Our goal when coming to Australia was to open up our own food truck. After being in the land down under for 6 months, we finally found the perfect vehicle for our mission. A 4wd 1995 Mitsubishi Pajero. We have named the vehicle Food Wheel Drive and our project is Photosynthesize. It may not sound like the ideal vehicle to use as a house and as a kitchen, but its Cowabunga. With our lifestyle, we believe if you give, the universe will give back. That’s a part of Cowabunga. Fully equipped with a rooftop tent, pullout canopy and dual fuel and our collection of equipment including: solar panels, batteries, gas and electric bbq cookers, pans and pot, we’re ready for liftoff. Its just taken a few months of working 75 hours a week each to get the money, equipment and vehicle we need.
We plan to travel Australia with the intention of sharing good plant-based food with good people. Working as chefs for the past few years, Junior and I have found that a lot of food goes to waste in many different restaurants and supermarkets. Food shouldn’t be wasted. The only reason food is wasted is because there is nobody to pay for the food that’s being thrown away. To solve this problem, we’re going to give our food away for free and ask for donations to cover food costs.
This is our Food Wheel Drive Taco Recipe (Plant-based, Vegan, Vegetarian, Gluten free):
The tacos have 4 components. Tortillas, Pinto Beans, Rice and Plants.
We start by making the Tortillas (or putting the beans on to boil because they will take around 45 minutes or grabbing a drink, in this case Tasmanian Pinot).
Ingredients:
- 2 cups of Maseca (Corn Flour)
- 1 1/2 cups of water
- Salt
Mix these in a bowl until you get a playdough like consistency.
Now we roll the large ball into smaller balls.
Grab two flat surfaces (cutting boards, plates, textbooks, whatever floats your boat). Then think of a sandwich. The two flat surfaces are your bread, each slice of bread needs a spread (Cut plastic bags), then smash the tortilla dead. Just look at the pictures if you don’t understand.
Stack your tortillas with a plastic sheet in between each one so they don’t stick together.
Heat the tortillas in a non- stick pan, if you’re lucky enough to have one in your share house. Store the tortillas in a tea towel to keep them fresh.
Next, we will make the Pinto Beans.
Ingredients:
- 2 1/2 cups of Pinto Beans
- Water
- Salt
- A few garlic cloves
If you put the beans on to boil before, then they could be about ready once you finish with the tortillas. Adding salt and a few cloves of garlic to the beans when boiling will give them a better flavour. We always have to hunt for these beans in every town we go to and in Darwin we found them at the Rapid Creek shopping village in an African store.
The beans are cooked when they are soft. Blow on them and the skin will peel off. Usually we re-fry the beans by adding oil to a pan, heating the oil, frying some onions, then adding the beans and mashing them in the pan. In this case, we just left the beans whole because they still taste great.
Next, we made our Rice.
With the rice, we made a tomato base to cook the rice in.
Ingredients for the tomato base:
- 1/2 Onion
- 4 Tomatos
- 2 Chili’s
- A bit of water
- 2 cloves of garlic
- Salt
Throw all of this into a blender and blitz it. It should make around 4 cups of base.
The next step is to fry and cook the rice. Fry a bit of onion in a pan and then add the rice. (Make sure you have a pan that has a lid to fit). Fry the rice until golden brown (about a couple minutes). Add the 4 cups of tomato base, bring to a boil and let it boil for a couple minutes. Then cover and set aside. Let the pan sit covered and the rice will cook in its own steam as long as the ratio is 1:2 Rice:Base.
- 2 cups Brown Rice
- 4 cups Tomato Base
Finally, we make the Plants.
We just like to saute whatever vegetables we have in the fridge and in this case we added:
- 1 Carrot
- 1 Onion
- 1 Chili (Jalepeno’s are the best)
- 1/2 Capsicum (Bell Pepper)
- 1 Courgette (Zucchini)
- 3 Mushrooms
Seasonings:
- Salt
- Pepper
- Paprika
- Chili Powder
- Garlic
Add oil to your pan then add some garlic to get a nice aroma in your kitchen. Adding Jalepenos will make you sneezy as and it will give it a nice spice. Add the plants that take longer to cook first: Onions, Mushrooms, Carrots. Then add the rest of the plants. Season to taste as you stir the plants.
Now that everything is ready, we make the Tacos. Tortilla, Beans, Rice, Plants and top it off with Cilantro and Lime. If you don’t know how a Taco is made then here is a picture to help. Also, here is our recipe written out if that makes it any easier.
Photosynthesize. 