Red Chile Jackfruit Tamales
I have to admit that I’ve always been a little leery of making tamales, I mean, leave it the experts right? I’m fully confident of making desserts, pastries, and other main dishes but never once have I even attempted to make one of my favorite foods, the tamale. That is, until I was given the chance to check out a copy of Vegan Tamales Unwrapped: A Step by Step Guide to Savory and Sweet Tamales from Dora Stone of Dora’s Table.
Then, as fate would have it, I also happened to catch an episode of Diners, Drive-ins & Dives which featured a lady making tamales! It didn’t look too hard. SO with my new found confidence and ebook in hand, I committed to making Dora’s Red Chile Jackfruit Tamales.
Ingredients
Initially, I was a little worried about finding all the ingredients, but thankfully I have a local store that carried what I didn’t already have. You may find that a specialty store will have everything you need OR just in case you don’t want to look all around, I included links in the recipe for some harder to find items you can order directly through Amazon (you are welcome). 🙂
Make a Line
I gave myself the entire morning to shop and make these tamales and what I found, was that although a little time consuming, it was actually a pleasant experience when I had my trusty sidekick (a.k.a. Xander) to help me. We made an awesome assembly line. I cut the dried peppers and he pushed out all the seeds. I taught him how to peel fresh garlic and chop an onion and then I blended everything and made the sauce. He was my taste tester and added the perfect amount of salt to finish it out.
Then we got to the part of filling the husks with our prepared masa and filling. Dora’s ebook is very detailed on how to do it exactly, and it was so simple to follow. Xander loved wrapping each one with a little corn husk bow! They look like pretty little packages, don’t they?
Fill’er Up
Probably, the best part, was actually eating the tamales! They were absolutely allergylicious and the red chile sauce brought just the right amount of heat!
With a few extra tamales left over, we tried a few other fillings. Shredded chicken for my non-vegan boys and sliced avocado for myself because avocado is awesome! Everyone was happy!
A New Holiday MUST to Make
Sneak Peak
A few other recipes from Vegan Tamales Unwrapped that I’m looking forward to trying are the Potato Adobo Tamales & the Chocolate Tamales. Don’t they look good!
Finally, you can grab your ebook here and start having fun with making your own tamales!
I love hearing from you and seeing your awesome remakes! If you make this, be sure to find me on Instagram and tag me @allergylicious and #allergylicious too! You can also find me on Facebook & Pinterest sharing the newest, delicious, allergy-friendly foods!
Here’s to trying new things and making them Allergylicious!
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These look so good! I can’t wait to start cooking out of this book.
I’ve enjoyed a few recipes so far!
These look so amazing! You had me at spicy, but you also had me at tamales!! I’m hungry all over again!
I’ve always thought that tamales would be a pain to make, but I love how easy these are!
I thought the same thing, but other than being a little labor intensive (at least until you get the hang of it), they were quite simple to make.
I had no idea how easy it is to make tamales. Thanks for the recipe! Now I’ll have to give them a try 😉
Can’t wait to see what you fill your tamales with! This book had so many ideas I never even thought of.
I have never ever tried a tamale but I know I would love everything about them! Perhaps I should give them a try!
At least to say you tried one :). I really love tamales with homemade chili (vegan of course) poured on top…so good
Jackfruit was at so many vegan booths at Expo West this year, and I have to admit, for most of them, I definitely wasn’t impressed. They were trying to make the jackfruit fit in places where it didn’t. But tamales seem like the PERFECT match. Thanks for sharing this Nicole. I can’t wait to try homemade tamales myself!
I think you are right, there has to be the perfect place for jackfruit to be used. This recipe worked great and when I ran out, I just subbed in big pieces of avocado and vegan cheese. That worked awesome too. I just never realized how easy it was to make tamales (although it took a bit of time).
I love tamales! I agree that they are a little time consuming, so I don’t make them as often as I would like, but you are right—once you get in a rhythm they move along! My 2 year old loves to help me in the kitchen—he comes running in and says “Mama, I help you!” I’ve always got company in the kitchen!
That’s awesome! My little guy was my helper as well and it was so great just spending that time together!
Hi Nicole, thank you so much for sharing the recipe and your kind words about the book. I’m glad you enjoyed the tamales.
Oh goodness, thank you! Making these pushed me to do something I had always wanted to try. It was so easy. Can’t wait to make more of the recipes from your book.