Smoky Chipotle Portobello and Pepper Vegan Tacos

Smoky Chipotle Portobello and Pepper Vegan Tacos – smoky, spicy, and “meaty” these tacos convince the most die-hard meat-lovers to try. Using a sheet pan minimizes clean-up and the tacos are ready in 30 minutes! Perfect for a quick weeknight dinner for two.

Vegan dishes are often associated as "diet" food.   For most, the choice is avoiding animal products and living a healthier life through food.  While I am not vegan,  I belong to a community-supported agriculture farm (CSA). 

The fresh from  Spring Hill Community Farm vegetable weekly deliveries definitely encourage creativity in the kitchen. There is nothing better than making a dish with vegetables harvested that day.   

During the growing season, Mark and I help with harvesting and packing the weekly bags. After packing the bags, the workers gather to share a meal.

 Meal conversations center on vegetables - no surprise! "Ooo's" and "Aah's" are sprinkled in-between bites of home made vegetable dishes. Sitting under the pine trees, we share our vegetable recipe successes and epic fails. 

Through the years, and lots and lots of practice, my confidence and success at making dishes with no meat are increasing.  

It is worth noting, serving an all-vegetable dinner will prompt my sons to ask, “Where’s the meat?”.  In my household, there is the risk a new vegetarian dish will not attain "keeper" status.   

The votes are in and I am happy to announce that this recipe (after a couple of tweaks) is declared as satisfying by my meat-loving sons.   

The Smoky Chipotle Portobello and Pepper Vegan Taco Details

• Portobello mushrooms – rinse and remove the stems or cut off the bottoms before slicing into ½ inch thick wedges. Feel free to change up the type of mushroom based on what is available and your personal preference. I have substituted large cremini mushrooms and the recipe turned out great.
• Red, Yellow and/or Orange Bell Peppers - using a combination of red, yellow and even orange peppers makes this a festive and eye catching dish.
• White Onion – I have a preference for white onions in this dish as they have a stronger, spicier and more pungent flavor than yellow onions. More oniony, for a lack of a better term, than yellow onions.
• Canned chipotle peppers in adobo sauce – While only the sauce is used in the marinade, you can freeze the remaining peppers and sauce for another use. Better yet,  make the Chipotle Sauce (although the sauce is not vegan) found in the Slow-Cooker Pork Carnitas recipe.
• Cumin, coriander and garlic – This spice combination is a winner bringing complexity to the smokey chipotle adobo sauce.
• Refried black beans – For ease and convenience warm up 1 can of refried black beans, mix in some salsa to give the beans a bit more flavor. The beans will be spread on the tortilla before filling with the mushrooms, peppers and onion. With that being said, I will be sharing a fresh black bean recipe in the very near future to use in place of the refried black beans.
• Tortillas – store bought tortillas work just fine for this recipe. However, keep an eye out for my homemade tortilla recipe – easy and so much better than store bought.

How To Make The Smoky Chipotle Marinade

The first thing to do is prepare the ingredients slicing them in ½ wedges, and spreading out the vegetables in an even layer on a sheet pan. For easy clean-up  line your sheet pan with parchment or a baking mat.  

Now, let's prepare the marinade. Place all the marinade ingredients in a small bowl - remember we are only using the sauce from the canned chipotle peppers in adobo sauce. A hand blender or emulsifier is a great way to combine the ingredients.  Whisk or emulsify until you the sauce looks has a smooth consistency.   

Begin with the mushrooms and brush the marinade on one side, flip and continue to brush the marinade on the other side. 

The remaining marinade can be used on the onions and peppers -- brush on lightly as this marinade can easily overwhelm the vegetables.  

Place the sheet pan in the oven, set the timer for 20 minutes. Check out the timer feature in the recipe below. Click on the "20 minutes" green text in the instruction step 2 and a timer will be set on your device! 

Once the mushrooms are fork fork tender remove them from the oven -- we don't want them to over cook, shrink up and dry out from the oven heat. I like to check the mushrooms at around the 8 - 10 minute mark and then keep a close eye on them, pulling when they reach desired level on doneness.

The Finishing Touches

Now for the fun part!  Top the tacos with any or all of the following:  cilantro, sliced avocado, salsa or guacamole.  I also recommend topping with some Chipotle Sauce, find the recipe here:  Slow-Cooker Pork Carnitas.  

Bonus Tip:  The Paloma Cocktail will pair nicely with this smoky, spicy and “meaty” vegan taco dish.

Lastly, if you make these Smoky Chipotle Portobellos and Pepper Vegan Tacos, be sure to leave a comment and give this recipe a rating! Above all, I love to hear from you and always do my best to respond to each and every comment. 

And of course, if you do make this recipe, don’t forget to tag me on Instagram