Cauliflower Tinga Tacos
These Cauliflower Tinga Tacos are loaded with spicy chipotle flavour for a vegan taco that packs a punch! They’re topped with avocado crema and cilantro for an easy, delicious, and healthy dinner!
We all know cauliflower can be pizza crust, nuggets, rice…etc. But today, cauliflower is being transformed into the best taco filling ever!
Vegan roasted cauliflower tacos
These Cauliflower Tinga Tacos are naturally vegan and made with roasted cauliflower for some amazing bold flavour! The cauliflower gets roasted to crispy perfection, tossed in a spicy tinga sauce with chipotles, chilli and garlic and stuffed into some grilled corn tortillas. Drool.
Roasted cauliflower makes a great meat alternative for tacos since it has a really nice bite to it and is mega satiating. Roasting the cauliflower also helps it build some great flavour which is really important when making a vegan taco filling!
I use a dairy-free sour cream to top these tacos to keep them vegan-friendly, but you can skip out on this entirely or add some vegan cheese to top these off instead.
Roasting or not, if you have leftover cauliflower, use it to make these Thai Peanut Cauliflower Wings, and this Vegan Buffalo Cauliflower Mac and Cheese for your next dinner!
How to make cauliflower tacos
To make these cauliflower tacos, start by cutting your cauliflower into florets. You want the florets to be small enough so they fit nicely inside the taco shells.
Then, roast the cauliflower in the oven for about 20-25 minutes until golden brown and crispy. While your cauliflower is baking, you can prepare the sauce and any additional ingredients for the tacos.
When the cauliflower comes out of the oven, toss it in the tinga sauce and fill your taco shells right away.
A few notes on the recipe
I highly recommend using corn tortillas for this recipe and heating them directly on your stove top or an open flame. (If this isn’t an option for you, just toast them slightly.) This will totally change the flavour of the tortillas, and make them taste SO GOOD with your tacos!
The tinga sauce is a little bit on the spicy side, so this is definitely a recipe for those who like heat! If you want to make the sauce less spicy, simply add 1/2-1 chipotle pepper instead of 2.
I like to puree my avocado and sour cream together to make an avocado crema. This is a great
More cauliflower recipes to try
Cauliflower Tinga Tacos
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Total Time: 40 mins
- Yield: 6 servings 1x
- Category: Entree
- Method: Cook
- Cuisine: Mexican
Description
Spicy and tangy these cauliflower tinga tacos pack a punch!
Ingredients
Cauliflower tinga
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 medium cauliflower, cut into florets
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 onion, chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 2 chipotle peppers in adobo
- 1 tsp chilli powder
- 1/2 tsp cumin
- salt and pepper to taste
- 4–5 tbsp water
Other
- Corn tortillas
- Shredded cabbage
- cilantro
- avocado
- sour cream (vegan or regular)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F and line a baking pan with parchment paper.
- Coat the cauliflower with olive oil and roast for 20-25 minutes until golden brown.
- Heat olive oil in a small pan on medium-high heat then add the onion and garlic let cook for 2 minutes. Add the rest of the sauce ingredients and let cook on medium for 2-3 minutes.
- Transfer to a blender and blend until smooth.
- Pour the sauce on the roasted cauliflower and toss together until evenly coated.
- Toast your corn tortillas and fill them with the cauliflower tinga and toppings.
Notes
Don’t forget to toast your corn tortillas! This makes them taste SO good!
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 taco
- Calories: 140g
- Sugar: 4g
- Fat: 6g
- Saturated Fat: 1g
- Carbohydrates: 20g
- Fiber: 6g
- Protein: 4g
If you tried these Cauliflower Tinga Tacos or any other recipe on the blog let me know how you liked it by leaving a comment/rating below! Be sure to follow along on Pinterest, Instagram and Facebook for even more deliciousness!
Really, really delicious – especially for how quick and simple it is!! Will definitely be making this again.
So happy you loved them!
Great recipe very tasty and healthy. I love it.
Happy you enjoyed!
How do you make the avocado creme?
Hi Pam! You can make this by blending together 1/2 an avocado and 1/2 cup sour cream!
This was so delicious!! The cats is perfection and i didn’t even miss the meat (though will try with this sauce on some shredded chicken!) Very low effort too, good weeknight meal.
Happy you enjoyed the recipe Sarah!
This was just delicious! I think it is all into the sauce.
Thanks Roxanne, happy you enjoyed 🙂
This was really tasty. I used a fresh chilli and a little bit of ketchup instead of the chipotle pepper in adobo. Next time I’ll probably just use taco shells instead of frying tortilla wraps to make life easier but overall a fuss free recipe. We got 2 servings out of it as a lighter main meal.
Happy you enjyoed the recipe Jill!
Made these for dinner tonight and this recipe is amazing!! My husband would prefer to eat meat at every meal but even he loved this! Thanks for sharing this amazing recipe!!
Thanks Melinda! Happy you enjoyed it!
These are SO tasty! We love them and are making them for the second time this week! Thanks for the great recipe!
So happy you enjoyed them Lana 🙂
I made your Tinga Tacos this evening for dinner. My husband and I both loved them! Spicy and very tasty. I didn’t have tacos so I used romaine lettuce leaves. I will definitely make these again!
So happy you both enjoyed Barbara!
Guuurrrrrrrrllll,
I’m a newbie vegan, and so my taste buds are still picky. These were so legit! The sauce is restaurant quality, for sure. As far as tacos are concerned, I am not missing out being vegans.
Bottom line: Those were delish!
Hi Natalie, I’m so happy you loved the recipe! 🙂
Anyone have any tips to keep the cauliflower crispy after adding the sauce? Mine kinda turned soupy. Still tasted amazing! Maybe I had too much water in the sauce? I had trouble blending it so had to add some liquid to it.
Hi CJ, the cauliflower shouldn’t be “soupy”, you can try adding less sauce. The roasted cauliflower won’t ever be super crispy though
Can’t wait to try this but Unfortunately they don’t sell chipotle peppers where I live, is there something else I can use?
Hi Lianne, you can just use some salsa or tomato paste instead!
I make a meatless meal each week for my vegan daughter. This is her favorite dish. My meat and potato husband not only does not complain but throughly enjoys this dish.
Thanks for the review Diana! Happy your daughter and even husband enjoyed this! 🙂
This recipe was quick and easy. I actually served it over brown rice and it was delish. I used one chipotle pepper and some adobo (never used this before, so that was fun). We found it is bit spicy, so I’ll tweak in the future to suit our taste. Loved how the meal was done in less than 40 mins. Thank you, Jess!
Happy you enjoyed Charleen!
These cauliflower tinga tacos were AMAZING!! They are packed with so much flavors..definitely won’t miss the meat! 🙂
Thanks so much Vai! Happy you enjoyed!
So good. I used purple cauliflower and it gave it amazing color
Thanks Allison! That much be so pretty with purple cauliflower!
Excellent. Loved this recipe.
This was amazing, and it’s already on my list to repeat again next week. Since I became vegetarian, I’ve missed tacos greatly. This is the first recipe that’s satisfied my Mexican-food cravings. I like heat so I added a lot of Chipotle peppers. I also increased the amount of the sauce since the peppers would go to waste anyway and saved sauce on the side. I added the sauce when reheating the leftovers since cauliflower tends to dry out, and it was even better the second time!
Thanks for the review Heather! These tacos are great if you like a little heat. Great idea to keep some extra sauce for leftovers!
This was AMAZING! I didn’t realize how spicy the chipotles were and I added 3 b/c I figured they were going to waste if I didn’t use them! Thank God for the cabbage (which I soaked in vinegar for an hour to pickle them) and the lime with Avocado. Really cut through the spice. I burned a few tortillas trying to toast them on the gas range, this will require a bit of practice to perfect. We will definitely make these again!
Thank you so much Lisa! Chipotle can definitely have a kick!!
These were delicious!!! They will definitely continue to be a weekly dinner hit!!!
Thanks so much Holly! So happy you like the recipe 🙂
Wow. This is spicy. Fortunately I used only one small pepper. The sour cream, mixed with avocado and cilantro was good on top and saved the day. I don’t have a huge tolerance for spice, though so it may be fine for the heat lovers.
Hi Gayle, if you like to make this less spicy you can add less chipotle to it 🙂
Loved this recipe a lot! A win for my husband too who has not been completely on board with the meat reduction in our lives. Will definitely continue to make!
Thanks for the review Courtney! So glad you enjoyed the recipe!
Is it 2 chipotle peppers or a can? Your sauce looks like it has a lot more peppers.
I used more because I like the spice, but 2 is a good standard for flavor!
Hi Jess, how do you balance the heat from the chipotle peppers? In your sauce looks like there are tomatoes is that just an illusion? I may opt for adding a little bit of tewed tomatoes just to keep the heat down 🙂
Hi Violet, there are no tomatoes in the sauce! Chipotles are naturally spicy so if you don’t like spicy food this may not be the best option for you. You can always leave out the chipotle peppers and use roasted tomatoes in the sauce instead!