Soft Corn Tacos With Quinoa And Lemon Yogurt Sauce

This past weekend I was watching Mexican Made Easy, a cooking show on Food Network.  Marcela Valladolid is the host and was making Baja Style Fish Tacos, a fried version of fish tacos.  It looked delicious but what caught my attention was the lemon crema sauce.

Today I wanted to make something healthy, fresh and creative but didn’t feel like visiting my fishmonger to make Ms. Valladolid’s fish tacos.  Strangely enough I was in the mood for quinoa and really wanted to figure out a way to incorporate the lemon crema sauce without leaving the house.

It’s amazing what you can find in the fridge.  I found corn tortillas, radishes, avocado, curly kale, serrano chiles, non-fat greek yogurt, lemons and cilantro (which are pretty much staples in my fridge).  I had tomatoes and prepared some quinoa using chicken broth.  I don’t generally pat myself on the back but these tacos were so delicious and I invited my dear neighbor over to share them with me.

In a small bowl, I combined 1/4 cup mayo, 1/2 cup non-fat greek yogurt, grated lemon zest (one whole lemon) and half the juice of one lemon (you could also completely leave out the mayo and up the yogurt to 3/4 cup, which is what I did separately for my neighbor):

I heated up soft corn tortillas on the range top:

Removed the tortillas from the range top and topped them with prepared quinoa, sliced tomatoes and sliced radishes:

Continued by topping with sliced avocado and chopped kale:

And finished it off with the lemon yogurt sauce, chopped cilantro and thinly sliced serrano chiles:

What I loved about these tacos was the fresh flavors and different textures of the vegetables and it was completely satisfying and fulfilling from the quinoa.  The corn tortillas, tomatoes, avocado, serrano chiles, cilantro and tangy lemon yogurt sauce revealed clear Mexican flavors, while the kale and radishes added the right amount of crunch.  The quinoa added the necessary protein without over-powering.  I couldn’t stop eating these tacos and had to stop myself after the fourth one.  (My neighbor ate three.)  Feel free to add whatever fresh veggies you have.  I happened to have these on hand.  I was going to add fresh corn off the cob but got lazy.