PAQUITOS! Potato and Bean Taquitos – Baked not Fried! (Vegan, low-fat, gluten-free)

I’m not proud of this,  but when I was in junior high, I ate taquitos from the cafeteria nearly every day.  I don’t even want to think about what they were filled with, but I just loved them; mostly for the crunchy corn tortilla and the green dipping sauce with which they were served.  We won’t even talk about the Hostess mini crumb donuts I ate too.  Geez.  Gotta love the offerings in school cafeterias.  Sad to say it’s no better 30 years later.  Did I just say that?  30 YEARS?  “sigh”.

Anyway, I digress…sorry.   As we all know, traditional taquitos are deep fried.  We also know deep fried foods = bad news.  I set out to create a plant-based taquito that I could bake, but would still be crunchy.  I don’t cook with oil as a rule, but for form and function, a small amount was required for this to work.  I tried it without.  Fail.  However, I was amazed how such a small amount could make a difference.  1 tablespoon of olive oil or less for the entire batch of 12 taquitos.  Not bad.  Since these taquitos are filled with potatoes, I’m calling them paquitos.  🙂

BBQ Lentil Tacos

If you’re thinking “BBQ, and lentils – in a taco!?  Weird!”, think again.  It’s delicious.  Of course, if you aren’t a fan of BBQ, you won’t like it because it has a strong BBQ flavor.  Personally, I’d like the lentil mixture without the sauce just as much, but the BBQ is yummy.  These are easy to make and so flavorful.  We enjoy them topped with my homemade non-dairy sour cream (see in Recipes on this site for Sour Un-Cream), raw cabbage and lime.

Note: this recipe is gluten-free only if you use a BBQ sauce that is gluten-free.