Hello there! Today’s post is a little different from most of my stories, but it was highly requested by my amazing Instagram community. You already know that I don’t imagine my life without good Mexican food. Being a vegetarian and eating my troubles away several times per year in Mexico City, it made me very picky about the thing I eat when I am back home to Austin. So, today I am sharing with you what would my day look like if I ate nothing but Mexican vegetarian cuisine.  

Rise and shine! Breakfast:
Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day, and it always starts with coffee. In this case, Mexican coffee!  
Mexican coffee or “Cafe de Olla” is a traditional drink made with grounded coffee, cinnamon, and Piloncillo (unrefined Mexican sugar that is made from cane sugar made from boiling and evaporating cane juice) that I brought from Mexico.  

When I think of Mexico, I remember the abundance of fruits everywhere, so for me, there is no better breakfast than a simple bowl of fruits with yogurt and granola. My forever favorite would be a bowl fried/grilled plantains.

Ingredients:
– vegan butter (I use Earth Balance Olive Oil Buttery Spread)  
– brown sugar for sweetness (optional); 
– 1 sliced plantain.  
Directions:
In a skillet, heat a spoon of butter; add sugar and stir until dissolved. Fry plantains on the low heat turning until all sides are golden. They are ready to serve when the color is golden and the plantains are soft.  

Mexican Corn Soup
If you like Esquites (Mexican Corn salad) as much as I do, you would probably enjoy this vegetarian Mexican corn soup as much as we do.  

Ingredients: 
 – olive oil;
 – 1/2 cup of chopped white onion; 
–  2 cloves of chopped garlic; 
 – 4 cobs of corn; 
– 3 cups of vegetable broth;  
– 1/2 grated cotija or panela cheese (I prefer the second one); 
– salt, pepper, smoked paprika to taste; 
– cilantro to garnish; 
– 1/2 cup sour cream; 
– 1/2 grated cotija cheese;
 – 1 fresh lime; 

Directions:
1. In a large pot, heat the olive oil, add onion and garlic and fry for 2 minutes. 
2. Remove corn kernels from the corn and add to the pot. Add salt, pepper, smoked paprica. Cook for 15-20 minutes stirring occasionally until the corn is soft and turned golden brown. Set aside some corn for garnish. 
3.  Add vegetable broth and cilantro, cover with a lid and boil for another 15 minutes.  
 4. Add cotija cheese and sour cream to the soup, and boil for 5 more minutes. Transfer soup to the blender. 
5. Return soup to the pot, and heat to desired temperature. 
6. Serve with a spoon of corn mixture, cilantro, freshly squeezed lime juice, and cotija cheese if desired! 

Dinner: 
Quesadilla with pico de gallo with pineapple, and Creamy roasted poblano peppers or grilled Nopales.
  Being a vegetarian, I love Mexican cuisine also for a variety of dishes without meat or poultry.  Mexico is heaven for vegetarians as you could read from my “WHEN VEGETARIAN GOES TO MEXICO CITY….”, and “THE WORLDS OF SAINT CORN AND OTHER BIZARRE FOOD I HAVE TRIED IN MEXICO CITY” posts. Now, let’s cook!

Pico de gallo with pineapple or mango.
Ingredients: 
– 1 cup of freshly chopped pineapple or mango; 
– cilantro; 
– jalapeño without seeds (optional);
 – juice of 1 lime;
 – salt, pepper to taste; 
– 1 chopped medium size tomato;  
– 1/4 cup of chopped onion; 

Directions: 
Combine all the ingredients in a bowl, add salt, pepper, cover with a lid and let sit in the fridge for at least 30 minutes! Make quesadilla and serve it with pico de gallo! 

Creamy roasted poblano peppers (hubby’s recipe): 
First of all, it took me time to learn how to pick the poblano peppers based. I had no idea that the smaller the spicier.  
Ingredients: 
– 1/2 chopped white onion; 
– 4 poblano peppers; 
– 1/2 cup Mexican sour cream; 
– 1/2 cup Cotija cheese; 
– olive oil, and salt to taste.  
– 2 tbsp of Vinegar and 2 tbsp of lemon juice (optional)

Directions: 
1. Char every poblano over an open flame of a gas stove until its skin is blackened. 
 2. Place the peppers in the plastic bag and let them steam in their own heat for 10 minutes.  
3. When the peppers are cold, remove the blackened skin, open the chiles, and remove all the seeds and discard the stems. My husband does it over the sink because this part is quite messy. Cut chiles into strips.  
4. Optional: since I don’t eat very spicy food, my husband mixes 2 tbsp of Vinegar and 2 tbsp of lime juice, adds it to the bowl of sliced poblanos, and keeps it in the fridge overnight. 
 5. In the heated skillet, cook onions until translucent. Add peppers and sour cream, and let it cook stirring occasionally until poblanos are cooked. 
6. Add the cheese and stir until it’s melted. We eat it as a side dish.   

Thanks for stopping by! 

XX, 
Gena.