Summer’s Bounty: Baked Soy Chorizo Taquitos with Fresh Corn Salsa

{Psst: try this recipe with my homemade soyrizo!}

Usually, I try to make as much of my food from scratch as I can. It’s nice to know what’s in my food, but more importantly, it’s just a lot cheaper. Tomorrow is a big day, though! I’m starting at my new job. In between filling out new hire paperwork and getting my gym bag ready for my 5:30am workout, I wanted to create a dish that was (relatively) fast, easy, would taste good cold out of a Pyrex tomorrow, and still didn’t break the bank. Naturally, I headed straight for Trader Joe’s*.

There are so many products at Trader Joe’s that are suitable for vegans and delicious, and one of my very favorites is their soyrizo. At just $1.99 for two big honkin’ links, it strikes a good balance between value and convenience. I also grabbed a $1 can of jalapeno refried beans and some tortillas that, though I can’t remember the exact price, were only a couple of bucks.

Along with the beans and soyrizo in the filling I chopped up some anaheim peppers (from my CSA), and to accompany them, I made a fresh tomato and corn salsa. After gutting the tomatoes I just threw them in the food processor and then drained a bit of the liquid to get a nice even size of tomato chunks and avoid my salsa being too watery. The full CSA share for this week was:

4 tortillas

1/2 can of refried beans (see note)
More olive oil

Salsa

1 ear of corn

3-4 large tomatoes, seeded, roughly chopped

1/4 white or red onion, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

Juice of 1 lime

2-3 big handfuls of cilantro, chopped

1/2 green anaheim chili, seeded, finely chopped

Salt, pepper, and cumin

Make the salsa. Preheat the oven to 350 and when it’s ready, throw the corn in, husks and all, for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, chop up tomatoes in a food processor (or by hand) until they’re the size you like (I like small tomato bits, whereas Mr. NINV wants it all chunky. Too bad I made it so I got to decide). Drain some of the tomato liquid off, and then add the rest of the ingredients (excluding the corn and spices). When the corn is done, simply use a knife to slice the kernels off of the cob and mix that in to the salsa; season with salt, pepper, and cumin to taste.

Make the taquitos. Preheat the oven to 400. In a skillet, heat a drizzle of oil. When oil is warm, add chopped chili pepper and soyrizo (remove the casing, obvi), using a wooden spoon to break up the soyrizo. When the oil is gone, turn off the heat.

Load up the tortillas by spreading refried beans and then soyrizo/pepper mixture, plus any other add-ins you desire. Roll them up pretty tightly, and coat each one with a light coating of olive oil (or another neutral oil would be fine). Place the rolled-up tortillas on a baking sheet, and when they’re all ready, bake them for about 15-20 minutes or until they get crispy and the edges start to brown.

Serve with salsa and enjoy!

Note: Traditional refried beans are made with lard (um, I would have been grossed out by that at any time during my life, not just since vegan-hood). A lot of canned brands that I checked, DO contain lard.  Several types that Trader Joe’s sells do NOT contain lard, including the refried black beans with jalapeno, which is what I used for my taquitos. Be sure to read refried bean labels if you are eating vegan.

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What are you doing with your summer tomatoes??? We have been eating them every which way and there are still tons left!

*Though I totally wish that I lived in the sort of dream world where I got Trader Joe’s perks, this post has nothing to do with them, and everything to do with my (not mutual) infatuation with them.