These BBQ Cauliflower and Chickpea Tacos are delicious, flavorful and filling!
Tacos in the morning, tacos in the evening, tacos in the summertime. If you eat cauliflower in a taco you can eat tacos anytime! Sorry, I just had to get that out, because it has been running through my head for about 2 hours now! I apologize in advance for it now being stuck in your head for the next two hours 🙂
All songs aside, true story: if you stuff your tacos full of cauliflower you can eat them all the time and trust me, you will want to! I tested these tacos about three times before I got them just perfect and it was one of the best weeks of my life.
I have yet to eat these tacos in the morning, but I did enjoy them for both lunches and dinners, for 5 days in a row…
Do you ever find yourself making a dish over and over again because you love it so much? As much as I enjoy experimenting in the kitchen and coming up with new recipes for the blog, on the weekdays I usually find myself eating the same things over and over again. It could be that I’m lazy, or it could be my mildly obsessive personality.
When I buy a new outfit that I love, I sometimes wear it every single day for a few days, then wash it and wear it again. And don’t even get me started on how many times I listen to my favorite songs on repeat until my husband probably wants to break the CD so we never have to hear it again.
I also get obsessed with certain ingredients and I find myself putting them in everything I make. Right now cauliflower is that ingredient. I came up with these tacos because what better way is there to eat cauliflower than stuffing inside my other food obsession: tacos. And it turns out, there is not better way!
I’ve been obsessively watching (I told you I had an obsessive personality!) Bobby Flay’s BBQ addiction show lately and it really inspired me to make my own BBQ rub. I feel silly saying that I had never made my own rub before, but I really don’t think I had!
I’m not sure why though, because it is so easy. Literally all you do is add a bunch of spices together and mix them up, and you are done! Then you rub it all over your ingredient of choice and it transforms it into a seriously flavorful meal.
You really can’t have proper BBQ without a healthy serving of slaw on top of it. I took a little shortcut here and used a bag of pre-sliced cole slaw mix, but you could also slice your own cabbage and carrots if you would like.
To me, the most important element of the slaw is the dressing and homemade dressing is always better than the store bought stuff, so that is one shortcut I will never take! For this slaw, I made a classic creamy dressing and then I added the juice of one lime, and let me tell you, it was creamy and tart and delicious!
BBQ Cauliflower & Chickpea Tacos with a Creamy Lime Slaw {gf+v}
- Yield: 4 - 6 1x
Description
A delicious and filling vegan dinner that everyone will love!
Ingredients
- 1 head of cauliflower
- 1 1/4 cup of cooked chickpeas
- 1 teaspoon olive oil
- 10–12 corn tortillas
- sliced jalapenos, if desired
BBQ Rub:
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoons salt
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- 1 teaspoon coconut sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
Creamy Lime Slaw:
- 1 14 ounce bag of cole slaw mix or 6 – 7 cups of thinly chopped cabbage and carrots
- A scant 1/2 cup of veganasie, or mayonnaise
- 1/2 teaspoon dijon mustard
- 1/2 teaspoon maple syrup
- 1 1/2 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
- 1/4 teaspoon celery seed
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 pinch black pepper
- 1 teaspoon water
- Juice of one lime
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees F.
- Make the slaw: In a medium sized bowl add all of the slaw dressing ingredients. Mix ingredients together until a creamy sauce has formed. In a large bowl, add the cabbage mixture and pour dressing over. Mix until everything is combined. Place in the refrigerator until ready to use.
- In a small bowl or jar, add all of the BBQ rub ingredients and mix together.
- Separate all of the cauliflower florets and chop them into bite size pieces. Place florets and chickpeas onto a large sheetpan and drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with BBQ rub. Toss everything together with your hands so that cauliflower and chickpeas are coated with the rub. Place the sheetpan in the oven and bake for about 25 minutes, flipping once.
- If desired, warm up corn tortillas on the stove or in the oven. Add about 1/4 cup of cauliflower and chickpeas to each taco and top with a few tablespoons of slaw. Top with sliced jalapenos if desired.
- Enjoy!
- Category: Entree, Gluten Free, Vegan
You May Also Enjoy:
BBQ Black Bean & Quinoa Tacos with Cilantro Slaw
I had grand plans of getting a photo with Cheeto’s head inside a hamburger bun, apparently he had other plans 🙂
At first I thought chickpeas and cauliflower was an odd pairing, but the pictures looked so good I had to give it a try. I am so glad I did. They were fantastic. I actually loved the chickpeas and cauliflower so much that I made a omelette this morning with fresh tomatoes.
I’m so glad you gave it a try and that you enjoyed it! That sounds so good to put the chickpeas and cauliflower in an omelette! 🙂
These were amazing!! Perfect for our meatless night! Everyone including my 8 and 10 year olds loved it!! Thanks:)
That’s great to hear! So glad you all enjoyed them!!
AMAZING!!! I think it definitely needed the halopenos (we used jarred so not too spicy) and coriander but a favourite for sure! 🙂
Thank you so much! I’m glad you enjoyed them 🙂
Totally un-vegan to say HOLY COW??!! Ah-Maze-Ing. Fed it to a carniverous 20 y.o. male and a VB6 18 y.o. male…both young muscley bucks who could polish off a side of beef if allowed. They flipped for this recipe…as did I…the sensible, health-seeking mother who is cutting out all face-bearing food. Or to sum up: WOW! Thanks for sharing!
Hi Michelle! Thank you so much for this comment! It just made my day! It is so great to hear that everyone loved these tacos! Especially the meat eaters! Thank you!! 🙂
Me and my wife have incorporated a meatless Wednesday into our diet. Even though I love salad, I get tired of the same thing over and over again. So I Googled some vegetarian recipes and thru a couple of searches, I was lead to your site and this particular recipe. I am familiar with baking my cauliflower (I do a curry version of it), but i had never thought of adding chickpeas and tacos to the mix. Long story short, I just tried your recipe and I’m in love with this dish. This will be regular on the menu in this house from now on. The only problem I have, is my wife doesn’t eat mayo or anything that looks creamy or would have any association with mayo. lol Do you have any suggestions of something she could top her tacos with to replace the slaw and the crunch it brings? Either way I love the dish and I thank you for sharing it.
Hi! I’m so glad you loved these tacos! That is so nice to hear 🙂 Will she eat sour cream or Greek Yogurt? If so, you could squeeze a little time juice or hot sauce in and mix it up. Or salsa and guacamole would taste really good too! To add some crunch you could sprinkle some crushed up tortilla chips on 🙂 Or she could just put some plain slaw mix, without the mayo, on if she likes cabbage!
Made these tonight for dinner and had to comment for the first time ever. These were delicious! Followed the recipe except I used Inglehoffer Stone Ground Mustard, it’s what I had. The slaw perfectly accompanied the (well) seasoned rub. Will definitely make these again. Thanks for sharing!
Hi Janell! Thank you so much for your comment! And I”m so glad to hear that you enjoyed them! They are some of my favorite tacos 🙂