Tex Mex cuisine is really easy to make vegetarian: simply swamp beans or rice for the meat normally used in burritos, tacos, etc.

But if you’d like to try your hand at a  thoroughly vegan Tex Mex dish, we’ve found one that uses sweet potatoes as its filling courtesy of BeardandBonnet.com that should really whet your whistle.

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Sweet Potato and Lime Taquitos (vegan and gluten-free)

You will need:

• One and half pounds of sweet potato (one large one should do it). Scrub and peel it and cut it into one-inch chunks.
• Two tablespoons of vegan butter substitute, salted butter or ghee
• One-quarter teaspoon of cinnamon
• One-half teaspoon of cumin
• One-half teaspoon of salt
• One-half cup of red onion (chopped)
• One-quarter cup of cilantro (chopped)
• Two limes, one cut in half and the other juiced.
• Twelve to 14 white corn tortillas
• Olive oil (for frying in a pan)
• Chopped lettuce, cherry tomatoes (halved), chopped cilantro, hot sauce, and lime wedges

To make:

• Heat a medium pot of salted water and bring to a boil. Once the water is boiling, put the potatoes into the pot and reduce heat to a simmer.
• Cook for 15 minutes (or until you can pierce the potatoes easily with fork). Drain, and return the potatoes to the pot and mix in the vegan butter, cumin, cinnamon, and salt.
• Take a small bowl and combine the chopped cilantro, red onion and lime juice. Then set aside and allow the mixture to marinate. Stir occasionally.
• In a heavy skillet, heat one-quarter inch of olive oil over medium heat. Take one tortilla at a time and rub the fleshy side of half of a lime over the tortilla. Then spread a heaping tablespoon of the mashed sweet potatoes and half a tablespoon of the mixture of onion, lime and cilantro evenly along the side of the tortilla.
• Roll the tortilla tightly, starting on the side with the filling. Use a toothpick to secure the taquito (so it won’t unroll while cooking).
• Note: You may want to roll four taquitos then place them in a hot pan and roll four more while the first four are cooking so that the tortillas don’t dry and split.
• Place the prepared taquitos seam-side down in the hot oil and cook (rotate with tongs) until they are golden brown and all sides are crispy. This should take between four-five minutes per batch.
• Cook the rest of the taquitos in batches (four per batch) and add more oil as needed.
• Remove the toothpicks after you’ve fried the taquitos and serve with lettuce, the halved cherry tomatoes, hot sauce, lime wedges, cilantro.

We don’t serve vegan Tex Mex cuisine here at Mattito’s. But if you’d like us to make your burrito, taco or enchilada vegetarian, just let your server know and we’ll be happy to fill it with beans, rice or both!

Photo courtesy of sdnet01/Pixabay.com