Comfort food comes in all shapes and sizes depending on where you are in the world. Take for instance Mexican corn tamales . These doughy pockets of satisfying goodness can be filled with all kinds of ingredients that can fit into any diet, including vegan and vegetarian.
In fact, tamales are practically made to be meatless, all you need is a flavorful base dough and a tasty filling. According to Rick Martinez , food writer and media personality, there are multiple ways to really amp up the flavor of vegan tamales. In an exclusive interview with Daily Meal, Martinez told us that it's important to take every opportunity to build flavor in a vegan tamale.
The first place to start is in the dough itself. "If you're doing a vegetarian or a vegan version, because I like adding flavor, I would not use water," said Martinez. "I would use a veggie stock, a really nice veggie stock, mushroom stock.
" Mixing your masa with flavorful stock or broth will give the pocket around the filling some extra depth and umami flavor. Layer flavor in the filling Of course no tamale is complete without a savory, sometimes spicy filling. The sky's the limit on vegan ingredients to use for a tamale, but again the most important principle is to build flavor whenever you can, according to Rick Martinez.
Author of the book "Mi Cocina: Recipes and Rapture from My Kitchen in Mexico" and host of the Babish Culinary Universe show "Pruébalo" on YouTube, Martinez recommends leaning into charring and roasting a.