Seitan chorizo & black bean puffy tacos

Updated: May 15, 2024 · Published: Sep 18, 2014 by Cadry Nelson · This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. · 48 Comments

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This is my vegan take on the Tasty Taco recipe in Des Moines, Iowa. Get ready for some serious indulgence with these fried puffy tacos filled with seitan chorizo and black beans.

Puffy tacos in checkered basket with shredded non-dairy cheese, lettuce, and tomatoes.

I still remember the first time I ever had a flour taco (i.e. puffy taco) from Tasty Tacos, a Des Moines institution. I was a preteen visiting one of my aunts and cousin. My cousin was older, and he’d just gone to pick up his dinner.

I looked inside his paper fast food bag and inside there were tacos unlike any I’d seen before. They had fluffy, puffy shells that were entirely different from the hard corn shells or floppy tortillas I was used to seeing.

Noticing my increasing interest, he asked if I’d like to have one of them. I quickly agreed.

The warm, soft bread, fried and packed with taco fillings was an instant hit. It was love at first bite.

Now like I said, I was a preteen at that time. I didn’t have any access to a car. And furthermore, I didn’t even know the name of the restaurant where he’d purchased them. We didn’t see that cousin often. So I began a search to find them again.

I went to Taco John’s, Taco Bell, Taco Time… Nada. My parents hadn’t tried the tacos. And they were no help in getting me any closer to taco glory.

If only Google had existed back then. I kept explaining the tacos to anyone who would listen… “See, it’s made of thick, fried bread…” But it was no use.

It literally took years until I found them – at a location just a few blocks from my high school.

Inside, there were simple booths. And you paid at the counter. On all of their styrofoam cups were the words, “Nada es imposible.”

Last year I shared a recipe inspired by Tasty Tacos for fried vegan nachos. But this time I’m sharing a vegan version of the food for which Tasty Tacos is known – the puffy taco.

By the time I was a high school upperclassman, I was visiting Tasty Tacos multiple times a week to get my fix.

My senior year, I was the food columnist for our school newspaper. My column was called Always Use a Condiment. And Tasty Tacos earned a four star rating.

I’d become friendly with the owner. He cut out my review and taped it to their window. I loved seeing it hanging every time that I visited.

On my last day of high school, he treated me to lunch – two puffy tacos.

Vegan Tasty Taco recipe

After I moved away from Des Moines, Tasty Tacos was a must visit on every return trip. If I was in the area for a week, I’d always go at least twice on a visit – once for the nachos and once for the puffy tacos.

I am so excited to share this veganized Tasty Taco recipe with you today.

When I stopped eating meat back in 2005, Tasty Tacos was one of the things I felt most concerned about giving up. (They fry their shells in lard and have lard and cheese in the beans. So even a bean taco isn’t an option.)

I wouldn’t say these shells are quite as puffy as those from Tasty Tacos, but they’re pretty darned close.

Step by step instructions

Here’s how to make this recipe at a glance. For complete ingredient amounts & instructions, keep scrolling to the recipe card below.

Start by making a simple dough, forming it into balls, and then pressing them in a tortilla press between two sheets of parchment paper.

(I like to press them a couple of times, moving them slightly between presses, for a larger taco.)

If you don’t have access to a tortilla press, just use a rolling pin and make them between 4 and 6 inches.

Seasoned seitan, onions, garlic, and black beans in skillet.

In a skillet, make your taco filling mixture by sauteing onions and garlic. Then add seitan, beans, and spices.

Vegan chorizo and bean mixture on open taco shell dough.

Put a couple tablespoons of taco filling inside of the flattened dough.

Folded taco shell wrapped over vegan meat and beans.

Then fold the shells and lightly pinch them closed, like an empanada.

Vegan puffy tacos frying in oil in skillet.

Fry in a skillet with oil, stopping once to flip.

After both sides are brown, move the shells to a towel to let them drain and cool.

Fried puffy tacos draining on clean kitchen towel.

Once a few minutes have passed, open the pinched area of the tacos and fill them.

Now it’s time to fill the tacos with toppings like shredded non-dairy cheese, plenty of crunchy green leaf lettuce, and tomatoes.

All of the components come together to recreate the experience so beautifully. Eating them made me feel all warm and squishy inside.

A vegan Tasty Taco? Aaah… Like the cup says – nada es imposible.

More Taco night

About Cadry Nelson

Cadry Nelson is the writer, recipe creator, and photographer behind Cadry’s Kitchen, and the author of Living Vegan For Dummies, 2nd Edition. Since launching her blog in 2009, Cadry has been making plant-based cooking approachable, and reimagining classic comfort foods. Her work has been featured in NBC News, Buzzfeed, Yahoo, Parade, VegNews, and more. She regularly appears on local TV shows, demonstrating to a broad audience how easy vegan cooking can be.

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