Say what. Tinga bowl with shredded hearts of palm, quick spicy chickpeas, spanish rice and other fixins. Tons of chipotle pepper usage.
Tinga dish is shredded meat (chicken) slow cooked in a spicy red chipotle sauce and usually served in tostados, tacos or tortilla. To make a vegan version, I use shredded hearts of palm! Instead of adding it to tostadas or tacos, I made a bowl with it. Paired with spicy chickpeas roasted in a pan, some Spanish rice, salt and pepper corn, salsa and vegan sour cream.
Each of the elements of this bowl are bursting with a ton of flavor. It seems like many things, but it takes about 15 -20 minutes working in parallel. I started up the tinga sauce and spanish rice, then made the chickpeas. Use pre-made salsa and sour cream. Make all of bowl ingredients, or make just the hearts of palm tinga and serve as tacos or tostada with your favorite toppings. Or use refried beans, guacamole and plain rice in the bowl. Easy, spicy and delicious!
Hearts of palm are not necessarily the same tree as the palm tree used for palm oil. They are also called swamp cabbage and the multi stem palms (some are also grown in florida) from which they are harvested need not be destroyed during harvesting. Please use brands from the US or sustainable labeled from South America. Or use shredded jackfruit or soy curls.
Make some for Cinco De mayo!
More Cinco De mayo recipes
- Pulled Butternut Squash Tacos. Vegan Glutenfree Recipe
- Almond Crusted Cauliflower with Nacho Cheese Sauce
- Smoky Lentil and Sweet Potato Tacos. Vegan Recipe
- Vegan Nachos with Nut-free Nacho Cheese
- Chickpea Cauliflower Tacos with gluten-free tortilla flatbread.
- my Cinco de mayo round up here. and see this Vegan roundup on Buzzfeed! loads of ideas.
Look at that fantastic hearts of palm tinga.
If you are in Canada, check out Eat Grain for local chickpeas, canadian grown quinoa and other grains! Farm direct dry goods with a story. They might be available in the US as well in the future.
Steps:
Make the spicy tinga sauce.
Add shredded hearts of palm and cook until tender and flavorful.
Saute the chickpeas with spices and some tinga sauce until heated through and dry.
Make spanish rice or use plain brown rice.
Layer the bowl with everything. sprinkle salt, pepper and vegan sour cream or guacamole. Serve!
Recipe Card
Vegan Tinga bowl with Hearts of Palm, Chickpeas, Spanish Rice
Ingredients
For the Tinga sauce Hearts of palms
- 1 tsp oil
- 1/2 (0.5) medium white onion
- 5 cloves of garlic divded, 1 clove chopped
- 2 ripe tomatoes
- 2 chipotle chili peppers in adobo sauce
- 1/4 tsp (0.25 tsp) oregano
- 1/4 tsp (0.25 tsp) thyme
- 1/2 tsp (0.5 tsp) ancho chili powder optional, use paprika instead
- 1/3 tsp (0.33 tsp) salt or to taste
- 14 oz (396.89 g) can of hearts of palm drained, washed and chopped or shredded
For the spicy Chickpeas:
- 15 oz (425.24 g) can chickpeas
- 1 tsp oil
- 1/3 tsp (0.33 tsp) salt or to taste
- 1/4 tsp (0.25 tsp) oregano
- 1/2 tsp (0.5 tsp) ancho chile or chipotle chili powder
- 1/2 tsp (0.5 tsp) cumin powder
- 2 tbsp tinga sauce
Other bowl contents
- 1 recipe Spanish rice I made the recipe with brown rice for this bowl salsa corn, cilantro, spinach or lettuce
- salsa corn, cilantro, spinach or lettuce
- vegan sour cream or cashew sour cream, or or nacho cheese sauce or guacamole
- salt pepper, lemon juice as needed
Instructions
- Make the tinga sauce: Heat oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add onions and 1 clove of garlic and a pinch of salt. Mix and cook until translucent. About 5 minutes. Stir occasionally.
- Blend the tomato, chipotle chili pepper, rest of the garlic, oregano, thyme, ancho chili powder and blend until well pureed. Add the blend to the skillet and cook for 4 to 5 minutes or until it thickens and the garlic smells cooked. Reserve 2 tbsp of the sauce for the chickpeas.
- Add shredded hearts of palm, salt and 1/4 cup water to the skillet, mix, cover and cook for 6 to 7 minutes, Stir once in between. Taste and adjust salt and spice.
- Make the chickpeas. Add oil to a skillet over medium heat. Add drained chickpeas and toss. Add salt, spices and toss well to coat. Add the 2 tbsp tinga sauce, mix, cover and cook for 4 to 5 minutes until the chickpeas soften and sauce dries out and sticks to the chickpeas. Taste and just salt and spice. Add a dash of lemon juice, toss and add to the serving bowl. Or use re-fried beans instead.
- Prepare the spanish rice or plain brown rice. Prepare salsa and corn. Toast the corn on a skillet if needed and toss with salt and pepper. (optional)
- Layer the bowl as you like with greens/lettuce, tinga hearts of palm, spiced chickpeas, rice, salsa and corn. Dress with vegan sour cream or guacamole. Serve!
Notes
Nutrition
CVargas
Look for cans of chopped Heart of Palm, they are normally a lot cheaper (sometimes half of the price) than the whole pieces and same quality.
A can has about 70 calories only and it’s a great healthy snack just with a home made vinagrette.
Sarah
This tinga is delicious and so easy to make. I’m sure I’ll be making this dish again very soon and serving to non vegans 🙂
Thank you!!
Richa
Awesome!
Sarah
This is soo good! I absolutely love the flavor of all of this together. The tinga sauce is delicious with the hearts of palm. I find the corn (and I added avocado slices) helps to counterbalance the heat from the chipotle. So much flavor going on – I’ll definitely make this one again! Thank you!
Richa
awesome!
Ashley
This is an absolute favorite in our house! I can’t stomach so much spice since becoming pregnant, but I am dreaming of the day when we can eat it again. Great recipe!
Richa
Awesome! Hope you can enjoy it super soon!
Nina
This was amazing! I was worried because I kept adding 1/2 tsp. of chili powder at each step and I thought it was going to be over-chili-fied. I should know better with your spice acumen that it woudl be perfect. The rice was scrumptious on its own. We dressed the spinach with a little olive and lemon. Layered everything just like you did in the picture. Didn’t have hearts of palm so used zucchini as you suggested – was great! We put peas and carrots in the center because we don’t eat corn. Couldn’t wait until cashew sour cream was made because everything tasted so incredible as it was. Put some avocado slices on the top. That Tinga sauce was so scrumptious that it trumped any need for salsa. I think Tinga sauce may be our new sub for salsa. Wow – times 10!
Richa
Awesome!! so glad it turned out great!
Nina
Made your Tinga sauce but left it raw and drained it through a sieve. Then put thick part of sauce in sieve over zoodles (zucchini noodles) – gorgeous! Replaced the chilis in adobo sauce with a slice of serrano pepper. Not sure if works for others. That is one lovely sauce. Thanks:)
Richa
Awesome! also try the chipotle peppers once or try with dry chipotle powder. it has a beautiful smoky flavor!
Nina
Fantastic idea…thanks!
Jessica
This bowl is so delicious and spicy, but everything works well with a helping of avocado. I am going to put that tinga sauce on everything now.
Tracy Minton
Gorgeous! Many years back while visiting Costa Rica, a guide that was taking us thru a jungle like area took his big knife out and cut us off a bit of fresh palm to taste. It was so delicious. Nothing like the typical hearts of palm that come marinated in vinegar and salt. So fresh. Such a treat, and great to wake up to what real fresh local flavors taste like! Happy Cinco. ~Tracy
Caitlin
this looks delicious, lady! i cannot wait to make this.
Rebecca M
This looks amazing!
IR
This looks amazing! You just introduced me to a traditional dish (& I am half Mexican). I have avoided most Mexican dishes in my life due to the heavy meat load & typical greasiness. I like this vegan version =). ¡Feliz cinco de mayo!
Christine (The Raw Project)
Wow, looks amazing! Agreed, great blend of awesome ingredients in a beautiful bowl. Thanks!
Ana @ Ana's Rocket Ship
Wow- there are so many awesome things all together in this bowl!
Nina
That Ting sauce (had never heard of before today:) sounds incredible…and so simple. Our house constantly smells incredible because of you. My daughter has requested your Red Lentil Cauliflower Burger today. One of her all-time faves. Look forward to giving you a report back on this Ting bowl. Thanks again!
Richa
yay! you can make the sauce and add anything really. any of the shredded veggies or add chickpeas and fill up tacos and stuff. quick meal! you can premake and store the sauce as well.
Andrea Calhoun
Hi Richa! Can you use fresh hearts of palm in this?
Courtney
I absolutely adore your recipes and photography but unfortunately, living in a semi-rural town in Australia I don’t have easy access to a lot of these ingredients which is a shame.
I had to google some of the ingredients and they are only really available in the city. Common vegan ingredients like hemp seeds (illegal here to use as a food item) and nutritional yeast I have not seen at all and would have to order online. So making tasty vegan meals is often quite an event for me! I once asked my local supermarket if they had tofu and they looked at me like an alien.
In saying this, I have made two of your recipes though and they were divine so I know that the effort is often worth the outcome.
I look forward to a day when the idea of being vegan is as natural as it is being a regular meat eater.
Richa
oh no. i hope things get more readily available as well. i order most everything online because not everything is available in one physical store. You can use whatever you have available. so glad you tried the recipes and they worked out well 🙂
Nina
We find Richa’s recipes are very forgiving of subs. Probably because they are so well-crafted. I use chia or flax seeds, instead of hemp seeds, because I normally have that on hand. Not sure if you can get chia or flax there. We never use nutritional yeast because of allergies. For instance, we didn’t use the chipotle peppers in adobo sauce (from recipe above) and just used fresh jalapeno instead. Her recipes are so rich and flavorful that we find the recipes are very flexible to a few changes. Have no idea if fits for you. Thanks.
Cassie
This looks perfect! Awesome for dinner!
Emma
This looks all kinds of delicious! I keep seeing hearts of palm and have been wanting to try them. I’m definitely going to pick some up now!
Richa
Thanks Emma. I had these in my pantry for some months now and decided to use them up!
Hansa
Hi Richa my name Hansa i like vegan recipe I follow your recipe all my family like you are best thank you you have a good idea best of luck ????