Happy New Year Friends! This is my first post in 2016, and I’m very excited to start my first full calendar year of blogging. Creative cooking is one of my largest inspirations in the kitchen. I love meals that smash together two ideas to create something new and different, like these vegetarian taco stuffed shells!
This recipe takes two steps. Preparing the filling, and baking the dish. To help save extra time in the kitchen, I recommend making a double batch of filling and using it for tacos, tostadas or burritos later in the week. The filling is made of ground mushrooms, bulgar, and refried beans. Try coarsely mashed black or pinto beans in place of the refried beans if you like a chunkier consistency. I grind the mushrooms with a hand-food processor, but a fine chop will do as well.
I used taco sauce as the base sauce for my vegetarian taco stuffed shells. I reeeeeeally love spicy food, like really really. I used a medium sauce, and it was supremely spicy due to sheer volume of sauce per serving. Try a mild taco sauce, or perhaps a mild salsa for sensitive palates. Enjoy!
- ¼ cup bulgar
- 1 cup water
- 6 oz white button mushrooms, ground or finely chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- Splash olive oil
- ¼ cup refried beans
- 1 tsp chili powder
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1 tsp onion powder
- ½ tsp cumin
- ¼ tsp black pepper
- ¼ tsp oregano
- ¼ tsp salt
- ⅛ tsp cayenne
- ¼ tsp liquid smoke
- 2 TBS salsa, optional
- 12 jumbo shells
- ½ cup taco sauce, mild or medium
- ½ cup shredded mexican cheese blend
- Chopped romaine
- Sour cream
- Salsa
- Combine the bulgar and water in a small pot. Bring to a boil and simmer for 15 minutes.
- Meanwhile, saute mushrooms and garlic in a splash of olive oil until the liquid evaporates.
- Pour the bulgar mixture over the mushrooms. Stir until excess liquid from the bulgar evaporates.
- Mix in refried beans through liquid smoke. Cook stirring often until the filling is well combined, and heated through, about 3 minutes. Mix in the optional salsa if the mixture looks too dry.
- Preheat oven to 375°F.
- Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain and spread out on a parchment lined sheet so that they don't stick together.
- Spread the taco sauce into a 9x13 inch pan.
- When the shells are cool enough to handle, stuff them with filling, and place them into the sauced pan, rolling back and forth to coat the sides of the shell with sauce. Sprinkle with cheese.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes, or until the sauce is bubbly.
- Serve with chopped romaine, sour cream, and salsa.
