oven on to 200 Degrees (GM 6)
- Grate the carrots finely, I used a processor for mine as it took a few minutes to do it by hand, place them into a microwavable bowl and half-cover them.
- Microwave for 3 minutes and leave to stand for 2, mean while you can grate your cheese and whisk your egg.
- Once the carrots are cooked and have 'stood' you can drain the liquid away and place into a cheese cloth or similar fabric.This is the most important part, you must squeeze as much water out as you possibly can, whether it means opening the cloth and mixing them around until separated and re-squeezing.
- Once completely dry separate the carrot and make it as lump free as possible.The squeezing would form a dough and bring them together, causing lumps.
- Add all of your ingredients to a large mixing bowl, including your optionals. Mix until a thick dough has formed.
- Using either a tablespoon or a small icecream scoop, dollop the mixture onto a lined baking tray, flatten them down until they're similar depth and size to a french crepe'
- Pop them into the Oven and wait patiently for 15 minutes, or you can assemble how you're going to shape your tacos.
- I used 4 bottles that were around 2.8" in circumferance and they were a bit wide, you want to go for something bigger than 1.4" but no bigger than 2.5". This way you'll get the perfect depth for your tacos and enough room to really fill them.
- Remove them from the oven quickly and pop them onto objects to shape them and just leave them to set, you can mould them slightly with your hands but don't press too hard, you might break them.
- Leave to cool for 20 minutes minimum, stuff them then stuff yourself!
- If you leave them to cool on a rounded object make sure that it's width is less than 2.5" otherwise they're too wide to hold and stuff properly.
- Remember, the more cheese you add the quicker they will harden.
- For best results leave them to cool fully or better yet leave them in the fridge to really firm up, you can make them 2 days in advance!
- Baking Paper
- Bottle or object to shape the tacos on.
and moulded them onto old wine bottle (not mine) I don’t really drink. I topped mine with an Avacado salad for a light lunch but Tom had his for dinner and went for a Mexican chilli with fries and topped his with cheese!
Many of you may know I’m mildly lactose intolerant so it might come as a shock to you that these are quite cheese heavy.I haven’t had a problem with my lactose issues in years as I’ve been very in control of how much I eat on a regular basis. I can drink around 300ml of milk a day or 150ml and two eggs but It has to be spaced out.
Whilst they’re more cheese than I’d usually eat I really do think they’re amazing for a replacement to wheat and flour. I will always be honest with you, they’re around 18g of cheese per shell and I’d had 3 coffees and an egg so..
It flared up my lactose intolerant problems. My stomach was cramping and I felt horrendous all evening after eating only one of these but of course Tom and the rest of the family were fine. So, of course be wary if you have a mild irritation to lactose as these really will flare it up. For me personally the gluten intolerance is much milder than my lactose intolerance so I’d rather have the wheat than the cheese.
Maybe next time I’ll skip the cheese and find a different bonding agent, we’ll see..For next week I’m looking for a sweet treat, the cupcakes went down really well so I’m sure you’re all looking forward to the sweet stuff I have prepared for next Wednesday!
Experiment with these bad boys though because they were really tasty and very similar in texture to a taco, it was like a Dorito texture, which is perfect for what a taco needs! I added some spices into mine but feel free to add anything you like and let me know what you think or what you ate with them!
10 Comments
These look and sound yum. You make me feel rather guilty as it would not occur to me to make homemade tacos but actually these sound rather easy to make:)
Thank you, that’s such a lovely comment. I try to make all of my food from scratch but I understand it’s easier said than done x
They look amazing and all ingredients in the cupboards! Great recipe. X
What a great idea – I’d be very interested in finding out how you solve the cheese situation as I’m not a cheese lover. No judging at all on the use of packet mixes – I find Mexican packet mixes are about the most authentic out of other pre-prepared food x
I don’t have to eat gluten free but I will be making these for my family, I know they would be a huge hit! Thanks for sharing
we love tacos so will certainly give this a try out sometime. They’d make good snacking treats too with some sour cream.
YUM!! these look absolutely delicious! We don’t tend to eat a lot of Mexican food in our house — apart from Fajitas! Might have to rectify that 😉
You definitely should, they’ll make you love mexican food!
What a great idea! i have loads of gluten free friends and they always hate missing out on tacos so this would be PERFECT – sharing with them!
Thank you Charlotte! They were lovely (the ones I managed to eat) I’m glad I can help! xx