Who doesn’t love a delicious, savory tamale on a winter’s day? Now that I’ve put together this vegetarian & vegan tamale recipe, plant-based fans can also enjoy these delectable treats with mouthwatering flavors like soyrizo and potato, and poblano pepper and vegan cheese.
I’ve made tamales about three times now, and this is the guide I wish I read when I first started! The first time I made tamales, I used a lard-based recipe with poblano peppers and cheese. They were delicious, and even my second-generation Mexican American boyfriend admitted, and I quote, “these are exactly how my mom makes them.” But that recipe – while amazing – isn’t the most friendly to lactose intolerant folks & strict vegetarians. Although I’m a “bad vegetarian,” for my baking show, I wanted to make a recipe accessible to more people since many of my friends are dairy-sensitive and plant-based.
It was definitely hard to find a vegan tamale recipe! I scoured through different recipes to find examples for lard-free masa, and I want to give a shout out to Isabelle Eats for her guide! Isabelle is a Mexican American cook, and I love how helpful her recipes are, along with her stunning website.
So with this recipe, I adapted my favorite pepper & cheese recipe into one that doesn’t use lard, and can be easily substituted with vegan cheese. I also found this incredible Soyrizo and Potato recipe that I’ve also adapted to Isabelle’s lard-free masa. The recipe link also includes an adobo which I didn’t have time to try, so mine is a simpler version. Definitely feel free to check out their recipe as well though.
Keep reading to learn more about how to make this vegetarian & vegan tamale recipe.
Materials and Tools You’ll Need
Tamale-making is not for the weak, and after I made tamales the first time, I understood why my friend mentioned that it was an all-day endeavor. Here are two must-haves to invest in if you’d like to make this vegan tamale recipe:
- Tamale Steamer
- Kitchen Twine
A stock pot could also work if you can add a steaming rack to it, but make sure it’s large enough so the tamales can be upright. For the kitchen twine, you could also use strips of ripped corn husks for the old-fashioned way. But they’re a little less stable, and more likely to spill out if you’re making vegan cheese tamales. They aren’t expensive, so I would pick up a packet from your local Safeway or something to give yourself the option.
To make the poblano pepper & cheese peppers, I also recommend the following tools:
- aluminum foil
- zip-loc bag
This is essential in the process of charring the poblanos and then steaming them in a bag.
Finally, here are some other things to make your life easier, but you could get away without.
- Gloves (for handling peppers)
- food processor
You can always sub a blender for the food processor instead.
Lard-Free Masa
Cheers again to Isabelle Eats for the vegan masa recipe. I was very picky scouring the web for the right recipe, as some had mixed reviews. I was worried that the masa texture wouldn’t be right with oil as a replacement for lard, but that was absolutely not the case. They tasted just as savory and delicious.
You can easily make a batch of 45 tamales with Isabelle’s recipe. While other recipes mentioned that they used hand-mixers to knead the dough together, Isabelle mentioned that she just kneads it with her hands. I tried it myself and had to say I find it the more preferable option! The dough starts off quite wet and then turns into the texture of shaggy sand.
To see a visual guide, check out my video here from my live baking Twitch show, where I also made vegan empanadas.
In the video, I heated up the veggie broth on the stove so the dough would come together. I actually used a bit of my own homemade stock, which you can find the recipe for here. That said, I believe you should still be able to mix it well even if the stock is not hot.
Corn Husks?!
Yup. Tamales are a true Meso-American dish. I had to look this up, but they originate from thousands of years ago, and were used as portable food for the Mayans, Aztecs, and other indigenous groups of Latin America. I love that so many facets of corn – from the husk to its fungus, huitlacoche, are used in indigenous Latin American food.
You can find packaged corn husks at any Mexican grocery, and they’ll come in bulk. You can also use banana leaves. The first time I made tamales, I confused myself I made half of them with banana leaves. The latter tends to be used for steaming Asian foods, but I didn’t see a different in taste myself.
Corn husks are brittle, so you’ll want to boil them first before using, and then let them dry. Once they are dry, set aside any husks that have rips or holes in them. Those can be repurposed into corn husk strips to tie the husks. The size of your tamales also depends on the size of your husks, so use the biggest ones if you’d like to make nice fat tamales.
What’s Special about Poblano and Cheese Tamales?
Pepper and Cheese is a classic tamale flavor, to the point where you can find frozen ready-to-eat Pepper & Cheese tamales from Trader Joe’s. (They are not great. I don’t recommend them unless you’re really hungry for a quick snack. They make me want to make tamales again, because mine are so much better.)
But I digress – you can find poblano peppers at many well-stocked grocery stores, at least in California which already caters to a larger Hispanic demographic. If not, they should be at a Hispanic market and they are quite affordable. Poblano peppers are the star of many other dishes, like pepper enchiladas, migas, and chile rellenos… ooh now I’m getting hungry.
The recipe recommends searing poblanos with foil and a skillet. This can be skipped if you’re really short on time but I absolutely love a charred poblano moment. Alternatively, they can be baked, but you won’t really be saving time.
Tomatillos are also in the recipe, and they look like little green hard tomatoes with a husk you pull right off. This recipe that I adapted from this super-star poster, takes the lovingly painstaking process of also boiling 1lb of tomatillos to make a delicious salsa along with the poblano and cheese. I
t’s worth it and prevents your tamale from getting too dry. It’ll definitely be easier to have a food processor. After they cook, they get blitzed into a liquid lightning-fast. Ah, you’ll think. That’s why salsa verde is full of seeds!
What kind of vegan cheese?
There’s a lot of brands to choose when it comes to vegan cheese, and I’ve had good luck with Daiya, Follow Your Heart & Miyoko’s. Luckily now I can find vegan cheese not just at health food stores, but also at my local Safeway & Target.
For these tamales, you’ll want a replacement for Monterey Jack or Pepperjack cheese, and I used Hot Pepper cheese slices from Good Planet Foods. A block of cheese or slices work well here, you definitely don’t want shreds as they will be too loose. While vegan cheese is supposed to mimic the texture of regular cheese when it melts, I have to say that the Good Planet version definitely became too runny and leaked out of the tamales. They tasted good, but it became a bit of a leaky mess in the pot!
To combat this, make sure your Pepper & Vegan Cheese tamales are properly sealed, with the top up, and I would wrap them tightly with twine instead of husk strips. Additionally, make sure the tamales are tightly packed so none slide down and drip. Also, I’ll experiment with a different vegan cheese next time.
Vegan cheese is a great investment for making other vegan meals. Here are some other great recipes I have here that utilize vegan cheese!
Let’s Talk about Soyrizo!
So what is soyrizo? Soyrizo the vegan version of chorizo, a pork-based Mexican meat product, and also my partner’s favorite food of all time. Aside from tacos, you can find it in lots of Mexican breakfast foods and there’s even a restaurant in Oakland that puts it in their mac & cheese dish. My partner regularly buys soyrizo, as it contains the same spices and it tastes just as good mixed in with eggs and potatoes.
You can find soyrizo at health food stores, vegetarian stores, and upscale groceries. They also come in the same little sausage-tube that you’ll find with chorizo. I also found it at Cardenas, a Hispanic Foods store near me.
The soyrizo is so savory in these tamales, and Eddie was absolutely finishing off the batch of soyrizo & potato tamales we kept in the fridge.
What Pairs Well with Tamales?
Good question! A lot.
Enjoy them with agua fresca, (my faves are horchata and jamaica – recipes coming soon!) Jarritos soda, and who doesn’t love Modelo Especial with a salty snack?
Also, homemade salsa is a must for tamales. Your typical Mexican salsa verde is made with tomatillos, like the sauce in the pepper & cheese tamales that I’m sharing here. Although I haven’t tried any salsa verde recipes recently for these tamales, here’s one I found that looks like it’ll do the trick.
If nothing else, tamales with a good hot sauce will do the trick. Tapatio is the household favorite, though I like Cholula as well.
More Questions and Answers
What if I’m not making enough tamales and there’s a gap in the steamer pot?
This happened to me the first time I made tamales – my Imusa steamer pot is quite big and I didn’t have a large batch. Don’t do what I did the first time and just let them slide off. You can fix this problem by putting a heat-proof mug in the steamer pot to make sure the tamales stand up-right.
How can you tell the different flavor tamales apart?
This is a good question especially if you have friends with food sensitivities, or you’re making vegan & non-vegan options. I had Eddie consult his mom and she mentioned that one way is to try different knots (butterfly knots versus double-knotting,) or you could use strips of corn husks for one flavor, and twine for the other.
Alternatively, if there’s enough space you can also separate them with a barrier like the heat-proof mug I mentioned.
How long will they keep?
Hopefully not too long if you’re having a party or enjoying this with family, but tamales are good in ziploc bags, foil, and well-sealed containers for probably up to a week. It’s not meat, so you have a bit of leeway, but keep on the conservative side if you have a weaker stomach.
But you’re in luck, because tamales freeze really well! Just chuck them in the freezer, husk and all and they’ll be good whenever you want to get a tasty snack. Avoid keeping them for longer than 3 months to avoid freezer burn, but it’ll really only affect the texture. After freezing, just microwave with the husk for 2 minutes and got a nice steamy tamale again.
Vegan-Friendly & Vegetarian Soyrizo & Potato and Pepper and Cheese Tamales
Equipment
- tamale steamer
- Dutch Oven
- large food processor
- large mixing bowl
- medium saucepans
- whisk or hand mixer
- aluminum foil
- non-stick skillet
- ziploc bag
- twine optional, for tying tamales. recommended for vegan cheese tamales
- gloves optional, to protect from heat
Ingredients
Vegan Masa Mix
- 8½ cups masa harina
- 2 tsp table salt
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1¾ cups canola oil
- 6½ cups veggie broth
Soyrizo & Potato Filling
- 2 tbsp canola oil for frying
- 2 small russet potatoes, peeled and diced into ¼ inches
- ½ onion, finely chopped
- 12 oz soyrizo
- 1 tsp chili powder
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1 tsp ground cumin
Pasilla pepper & Cheese Filling
- 10 oz Pasilla or Poblano peppers
- 1¼ lbs tomatillos, husks removed
- 1 yellow onion
- 2 teaspoons vegan butter
- ¼ cup fresh cilantro
- 2 packages Monterey Jack cheese or Vegan cheese substitute
- salt and pepper
Tamales
- large package of corn husks, boiled for 40-50 tamales
Instructions
Preparation
- Heat a quart of water in a large Dutch Oven or steamer pot. Once boiling, take your corn husks and add the water, using a spatula to push them down. You can also use a heatproof ceramic plate to weigh down the husks. Cover the pot and heat for 30 minutes.
- Drain the corn husks and pat dry as well as you can. It's okay if they're a little damp, but don't let them dry out as you want them to be pliable for the tamales.
Masa Mix
- Heat vegetable broth in a saucepan until it is just slightly warm, 70-90°F.
- In a mixing bowl, whisk together masa harina, salt, and baking powder.
- Add canola oil to the mix, and then add warm broth. The mixture will be very wet at first and then turn into the right moist masa texture once it comes together. Mix for about 3-5 minutes until there are no dry lumps of masa.
- Set aside while you prepare the fillings.
Soyrizo Filling
- In a saucepan or skillet, cook potatoes on medium heat with oil for about 2-3 minutes, until you get some color on them, and then remove and set aside.
- In the same pan with the leftover oil, add onion and cook for 2 minutes.
- Add the entire package of soyrizo, and cook for 5 minutes, adding spices at the end.
- Add back the potatoes and cook together for 3 minutes, then set aside.
Pasilla Pepper & Cheese Filling
- Wrap your skillet in aluminum foil and blacken peppers over medium-high to high heat for 3-5 minutes.
- Remove from heat and place into a quart-sized ziploc bag to steam for 10-15 minutes. Once done, peel the blackened skin of the peppers, deseed the peppers, and cut into 2-4 inch strips.
- Place the peeled tomatillos into a pot and boil in water for 5 minutes. They will slowly change color. Once done, drain and process until pureed in your food processor or blender until smooth.
- Cook your onion over a different skillet or saucepan with butter for five minutes. Add salt and pepper. Then add in the pureed tomatillo and bring to a boil, then quickly reducing heat to a simmer.
- Add in the poblanos and cilantro for another 5 minutes. Allow to cool for 10 minutes before arranging the tamales.
Arranging Tamales
- Fill water to the bottom of your tamale steamer and set the rack for placing tamales.
- Using Fill a spoon, take the masa and spread 2-3 tablespoons onto a flat corn husk. The amount depends on the size and shape of the corn husk. Leave the bottoms of the cornhusk free by at least 2 inches, and the top by ¼ inch.
- For the soyrizo filling, simply take put spoonfuls of the mix over the masa. Carefully wrap the tamale into cylinder so that the slides overlap and then tie together with twine, or tear a thin strip of a corn husk to use as a tie. Create a bottom by folding it over and set each tamale upright onto the tamale steamer, with the top pointing up.
- For the cheese filling, add two teaspoons or spoonfuls of the tomatillo mix over the masa, making sure that each tamale has at least one pepper piece. Then cut, or take a small 2-inch strip of cheese or vegan cheese and put it in the center of the mix. Carefully wrap it up with twine, making sure to wrap up the folded bottom with twine as well. For the vegan cheese especially, this is important because the melted cheese will be very runny and may leak.
- Repeat the process for the other tamales. You can delineate different flavors with different types of ties (double-knot or bowtie) or whether you use twine or strips of corn husk. If you are making a smaller batch of tamales and have trouble keeping them upright, you can hold them up with heatproof ceramic cups and mugs inside the pot.
- When all the tamales are filled and ready, put the cover over the tamales and bring to a boil over high heat. Once your tamales are boiling, start the timing for 1 hour and 15 minutes.You should not run out of water, but just in case, you can lower the heat from high to medium after 45 minutes to an hour. Salud!
Ta-da! What do you think of these vegan tamales & my vegan tamale recipe?
If you took the time to make this recipe, feel free to let me know what you think! Don’t forget to rate and leave a comment if you took the dive. I can’t wait to share more plant-based recipes with you all!
Feel free to also share this vegan tamale recipe on Pinterest, and you can also follow me there.
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