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Tuesday, April 17, 2012

(Vegetarian/Vegan) Hot Tamales

I have made tamales ONE time before.  I love to eat them, but the first time I made them I went way overboard, and made so many that I was exhausted by the end of the evening and swore to never do it again.  My friend wanted to learn to make them so we decided to go for it.  Two makes for easier work right?

One problem... My friend is a VEGETARIAN.  I have nothing against not eating meat, I just like it, and my husband LOVES it.  Plus my heritage is farmers dinner meat and potatoes.  I got made fun of in high school by a cousin for getting a veggie sub.  I informed him it was because they were cheaper.  (I also got made fun of for drinking skim milk instead of MT. Dew, by my grandpa...he died of heart disease, go figure!)  I was intimidated at first and then took it as a challenge.

This is the original recipe link and has the masa recipe as well as the filling, I also typed the recipe below.  I doubled it and had just the right ratios.

This is the altered version of the original recipe, it also has pictorial step by step instructions.

This is what I made:

Drizzle with olive oil and Roast in 425* oven till fork tender:
1 peeled/diced yam
3+ Portabello Mushrooms

Roasting reduces the heat from peppers, once roasted pull the skin and seeds from the pepper and dice all 3 vegetables into small bite size pieces and toss into a skillet.

Add to the skillet  & cook:
1 can drained black beans
1 can drained stewed tomatoes (diced)
2 diced tomatillos
1 clove of garlic, minced

cook 2-3 minutes and add:
sliced green onions, I used one large handful
1 large handful of chopped cilantro
1 large handful of cheddar cheese (omit if vegan)
Juice of 1 small lime

stir in over heat, about 1 minute

The filling is actually very sweet, as in sugar sweet, not cool/awesome sweet.  It is also visually appealing and delicious.

MASA DOUGH RECIPE (already doubled)


  • 4 cups Masa
  • 2 teaspoon Baking Powder
  • 1teaspoons Salt
  • 2 teaspoons Cumin
  • 2 teaspoons Chili Powder
  • 4 cups Veggie Broth or water
  • 1 cup of Butter (olive or canola oil for vegan)

  • 1.  Whip butter with a mixer
    2. Mix all dry ingredients in a large bowl
    3. Slowly add liquid until a sticky dough is made
    4. Add dough to whipped butter and mix it all together with a paddle.  Dough should be sticky but workable.
    A Note on Corn Husks

    They need to soak for about 20-30 minutes, When purchasing them, I noticed two prices on what appeared to b the same package.  The first time I bought the cheaper and ended up with lots of little husks that you have to overlap.  The second time I paid for the more expensive one and got all bigger husks.  A few had overlapping, but we made them pretty big.



    Arranging the Tamales
    Take a corn husk, dry it off.  Slather the dough in the middle of the husk.  Make an indent and add the filling.  Roll it all up and fold the ends under.  Some people tie them, but I don't..
    Here are those step by step pictures again.

    Steaming them
    I place them in my spaghetti pot with one of those slotted discs from the bottom of a pressure cooker/canner with some mason jar rings to prop it up a bit. I stacked the tamales on their sides (not the ends because they can slip out that way) and lined the edge of the pot so that I could pour more water as needed down the middle) I probably should have just used the strainer that came with the pot but I wanted more space.  I wasn't very careful and the ones at the bottom got wet and a bit soggy, but they still tasted good.  You can also use a metal colander in a pot.  Bridging any gaps with tin foil as shown here, scroll down!

    Because this is a multi-step process I will lay out an order for ya! 
    (I was a bit flustered, but it may be because my recipes were on different websites and I had extra kids asking for this and that and where the toys were etc.)

    1. Dice & Put Veggies into Roast
    2. Place Corn husks in a large bowl of water to soak, weight them down with canned goods.
    3. make the masa
    4. finish the filling
    5. make the tamales
    6. Steam the tamales
    7. Eat the tamales
    We made 16 rather large tamales.

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