This healthy and colorful Make It Yourself Veggie Taco Platter takes as long to cook as it does to cut (which is not really all that long).  I served it with a side of antioxidant-packed Black Bean Soup.

• You will need:
  -one sliced green pepper
  -one medium onion (half julienned for the tacos, half chopped for the pico de gallo)
  -frozen corn
  -a hand full of mushrooms, chopped roughly
  -tomato
  -lime
  -small corn ‘taco’ tortillas
  -and a few side details like sour cream (I didn’t have any so substituted Greek yogurt), chipotle sauce (see my post on La Morena) or hot sauce of your choice, pickled jalapeno peppers and carrots, or other things like cheese, cilantro, etc..

The first thing I prepared is the Pico De Gallo, so that the lime had a little time to work its magic and draw out the juices of the tomato & onion. Normally, for a more traditional Pico I would use tomato, onion, lime, cilantro and some fresh jalapeno (for kick). But, since I didn’t have any cilantro in the house I did a tasty little variation on the usual and added pickled jalapeno and carrot in its place.

So the Pico… tomato, onion, pickled jalapeno & carrot all chopped up and the juices of one fresh squeezed lime. Mix it all together and set aside.

Whether you’ve been reading my blog since the beginning, or if you’ve just dropped in to find a recipe, the one thing you will probably notice about my meal tactics is that, while there may be an ‘ideal’ way to make a dish, my meals tend come together using whatever ingredients I have on hand. That being said, veggie tacos can either be a combination or your favorite veggies, or just whatever you can scrape together out of ingredients on hand. Mushrooms, zucchini, peppers, onions, corn, beans – just a few examples that all work great.

For these, I sauteed peppers and onions with olive oil. In another pan I did the same with roughly chopped mushrooms, and in a third I fried up some frozen corn, stirring the corn infrequently, to allow for a little browning (and caramelizing) to occur.

Assemble everything in bowls or a sectioned plate (pictured), serve with warmed corn tortillas, and let everyone make their own favorite combos. Check out below for a few variations and then head to the kitchen and whip up your own!