Karina, Alma & The Cheesy FAUXdito Crunch..

Everyone has those things they ate when they were young and their stomach's were invincible. If you were like me and most kids my age, you lived for the moments when your parents caved (or were not around) so you could devour endless amounts of fast food.
My friend Alma and I for years now have been reminiscing about our pre-vegetarian/health-conscious days where taco bell was the end all be all and the Cheesy Gordita Crunch was the best that a jobless teen's allowance could buy.


We decided to pay homage to our beloved taco bell classic by remaking it, but this time completely vegan!


To start, Alma began cooking and spicing some veggie ground-beef with fresh onions, salt, pepper, and cayenne.


The real trick to this recreation was the special cheesy sauce. We thought long and hard of those beloved mystery flavors and decided to use veganaise for the creamy base, and add two types of vegan cheese (soy cheddar and almond pepper jack). For the spice/smokey factor that we recalled, we bought some chipotle peppers. I started by melting portions of both cheeses and adding everything to the food processor.

I threw in some cilantro as well as cayenne, chili powder, salt, and pepper for some more kick and flavor.


Its been a long hot while since either of us have tasted the real thing but I think we came about as close as we could possibly come in the vegan world. (My roommate who had conveniently had the real deal the week before verified that it tasted exactly the same!)


We chopped up lettuce and tomato for the toppings...

And Alma made a bomb guac just for our enjoyment, although taco bell never offered this without a charge!


We also cooked a big pot of brown rice to complete our meal...


And we shredded our cheese, topped the outer soft tortillas, and put them in the toaster oven to melt...


And the assembly line went into production:





Taco Bell, I think we may have you beat. These were SOOOOOO good- better in fact than we ever remembered. SF freinds- Look out in the Mission after last call- Alma and I just may start selling these Cheesy Fauxdito Crunchies for profit!