Taco Cleanse: Cheat Night!

Okay, so you know how when I do a real cleanse (like the 28-day Abundance Diet I did in January), I'm always throwing in cheat days (like the time last month when I ate a giant slice of peanut butter chocolate birthday cake and had a gluten/plant meat buffet)? Well, this week I'm taco cleansing (which, of course, isn't an actual detox plan), and I worked in a little cheat night tonight.

For the week, I'm making recipes from The Taco Cleanse, a satirical  cookbook poking fun at the cleanse trend. That means tacos for breakfast, tacos for lunch, tacos for dinner, and even dessert tacos. And I did, in fact, have breakfast and lunch tacos today — leftover tofu scramble/tempeh bacon tacos and leftover soy curl fajitas.

But I'd made dinner plans several weeks ago with the Memphis Vegan Dine-outs and Potlucks group, and I wasn't about to miss out on a group meal at Jasmine Thai & Vegetarian Cuisine. I actually considered packing my own tortillas and stuffing the meal into them. But I didn't want to be the weirdo at the table pulling tortillas out of my purse (though I've totally stuffed guacamole and other condiments in my purse before, so I'm not sure what the difference is).

Anyway, here's our group tonight. Big crowd! Lots of new (and plenty of familiar) faces.

It's been years since I've dined at Jasmine, a mostly vegetarian Thai joint, and I'm not sure why I've waited so long. I adore this place, and there are so many vegan options that the menu is incredibly overwhelming. So much so that I tend to stick with a couple of old standards that I know and love there. One of those is this Crispy Orange Bean Curd, which is what I ordered again tonight.

It's made with fried tofu and vegetable fritters, and they're coated in a sweet and savory orange soy sauce. You just can't go wrong with fried veggies. The fritters, which are stuffed with broccoli and cauliflower, remind me a little of gobi manchurian, the Indo-Chinese Dish.

I may have eaten this the traditional way — with a fork. But never fear. I'm back on the taco wagon tomorrow, and I will be stuffing my leftover orange bean curd into tortillas.