I love tacos but being on a no/low carb diet means I have to stay away from them and pretty much all the Mexican food that I adore. Before I started thing whole thing I was eating tacos for lunch 2-3 times a week. And I always had three of them: two carne asada ones and one fried fish taco. Ah-maize-ing! But alas, not carbs=no tortillas while also= no tacos. Or so I thought!
Thanks to the handy dandy internet I stumbled across a recipe for tacos using cheese for a shell on
Buzzfeed. I'm a cheese addict so I was really excited about giving this a shot. During my first week of keeping my carbs to a minimum I was creatively cooking everyday and this is just one of the many things that I made and will now have to perfect!
Ingredients
Parmesan Cheese
Mozzarella Cheese
Avocado
Mahi-mahi
Spinach
Tomatoes
Salt
Pepper
Red Pepper Flakes
EVOO
I was really happy to know that making this was super easy. I didn't do any measuring for the cheese so I made a bunch of piles assuming they would spread. I mixed the parmesan and mozzarella because I thought they would be better than cheddar, even though cheddar would have made it look more like a taco shell.
I used a non stick baking mat that is great for baking pretty much everything. I love using it for the rare times that I make cookies because I always manage to burn them. Argh
I put some red pepper flakes in with the cheese because I put them in almost everything and I wanted to give the shell a little bite. Once those were mixed into the cheeses it was time to hit the oven for about 10 minutes at 350 degrees.
I have to say that I expected the cheese to spread but I was terribly wrong. The cheese didn't cook as much as I wanted to after the 10 minutes so I was able to take a spatula and spread them out a little so that I'd have more of a surface to work with.
I left the cheese in the oven for five more minutes and took them out because I didn't want them to burn. My apartment smelled amazing. I mean, it's cheese!
I had to have everything ready to go when the shells needed to be shaped because the cheese started to harden super fast. As it was I had to pop a few in the microwave because they got a bit stiff so the time between removing them from the oven, blotting out the grease and getting them shaped had to be less than 2 minutes. No joke!
While the cheese shells were hardening I got to work on what would actually be in the tacos. I used my staples: avocados and tomatoes and shredded spinach. I used mahi-mahi for the meat and that was cooking with garlic and a bit of olive oil--nothing too crazy! I seasoned the tomatoes with salt and pepper and then waited for the shaped shells to cool off.
Can we discuss how awesome this is? The fact that I'm able to have tacos while on a low carb diet is pretty amazing. The dried up shells weren't oily to the point where I had to wash my hands immediately after which was great.
How amazing do these tacos look? They were the perfect size for me because I haven't been able to eat so much in one siting because my lack of carbs changed my appetite. I opted against using sour cream as well as shredded cheese because I mean c'mon, a person can really only have so much cheese at once.
I'm really happy with how they turned out. Although I initially wanted them a bit bigger I realized that these were the perfect size for someone who loves to eat but doesn't want to overdo it. I'm definitely going to add these to the list of finger foods that I have on the menu when I have get-togethers. Their size make them a really great finger food and the shell is packed with tons of flavor.
Next time I make these I'm going to make sure that I have cilantro instead of spinach and will throw some hot sauce in with the cheese to give it a nice little kick.
