Happy post-4th of July Taco Tuesday! I mean, I guess we can make this a holiday?
How did you all spend your weekend? Hopefully with lots of food, family, ice cream and fireworks. Mine was filled with friends, tacos, sangria and dodger baseball. Which all just so happen to be a few of my favorite things.
I decided to drive back to my hometown this weekend for a quick minute and it was a quick minute well spent.
Friday night was girls night with my sister-in-law watching Magic Mike 2. I know, total cliché movie for us to go see but in on a real note, going to the movies in general is one of my favorite things eva.My mind loves to live in a fantasy world, which is probably why I am a total book-worm/daydreamer (mainly of foodie dreams). Oh and p.s. go see Magic Mike Two. Hot dayum those men can dance. They totally put my pizza maker dance move to shame. Le sigh.
Fourth of July was spent at Dodger stadium with Joey and a group of our best friends. This was my first Dodger game of the season which made me a little sad considering my world revolves around that team and I normally would have been to like 5 games by now.
Side note, you should know I grew up on the Dodgers. Baseball was our jam in the Sharpless household and going to Dodger games was like going to the super market for us. You just did it without thinking.
Dodger stadium also now has tacos and you better believe I jumped on that opportunity within a millisecond. They only had carne asada and since I was spoiled with my grandmas authentic carne asada as a kid, my standards are naturally pretty high.
Ballpark food will always be ballpark food, there’s just no getting around it. But it was still a great day spent with great people, which is all you really need right?
These tacos here are not carne asada. In fact they are the farthest thing from it. I am really not sure where this idea sparked but one day my taste buds were crying out for caesar dressing which made me think of my lightened caesar salad with crunchy cornbread croutons recipe. Which somehow led me to tacos. And then here we are.
What’s great about these tacos is that you can serve them to your vegetarian friends or add chicken for your “a meal’s not a meal without some form of meat” friends. (ahem, Joey in my case).
Either way they are DE-LISH and protein packed from the crunchy chickpeas. Anything that has “crunch” and “tacos” involved will instantly win my heart. So I hope your taco Tuesday this week is filled with just that plus a side of Dodger baseball. Because if you’re a fan of TNK, you’re pretty much obligated to be a fan of my boys in blue. Just sayin.
Crunchy Chickpea Caesar Salad Tacos
Ingredients
Caesar Dressing
- 2 Tbsp olive oil
- 2 sardines
- 1 garlic clove
- 1 Tbsp dijon mustard
- 2 tsp worchester sauce
- 1/3 cup greek yogurt
- 1/4 cup almond milk (regular or buttermilk works fine too)
- 1/4 cup parmesan cheese
- Sea salt + pepper to taste
- Dash of lemon juice
Chickpeas
- 1 15 oz. can chickpeas, rinsed and drained*
- 1 Tbsp olive oil
- Sea salt + pepper to taste
Tacos
- Corn tortillas
- Romain lettuce, chopped
- Cherry tomatoes
- Parmesan cheese
- Red onion, chopped
- Cooked chicken (optional, if not vegetarian)
- 1 15 oz. can chickpeas*, rinsed and drained
- 1 Tbsp olive oil
- Sea salt + pepper to taste
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees farenheit.
- Make the ceasar dressing by blending all the ingredients in a high powered blender or food processer. Once fully mixed, place in a jar and set aside in the fridge. If you need to add more milk for a better consistency, do so by adding a little at a time.
- To make the chickpeas, rinse and drain them. Then pat them dry as much as you can and remove the skins. It’s really important you get them as dry as possible! Toss with olive oil, sea salt and pepper then place on a lined baking sheet. Bake in heated oven for 20-30 minutes, turning once. Allow the chickpeas to completely cool to allow them to get crunchy. (about 15 minutes)
- You can prepare the chickpeas ahead of time to speed up the process or buy premade crunchy chickpeas.
- Once the chickpeas are ready, assemble your tacos by distributing the lettuce, tomatoes, red onion, parmesan cheese and chickpeas onto each tortillia. Drizzle over ceasar dressing then serve with extra dressing for dipping! This can make about 4-8 tacos depending on the size of your tortillas.
Notes
*You can make the chickpeas ahead of time to speed up the process or buy premade roasted/crunchy chickpeas like the brand The Good Bean.
Makes 4-8 tacos, depending on tortilla size