These vegan Pumpkin Nugget Tacos are filled with homemade breaded pumpkin pieces, salad, sprouts and topped with Garlic Sunflower Sauce. Delicious!
Last year, I started making these delicious vegan Pumpkin Nuggets and when I bought my first Hokkaido pumpkin this season, these nuggets were the first thing that happened. And I don't regret it a bit.
It feels weird seeing pumpkins popping up in the stores already, because on some days I'm still on full-summer-mode (aka eating ice cream and popsicles all day long) and then there are those rainy, grey days where you know, fall is just around the corner. However, knowing that I can make these amazingly delicious pumpkin nuggets helps me with the fact that summer is over soon.
In the past, I've had the pumpkin nuggets with rice on the side or stuffed them in pitas as a take-to-work-lunch, but for this recipe, I've added them together with salad and red beet sprouts in hard-shell tacos and topped them with my oil-free Garlic Sunflower Seed Sauce and green onions. It's the perfect combo!
How to make hard shell tacos out of soft shell tacos
There's a simple trick how you can make your own hard shell tacos, if you only have soft tortillas at home.
Fold the soft tortillas over your oven rack.
Let them bake for about 8-10 minutes at 350°F/180°C.
They should be nice and crispy! Easy as that, you have the perfect hard shell tacos ready to fill them with pumpkin nuggets.
Pumpkin Nuggets are soft on the inside and crispy on the outside. For these nuggets, you don't have to mash the pumpkin and form then into nugget-shapes (that sounds messy), we're just cutting the pumpkin in bize-sized pieces, coat them in breading and pan-fry them. Easy as that! And sooo good!
More Vegan Recipes with Pumpkin
- 10+ Vegan Pumpkin Recipes to Try This Fall!
- Pumpkin Basil Pinwheels
- Roasted Pumpkin Soup
- Pumpkin Goulash with Bread Dumplings
- Vegan Pumpkin Lasagne with Cashew Cheese
- Crispy Pumpkin Gnocchi
I hope you will enjoy these Pumpkin Nugget Tacos as much as I did! Let me know if you give them a try!
And don’t forget to rate the recipe if you like it, this helps other users figure out if it is worth a try!
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Cheers, Bianca
Vegan Pumpkin Nugget Tacos
Ingredients
Pumpkin Nuggets (you will have leftovers)
- 3 cups Hokkaido pumpkin , chopped in chunks
Ingredients for the coating batter (Pumpkin Nuggets)
- ½ cup chickpea flour
- ½ cup water
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Ingredients for the breading (Pumpkin Nuggets)
- 1 cup panko flakes
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon paprika powder
- 1 teaspoon dried rosemary
- olive oil for the pan
Garlic Sunflower Seed Sauce (you will have leftovers)
- 1 cup sunflower seeds
- 1 cup hot water
- 2 teaspoons lime juice
- 1 garlic clove , peeled
- ¾ teaspoon salt
Additional Ingredients for the tacos
- 8 hard shell tacos *
- 2 cups mixed salad - I used a combination of lollo verde, arugula, lamb's lettuce, baby spinach, lollo rosso
- ½ cup sprouts - I used red beet sprouts
- 2 tablespoons green onions , thinly sliced
Instructions
Pumpkin Nuggets
- Boil the pumpkin in a pot with water until they get softer, they shouldn't be too mushy, though.
- Mix the ingredients for the coating batter. In a separate bowl, mix the ingredients for the breading.
- Drain the boiled pumpkin bites and toss them in the breading batter, then toss a few pieces into the breading. Give it a good mix so it's coated on all sides. Repeat until all the pumpkin pieces are coated.
- Heat a pan with olive oil, and pan-fry the pumpkin pieces on each side until they are nice golden brown. Transfer them to a paper towel to remove excess oil.
Garlic Sunflower Seed Sauce
- Add all the ingredients for the Garlic Sunflower Seed Sauce in a high-powered blender. Blend until completely smooth for about 2 minutes. Now you can adjust the consistency - add more water to make it more drizzable.
Assembling the Tacos
- On each hard shell taco, add salad, sprouts, 3-4 pumpkin nuggets (depending on the size of your tacos), top with garlic sunflower seed sauce and thinly sliced green onions.
Jayne says
Oh my gosh these look amazing! Definitely going on the 'must try' list!
Bianca says
Thanks Jayne! Hope you enjoy them! :)
Genevieve says
I need pumpkin nuggets in my life! What a great idea!
Bianca says
Thank you! I hope you give them a try :) They're my favorite thing to make with pumpkins right now! :)
Vy Nguyen says
Hello, can I bake the nuggets instead of frying. I do not like fried food. Thanks