Beer Battered Artichoke Tacos with Lime Crema

We eat a lot of tacos in our house. Like, a lot. Usually we go with the ole black beans and veggie combo because it's super quick, healthy, and delicious, but I've been getting a little bored of the same ole same lately. I've actually been wanting to make this recipe for probably over a year now, but wasn't quite sure how it would turn out. I got cold feet and kept putting it off - I guess mainly because I wasn't super confident in my frying skills. However, high off the success of the last couple of fried recipes (holla at those cauliflower poppers!), I decided it was time to go for it. I found a really easy recipe for beer battered fish tacos that I adapted for my vegetarian ways (see links below), added a little green salsa and avocado, topped with a little lime crema and an extra squeeze of lime, and they turned out so good! An added plus is that they really didn't take all that long from start to finish like some frying recipes do. Try it and let me know what you think!

On a side note before we get started, I've been trying to grow my readership and would really love feedback! If you try any of my recipes, have ideas about what you would like to see me cook, or even have questions about how to adapt something to make it vegetarian, please leave a comment! It would help me out so much to know if you're enjoying my recipes and ideas.

Getting Started

Start by preparing your batter. I got the recipe for this and the lime crema from the Food Network HERE and just changed a couple of things. Mix your batter ingredients together and slowly whisk in the beer. The original recipe calls for a dark, Mexican beer, but I ended up using what I had in the fridge and it still turned out great. Feel free to use the type of beer that you like. Let the batter sit for 15 minutes - I'm not sure why, as it didn't explain in the original recipe, but I imagine it has something to do with the beer. If you know, leave a comment!

While waiting for the batter to finish doing it's thing, put your lime crema together and ready the rest of your ingredients. I used the same recipe for the beer batter that I did for the crema;  the only thing I changed was using lime juice and zest instead of lemon. For this part, simply whisk all of the lime crema ingredients together until smooth and set aside.

Next add enough oil in your pan to have a depth of about 1/2-3/4 inches, and heat the oil until a little flour dropped in starts to sizzle. While your oil is heating up, rinse, drain and pat dry your artichoke heart quarters. Sprinkle with a little salt and pepper (if they are already salty because of how they were canned, you may not need to add additional salt), dredge with flour, then coat with batter. This part was a little harder than I thought it would be! What I found worked best was to dump about half of the artichokes in at a time and kind of mix them all around until they were coated evenly, then I washed my hands, because it's suuuuuper sticky and messy, and then used one hand to pick up the pieces and place them in the oil. I had to kind of recoat them as I went because the batter wanted to slide off. Just try not to have much artichoke sticking through if you can. It takes some getting used to, but the effort is worth it. Cook in the oil until golden brown, then let drain on a plate lined with paper towels.

Once your artichokes are done, all you have left to do is assemble! Warm up your tortillas, put a little salsa verde down, then top with cabbage slaw, artichokes, avocado, lime crema, and an extra squeeze of fresh lime. Yuuuuuuumm!

These turned out really good and were also so filling. I think they will definitely make it into our future taco rotations, and, now that I know the basics, I definitely feel more comfortable with experimenting and trying different flavors. That means you may see more taco recipes in the future! :)

Ingredients

Beer Batter (adapted from Food Network recipe):
1 cup all purpose flour (I used whole wheat flour and it turned out great still)
1 cup beer - choose one you actually like to drink
1 tsp coarse salt
1/2 tsp black pepper

Lime Crema (adapted from Food Network recipe):
1/3 cup mayonnaise
2/3 cup Mexican crema (or sour cream if you can't find it)
2 Tbs fresh lime juice
1 tsp lime zest
2 Tbs water
Pinch of salt

Note: I went off of the Food Network recipe for this and it made much more than I needed.

Artichoke Tacos:
1 can (about 14oz) quartered artichoke hearts
9-10 taco tortillas (I used corn, but you can use flour. If you choose really thin corn tortillas, double the amount of tortillas needed)
1 avocado cut into slices
2-3 cups store bought raw shredded cabbage slaw - you don't need to make slaw, you can just use it raw. If you prefer, you can also cut up your own cabbage mix.
Salsa verde - if you're in the mood to make it yourself, check out my recipe here!
Lime wedges
Vegetable oil for frying - enough to have a depth of about 1/2-3/4 inches in the pan

Serving size: about 8-10 tacos

Looking for similar recipes? Check out these Grilled Eggplant Fajitas and Black Bean Tacos with Lime Infused Rice!