Vegan Cheesy Gordita Crunch

Taco Bell's greatest achievement, veganized

There are a few key components that amalgamate to create the delicacy that is Taco Bell’s legendary Cheesy Gordita Crunch, or as real Taco Bell heads refer to it as, The CGC.

BEFORE WE START: In the future I will take more pictures, I had an issue with my phone and lost a bunch sadly, so the ones throughout are limited. I know those help with guidance as you go, but this is a super easy recipe so forward we trudge anyway.

Serving size: However many you want. I made two. Only thing that would really have to change is how much cheese sauce you make. Otherwise just make as many as you want with the amount of taco shells/pita you have. One 16 oz package of vegan meat probably gets you like four CGCs.

The components:

1. The freeze-dried to liquified meat

2. The spicy ranch

3. The pillowy gordita outer shell

4. The crispy inner shell

5. The cheese blend that binds the two together in perfect harmony

Tackling this task was a tough one for me for a few reasons. First, this was easily my favorite fast food item of all time and the idea of bastardizing it was not an option. Second, this was the last item containing meat I have ever eaten. While I am remarkably confident in my choice to become vegan, I am not one of the plant-based peoples who pretends meat doesn’t taste good. Of course it can, like anything. So I kind of had this perfect version of the CGC in my head that I didn’t want to ruin, which is the reason I had never attempted to veganize this thing. BUT, we are not cowards around here and, off the success I saw from the veganized Big Mac, I decided it was time to give it a shot.

Ingredients

Shouldn’t be too complicated to find. There really are only a handful of ingredients in this whole thing.

1. Hard shell taco shells (for this recipe I would opt for the more rounded, non flat-bottom ones. Inconvenient for standing up, but better for wrapping that gordita shell around. Could you make your own? Absolutely. Totally up to you here.

2. Taco seasoning (the taco bell seasoning pack is vegan!) but any seasoning packet or whatever personal blend you use is totally fine. No reason to be a taco elitist here, we’re recreating Taco Bell.

3. “Meat.” Honestly I think any are fine here so just go with preference. Impossible, Beyond, Gardein, anything you prefer. I went with impossible because I had some in my freezer already and I like the taste. How lucky are we to have so many options now? Was not the situation just a few years ago.

4. “Cheese.” I went with So Delicious Mexican Style shreds. I think the cheese choice is probably more important than the meat, due to the drastically different melting ability from brand to brand. Other brands I think would suffice are Follow Your Heart, Daiya or Miyoko’s shreds. I also know, based on geographic location and price factor, these are not always possible so anything that gets melty will do.

5. Spicy Ranch. Do I have to put that in quotes too? Too late. I got Follow Your Heart vegan ranch, but there are a million kinds out there and recipes to make your own if you want. I had this on hand so I went with it. For the spicy ranch you also need a thing of pickled jalapenos, any kind will do. A tiny bit of any hot sauce, literally. I used sriracha.

6. Lettuce. Iceberg lettuce. If you can’t find this, I’m not sure how you made it to step six.

7. Gordita Shells. THIS proved to be easily my tallest task. I couldn’t find anything actually called this anywhere (even the Mexican grocer around the corner from me) so after some thorough investigating (you’re welcome for the leg work, ((subscription paying off already))) I found a flatbread not a pita because you don’t want a pocket but any style flatbread will do. I promise it tastes exactly the same. Just make sure that the size is comparable to that of the hard taco shells, roughly 7 inches in diameter usually. Worst case scenario, you trim (I did).

   TLDR ingredients: 1/2 cup vegan ranch, 2 cups vegan shreds, 1/2 cup oat milk, iceberg lettuce, small sized flatbreads, hard taco shells, pickled jalapeños, 16 oz package vegan meat.

Make this thing

I have to be honest here, as far as actual cooking goes, this was very easy. I’m quite confident a cook of absolutely any level could accomplish this pretty easily. Good place to start!

1. Make the spicy ranch. This is easy. Half a cup of vegan ranch. Two tbsp of jalapeño pickling liquid, one tbsp of minced pickled jalapeños and a couple squirts of any hot sauce you have, I used sriracha. Mix it all together and put it in the fridge until later. If it is too thin, add some vegan mayo to thicken it up. Just mess around until you find the consistency you want, it’s your dinner.

2. Shred your lettuce. Almost feels like a waste making this an entire step, but do it.

3. Cook the “meat” according to directions on package of whatever brand you got. Easy to do, especially if you went taco packet. Whenever you’re done cooking it, just put somewhere, covered until we need it. Nothing says authentic Taco Bell experience like letting something that isn’t actually meat sit at a questionable temperature for a while. We’ll survive, boost to immune system

4. Cheese sauce! I took about two cups of the shreds and put them in my non-stick always pan on medium heat. I added a half a cup of oat milk, two tbsp of butter and one tbsp of flour to that and whisked like a mfer until it was all combined. Then, kill the heat and let it just become gloop. Gloop is good. Gloop is the binding agent we need here. Don’t be afraid of gloop.

5. Heat up the pita CAREFULLY in the microwave/in a steamer if you have one. You don’t want to get it so hot it breaks and you don’t want to toast it because it then for sure will break. I did the microwave for 5 second intervals until it felt just right to mold around the taco shell, which was like 20 seconds. But, in intervals.

6. Dump the cheesy gloop onto the inside of the gordita/flatbread and spread with a spoon. Cover the entire thing, as we’re shooting for as much binding as possible here.

7. Wrap the gordita around the hard shell taco. Be careful not to shatter the hard shell or tear the soft shell. Frankly, even if you do, it will taste the same so don’t beat yourself up about it. I put two bowls on each side of our creation for like two minutes.

8. Layer! Meat on bottom. Nice solid layer here. Then put the ranch on top of that. Then the lettuce. Then a sprinkling of vegan cheese on top. Honestly feel free to skip the last step because most vegan cheese doesn’t taste very good not melted or heated up. I did it for aesthetic purposes for instagram, but kind of wish I didn’t.

9. Eat it!

Yum, so delicious, so good, look at us. Fancy plate too!

This is the first time I have fully fleshed out a recipe and gone into depth like this, so I honestly appreciate any feedback possible. I really appreciate you all following along and love you dearly. Reminder you can follow my cookbook/food instagram here. Love you all.