Wohoo, after almost two years, when I showed you How to host a Sushi Party, I’m finally throwing in some new food party inspiration for all of you who love to cook and eat in company. This time I’ve got you covered with recipes and inspiration for a successful Mexican Food Party with tacos, tortillas, nachos and much more.

Basics for a Mexican Food Party

On New Years Eve we’re usually not the kind of people who are keen on celebrating, let alone party hard ^^ However, we received some dear visitors. Having friends over at your place is always a great reason to get some serious cooking action going and to try some new things from my to-cook-list. This time I started with cauliflower wings and pulled jackfruit as a base for a Mexican inspired NYE dinner with wraps, tacos, beans, lots of veggies and homemade dips.

Here’s what we had:

• Veggies → Peppers, tomato, avocado, salad, red onions, corn, cucumber, limes
• Cantaloupe Melon
• Kidney beans
• Smoked tofu
• Pulled BBQ Jackfruit (see below)
• Cauliflower Wings (see below)
• Sweet potatoes and purple potatoes from the oven (similar to this)
• Chickpea Salad (to the recipe)
• three different, homemade dips (see below)
• tortilla wraps, tacos, tortilla ships and nachos

I discovered the super practical tortilla ships at our local supermarket. They are amazing! You can fill them up sheer endlessly, you don’t have to roll them up (and lose half of the filling while eating it) and they won’t crumble to pieces, as it is the case with tacos 😉

Another plus: You can add them to the Steakreaktor/Beefer* to gratinate them with cheese within seconds

The extras for our Mexican Party Food

What would fluffy tortillas and crisp tacos be without a hearty filling and fresh and creamy dips? Rather boring and dry, I’d guess. Pure, raw veggies alone won’t make you happy, so think about other options for you and your guests, that’ll make them squeak with joy.

Various homemade dips and sauces

The supermarkets are stuffed with thousands and thousands of different brands for sauces and dips. Yet, I’d highly recommend to make your dips with fresh ingredients from scratch. That’s neither difficult nor too time consuming and the results will make you much more proud than any bottled sauce possibly could. Apart from that: Nothing can beat a freshly prepared guacamole 😉 These are the dips I made:

Guacamole recipe

4-6 servings

• 4 avocados
• 1 tomato
• 1 (red) onion
• 1-2 garlic cloves
• ½ bunch of parsley
• salt & pepper
• juice of 1/2 a lime

1. Remove the avocado pit and add the pulp to a bowl. Mash it with a fork. Mince tomato, onion, garlic and parsley and stir it under the avocado.
2. Add the lime juice and season to taste with pepper and salt.
3. While the lime juice prevents the guacamole from turning brownish a little, you may also keep the stone in the guacamole as well.

Sour-Cream Dip

• about 2 cups of soy yogurt or curd (about 500g)
• 1 bunch of chives
• paprika spice
• 3-4 tsp garlic powder
• optional: a piece of cucumber, minced (I love adding the cucumber as some substance, as I feel it covers the typical soy taste perfectly)
• salt, pepper

Cheesy egg plant dip

I basically worked 1 to 1 after the recipe by Minimalist Baker

If you’re a great cheese lover you won’t acknowledge the resemblance to a ‘real’ cheese dip, but that was never my intention. This dip is awesome for what it is. It is soft, creamy, salty and … in a way kind of cheesy ;). So give that lil egg plant a chance!

The hearty filling

No matter if ‘veggie’ or ‘meaty’ – our tacos and tortillas are in desperate need of some hearty sauces and fillings for the full taste adventure. I’ve tried two different recipes which were waiting on my to-cook-list for seemingly ages.

Pulled BBQ jackfruit

The huge, up to 10kg heavy tropical fruit (originally from india) consists of fibrous pulp, which might remind one or two of chicken (first dangerous meat substitute trigger for all the meat lovers) and is therefore not only suited for sweet dishes but also for hearty stuff.

Our party guests loved this foreign, spicy BBQ jackfruit a lot and it actually didn’t matter one bit if it resembled chicken / meat or not. Seriously, I’m actually not intending to imitate meat dishes or substitute anything. I love to test new ingredients and get the full flavour out of everything.

Let’s keep it that way: It somehow resembles something meat-ish like a pulled pork which was drowned in spices and sauce. But it also has a fruity and unique taste, that makes it typical jackfruit. Jackfruit doesn’t need to pretend to be something else. It’s amazing the way it is.

Where can I buy jackfruit?

Good question! Depending on which part of the world you’re from you’ll either be able to buy a fresh whole fruit or you have to help yourself with canned jackfruit in pickle.

Pulled BBQ jackfruit recipe

for 4-6 servings as a filling in wraps / burgers or the like

• 2 cans of jackfruit (about 800g)
• spices of choice: paprika, smoked paprika, garlic powder, cumin, salt
• a fruity, smoky bbq sauce of choice

1. Drain the jackfruit from water and crush it roughly with a fork to achieve a fluffy, fibrous texture.
2. Roast with some oil in a pan. Turn down the heat and season generously with spices and pour ridiculously large amounts of sauce over it.

Marinated cauliflower wings

I’ve wanted to make these for months now and I’m so happy to finally be able to tick them off my list and rate them with three stars. The cauliflower, torn to pieces, is first breaded in a flour-spice-almond milk mix and finally glazed with a BBQ sauce.

Well, those delicious bites call themselves ‘wings’ as they are not only remind you of chicken wings visually (the natural ‘meat shape’ of cauliflower ;)) but also because they are similarly prepared as wings, ribs and the like. I don’t really care if there are readers among you who take this as yet another confirmation of their ‘meat substitute hate’. I rather am delighted for all of you who love trying new things and want to test a new way of preparing cauliflower 😉

I got this recipe idea from various pinterest boards and facebook groups. The basic recipe I’ve worked from is that of the wonderful Dana from Minimalist baker. Here’s my version:

Cauliflower Wings Recipe

• 1 head of cauliflower, cut into bite-sized pieces
• 3/4 cup (120g) of whole wheat flour
• one pinch of salt
• 1/2 tsp curry spice
• 2 tsp arabica spice (or curry only)
• 1/2 cup (120ml) almond milk
• 6-8 tbsp (90-120ml) water

1.  Mix the ingredients together. Bit by bit add the water. The batter should be thick but pourable. Add just enough water to make it pourable and sticky to the cauliflower

2. Dip the cauliflower into the batter and spread them on a baking paper covered tray. Bake in the preheated oven at 220°C / 450°F for about 20 minutes.

• ca. 80 – 100g BBQ sauce of choice
• some water

3. Remove the baked cauliflower from the overn and carefully dip the chunks into the thinned sauce. Place them on the tray again and bake for another 20 minutes until the glaze has caramelized.

4. You can serve the wings with sour cream.

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I don’t think I’ve ever posted so many recipes in one post. Maybe I’ll be adding more jackfruit and cauliflower recipes after those basics ones, what do you think? Let me know what you are up to this year and if you want me to focus on something special 🙂

Happy New Year and let’s rock 2018!

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