We're bringing Taco Bell back right into your house. This time,
we're going to be making a cheesy gordita crunch, vegan style. Let's go!
(upbeat music playing)
Hey guys! Welcome to Make It Dairy Free. I'm Larisha, and today we are veganizing another Taco Bell
recipe for you. So for those of you who don't know, a gordita crunch is basically a crunchy taco that
has been filled with meat and then lettuce, cheese, a spicy ranch sauce and then it is put inside of
a flatbread that has been layered with more cheese. And today, we are going to show you our way of how
to veganize all of that. So the first thing that we are going to do is we are going to be making
our homemade flatbread or tortillas. I am not going to bore you walking you step by step how to make
that dough, because it is essentially our vegan everything dough which we have shown in about five
or six videos now so we will link that description and that full video in the description box below.
Essentially what you are going to do is take your flour and add in some yeast, some salt, some sugar ,
which is completely optional, and then either water or a dairy-free milk. You're going to bring that
all together until a dough forms and then you are going to let it rise for about an hour or
until it doubles in size. Now let me let you in on a little secret. Come a little closer, a little closer,
a little bit closer. You can totally cheat and just use one of these if you don't want to go through
the hassle of making the whole dough. Now don't get me wrong a store-bought tortilla cannot give you
the same umph that you get from making it from scratch completely on your own. However, if you only have
20 minutes compared to two hours, then this is for you. So while our dough is rising we are going to
be making a vegan nacho cheese sauce, a spicy ranch dressing, as well as our vegan taco meat filling. We
have videos for both the nacho cheese and the ranch already on our site, so I'm not going to
make those in this video for you but they will be linked in the description below so check those out.
To make the ranch spicy, we just added some sriracha to our normal vegan ranch dressing.
And you can add as much or as little as you want depending on your spice preference. So
if you know us and you've seen our other videos, you know that that means that I added the teeniest
bit and Andrew added a whole lot more. So the choice is completely up to you. So for our meat
mixture we are going to start by chopping up some sweet onions and some garlic. Now we just prefer
the taste of the sweet onion, you can totally use a yellow onion or whatever you have on hand. And
then once you have both of those chopped, you are going to add your onion into a little bit of oil
over medium heat into your skillet and you are basically just going to let that saute for a
few minutes. It takes about two to three minutes and then once they are translucent you are going
to add in your garlic and a little bit of taco seasoning. So we add a little bit of the seasoning
here just to start building those layers of flavor. It just makes the whole dish overall enhanced just
the slightest bit but you can definitely tell if you know what you're doing. You're just going to
cook that for about a minute and then you are going to add in your meatless crumbles and the
rest of your taco seasoning and you are just going to cook that until your package says that it is
done. Once your meat mixture is done cooking then you are just going to set that off to the side.
When your dough is done rising, you are going to pull that out onto a lightly floured surface
and then you are going to chop that into about 10 equal pieces. Now sometimes we will use a scale if
we want them to be completely accurate, however that is completely up to you. You just want it
to be roughly all the same size. Then what you are going to do is you are going to roll it out
into a circle about five or six inches and then once you have that done you are going to put it
into a very hot skillet. We like to use a cast iron because it can get a very hot temperature
and cook completely evenly. So once you have that going, you are going to cook for about
one to two minutes on each side until it is golden brown. Flip. The second side will cook in about one
to one and a half minutes and then pull it off. You are going to repeat that process with every
single piece of your dough until you have cooked every single one. Now we like to put them inside of
a bowl that has been has a towel draped inside of it and then wrap them up that way they stay
a little bit warmer. But that is also optional. You can just reheat them when it is time to put
everything together if you would prefer that way. All right we did it. You have all of your stuff ready to go now.
You have made your meat mixture, and your nacho cheese, and your spicy vegan ranch,
and you have your tortillas, or you just took the shortcut and you bought them. Whichever way you did,
you have everything ready to go. So, how do we assemble this and put it all together?
(upbeat music playing)
And that's it! You did it! You made a veganized taco bell gourd-- cheesy gordita crunch and it is
so good. Now you get to enjoy all of your hard work and eat all of those up.
Okay so can you use vegan cheese shreds instead of the nacho cheese sauce? The
answer is overwhelmingly, of course you can! Um taco bell actually uses a three cheese blend
instead of a cheese sauce in order to put them together. The crunchy and the flatbread together.
Um we used the nacho cheese sauce because we found that when we did melt the cheese shreds that you
actually had to like hold it down. Once you like melted it in a microwave, you had to actually hold
it down and basically shape it in order to get the crunchy and the flatbread to stick together.
But the choice is completely yours. If you wanted to do it that way all you need to do is sprinkle
some vegan cheese across it. Across the flatbread part of it. And then pop it into the microwave for
about 30 to 45 seconds until they melt. And then immediately sit a crunchy shell in the middle, fold
it up, and then get something to hold it. Whether you're holding it with your hands or something
very light, that you don't break your crunchy shell. And then put your toppings in after it's melded
together or it's held together. So sometimes taco bell also has something known as a double cheesy
gordita crunch. And it's not what you think it is. What I thought it was was like two inside somehow,
but it's not. All the, the only difference is, is that there is meat mixture inside of the flatbread
part and inside of the crunchy shell. So if you wanted to make it this way, it is super easy, just
if you are using cheese shreds or the nacho cheese sauce on top of that you are going to put some
more meat mixture down and then put your crunchy shell that is filled with all of your toppings and
there you have a double cheesy gordita crunch. We completely understand that not everybody likes
processed meat substitutes and that is perfectly fine. We have some options for you if you would
like a less processed version. If you order this vegetarian style at taco bell, that is an option,
instead of the meat mixture you get black beans. And they also have an option to do refried beans.
So you could do one or both of those if you would prefer to do that. We do have a black bean recipe
on the website, so you could check that recipe out and make those. And then use that instead. You could
also do something uh like tvp or tofu crumbles or even just something like some mushrooms. We
always try to keep everybody's allergens in mind and always cover the top eight when we can. So
if you are wanting to make this top eight allergen friendly we have good news you can completely make
it top eight free. So you're going to want to start by skipping making your own flatbread.
You are going to just want to pick up some gluten-free tortilla shells
that you can find that are also vegan. And then you are going to want to pick a soy and gluten free
meat crumble that is like Lightlife or Beyond one of those that just doesn't have any soy or
gluten. For the nacho cheese sauce you are going to want to pick a soy free butter like Flora or Earth
Balance. They both have soy free options. And then you are going to want to pick a vegan cheese shred
um like aldi's mozzarella that doesn't have any top eight allergens. So if you make those four
swaps, this can be a completely top 8 free vegan version of taco bell's cheesy gordita crunch. All
right guys we hope that you enjoyed this vegan version of taco bell's cheesy gordita crunch
if you have another restaurant classic that you would like us to veganize, please leave a
comment below and let us know what you would like to see next. We hope that you will like
this video and subscribe if you aren't already to our channel. Make sure you turn on the little
bell to get all of the notifications so you know when we go live next and as always I just
want you guys to have a great week, remember to smile, and we will see you guys soon. Bye.