First, I want to aplogize if you tried to access my site in the last few days! It was down for an entire day and then the mobile site wasn’t working so well until this afternoon. It was really frustrating and I’m so sorry for any inconvenience it caused any of you! I’ve now switched to a more reliable hosting site and hopefully it won’t be happening again (fingers crossed!).
I sat down on Thursday morning all ready to publish a Potato and Lentil Taco post that I’ve been sitting on for a while. I tried to login to my site dashboard and realized everything was down 🙁 I got mad for a second but then decided to cook instead. And what I cooked was these BBQ Black Bean & Quinoa Tacos with Cilantro Slaw and they might just be the best tacos I have ever eaten! No lie! One of these days I’ll post the lentil and potato ones but I just couldn’t keep these ones from you!
I seriously couldn’t stop eating them. I had them for a mid-morning snack, then again for lunch and then a third time for an afternoon snack. When my husband came home and asked what was for dinner, I was a little hesitant to offer these babies up because I had my heart set on eating the leftovers for lunch the next day. But, I was nice and let him eat some and even he said that they were one of the best things I’ve ever made. So, if you are looking for a delicious and filling vegetarian taco (that I promise meat eats will love too) then look no further!
Don’t be intimidated by the ingredient list! Most of it is just spices and condiments that you already have in your kitchen 🙂
BBQ sauce adapted from The First Mess and also my Vegetarian Sloppy Joes with Lentils and Chickpeas recipe.
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BBQ Black Bean & Quinoa Tacos with Cilantro Slaw {vegan}
- Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes
- Yield: 8-10 1x
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup dried quinoa
- 1 (15 ounce) can black beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 teaspoon olive oil
- 1 small shallot, diced (about ¼ cup)
- 2 small cloves garlic, minced
- 1 cup marinara sauce
- 1 tablespoon ketchup
- 1 tablespoon pure maple syrup
- 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
- 1 teaspoon tamari
- ½ teaspoon mustard powder
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ⅛ teaspoon black pepper
- Corn tortillas for serving
Cilantro Slaw:
- 4 cups shredded green cabbage*
- 3 cups shredded purple cabbage
- 1 heaping cup shredded carrots
- 1/3 cup chopped cilantro
- 3/4 cups non-dairy mayonnaise (I use Just Mayo and it’s so good!)
- 1 teaspoon dijon mustard
- 2 teaspoons water
- 2 teaspoons pure maple syrup
- 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/8 teaspoon celery seed
Instructions
- Rinse the quinoa and add it to a medium sized saucepan with 1 cup of water. Simmer quinoa until water has evaporated and quinoa is tender, 20-25 minutes. While quinoa is cooking, add all slaw vegetables to a large bowl. Mix the remaining slaw ingredients together in a medium sized bowl and then pour over the vegetables. Mix with a spoon or your hands until the vegetables are evening covered with sauce and refrigerate until needed.
- Heat a large skillet over medium heat and add the olive oil and shallot. Saute for a few minutes until shallot becomes tender. While the shallots are cooking, add all the remaining ingredients, excluding the garlic, to a small bowl (you can add them one by one to the pan but I find it easier and less stressful to add them all to one bowl while the shallots cook). Add the garlic to the pan and cook for another minute. Next, add all of the remaining ingredients (that you’ve already added to one bowl) and cook for about 5 minutes on low heat stirring occasionally.
- Once BBQ Sauce is finished cooking, add the quinoa and black beans to the pan and stir until combined. Warm tortillas and fill with desired amount of BBQ filling and top with coleslaw. Recipe makes about 8-10 tacos depending on how much you fill them.
Notes
You could also use 8 cups of pre-packaged coleslaw mix.
- Prep Time: 30 mins
- Cook Time: 40 mins
- Category: Entree, Gluten Free, Vegan
You will also love:
BBQ Cauliflower & Chickpea Tacos with Creamy Lime Slaw
Vegetarian Sloppy Joes with Lentils & Chickpeas
Made this last night and it was really good! I used pre-made slaw instead of making my own, to save on time. My 7 year old asked if we could make it again the next night! More filling than I thought it would be. It does use a lot of ingredients for the sauce, but it was quick to make, and I had most of them, so no big deal.
I made this with a few substitutions. I’m not a huge fan of quinoa, so I substituted a cup of TVP and it was delicious! I also I didn’t have marinara sauce or tamari, but I had leftover homemade tomato soup that worked beautifully, and I omitted the tamari. It was still absolutely delicious!! Will definitely make again.
Hi Whitney, I’m so glad to hear that you liked these tacos! They are some of my favorites 🙂
These are awesome and very good. Love the bbq rub. The slaw was excellent as well. Pretty easy weeknight meal. I recommend making the slaw after placing cauli and beans in oven to speed up the recipe.
Thank you, JD! I agree, it’s a great weeknight meal 🙂 Glad you enjoyed it!
OK, so I made these! They’re pretty darn good! I’m not vegan, so here’s one from the meat eater section. To me they are “missing something” a tiny bit, but I added a squeeze of lime and it helped a lot! But they’re filling without being heavy and a really creative taco filling.
Great recipe, I will need to serve this to my vegan friends next time they come over. 😀
These are some of my favorite tacos so I’m so glad you liked them!! And, lime makes everything better 🙂 I hope you’re vegan friends enjoy them too!
Yum! What a great way to use quinoa. These tacos are right up my alley <3
Thanks, Layla! They are some of my favorites!
Oh my goodness.. that tacos looks delicious – plus the colorful veggies makes it more appealing. One day I will try to make this. Thanks for sharing Izzy!
Thanks, Jeff! I’m pretty sure they are my favorite tacos ever! I hope you enjoy them if you do give them a try 🙂
Oh my… nothing like sitting down to write and everything is down! That’s the thing about writing, when you’re ready, you’re ready. There’s no time to wait! So happy to hear the blog issues have been worked out. Shew. Stress!!! But look what came out of your moment of inability to blog! Inspiration struck! Hooray! Tacos… yesss please and are not just for Tuesday! I love the combination of quinoa and black beans. Delicious my dear… and paired with the slaw is perfection!
I love the sound of these tacos, Izzy! Such a creative idea to use quinoa. And I’m all about the bbq flavor! This sounds like such a flavorful meal!
Before I read that you said these are the best tacos you’ve made I was thinking these look like some of the best vegan tacos I’ve come across! All the flavors are making my mouth water. I’m also always topping my tacos or quinoa bowls with a crunchy and fresh slaw so I love that you topped these tacos with it too.