Having been gluten free for about two years now, tacos had become a thing of the past for me. I was rolling around and learning to live life without them. Until I discovered cassava flour that is! Yes, Yes cassava flour that is made from yucca (also called as tapioca or cassava). Now this is very different from tapioca flour, the reason being tapioca flour is only tapioca starch and does not have the fiber part of the vegetable. So tapioca flour is basically tapioca starch and it can replace corn starch in recipes. However, I repeat tapioca flour is NOT similar to cassava flour and you cannot replace cassava flour with tapioca flour in this cassava tortilla recipe!
Going back to my discovery of cassava flour – oh what can I say? Just that it has brought rotis, tacos and along with that the excitement of eating Indian and Mexican food back into my life! OK so I make cassava rotis/parathas/tortillas with it. That’s a recipe I have posted before when I posted the Vegan/Paleo Vegetable Korma curry. But that’s one recipe with multiple uses! So I had been eating cassava rotis / parathas with different sables and chicken curry 🙂 Yum! I couldn’t come out of that euphoric state for a while. And once I finally did come out, I had to make tacos next! So currently I am going crazy making all kinds of tacos – Last week I made a chicken taco with left over baked tandoori style chicken and it was so so delicious!
And then this week, one of the days for lunch, I was wondering about what I could eat when again the memory of those chicken tacos came to mind. I also had some of the avocado cilantro lime mayo left over. Darn I thought ! I don’t have any more left over chicken pieces though and baking chicken now didn’t seem feasible. So then my taco loving brain came up with the next best option (actually turned out to be the really best option!) – how about making shrimp tacos since I could pan fry shrimp fast enough!
Well, once that thought entered my head, I just had to start working on it. I was initially just thinking of doing quick pan fry of the shrimp with red chili powder and turmeric. But as I kept the shrimp to thaw another thought entered my head – how about making it caribbean style with cilantro, garlic, lime marinade? Ooh…ok an extra 5 mins to make this sauce ? sure why not? Remember the caribbean style grilled shrimp that I posted earlier this summer? That is such an easy recipe and comes out fabulous every single time with the shrimp bursting with so much flavor!
Well, I am so glad I decided to take the extra effort on the marinade …coz these grilled shrimp tacos were the BOMB! I mean it! OMG, they were so good that I almost felt guilty devouring them myself alone at lunch when the rest of my family were not home 🙂 However I promised my family that I will make these again soon 🙂 🙂
Btw, I have a video showing how to make cassava tortillas. Check it out!
- ½ cup cassava flour
- 1 tbsp olive oil or avocado oil
- pinch sea salt
- ½ cup hot water (water that has been boiling and just removed from heat)
- 2 tsp olive oil
- 1 ripe avocado
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 green serrano chill
- ½ cup cilantro leaves
- 2 tbsp lemon/lime juice
- 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- ¼ tsp sea salt
- About 20-24 large size shrimp, de-shelled and deveined
- ½ cup fresh cilantro leaves
- 1-2 green serrano chilies
- 1 inch piece of fresh ginger
- 1 clove of garlic
- 1 tbsp lime/lemon juice
- 1 tbsp coconut aminos (or gluten free soy or tamari sauce)
- pinch sea salt
- 2 -3 tbsp coconut oil for pan frying the shrimp
- shredded lettuce
- thinly sliced onions
- avocado slices
- lemon slices
- cilantro leaves
- In a large mixing bowl, add the cassava flour. Add the salt and the oil. Then add slowly the hot water in 2-3 portions and continue stirring with a spoon. When all the water is added, add 1-2 more tsp of oil and then knead with your hands to form a smooth dough.
- Roll dough into tortillas and cook on a frying pan cooking about 2 mins on each side. You should get about 8 tortillas. Keep the tortillas aside (Leave them uncovered so they don't get soggy)
- Add all the ingredients listed under Avocado cilantro mayo in a food processor/ blender and blend until creamy and smooth. Transfer to a bowl/container. keep aside.
- Mix all the marinade ingredients together and blend in a food processor. Add this marinade to the cleaned shrimp. Marinate for 5-15 mins.
- Heat a frying pan adding the coconut oil. When hot, lower heat to medium and add the shrimp (you may need to do in batches depending upon the size of your pan). Cook for 2 mins on one side. Then flip each shrimp to the other side and cover and cook for 1 more min. Transfer the shrimp to a dish/bowl and keep covered till assembling of tacos.
- Make tacos by placing 3-4 shrimp on a tortilla, adding the shredded lettuce, onions and the avocado cilantro mayo. Garnish with avocado slices, lemon slices and cilantro!
