Mole-Crusted Cauliflower Tacos + Stoking Joy

Best. Tacos. Yet.

A mole-inspired spice paste—rich with chili powder, garlic, cumin, cocoa powder, and a wisp of cinnamon and maple syrup—transforms roasted cauliflower florets into deliriously delicious weeknight tacos, amplified by a cool lime crema, pickled red onions, and buttery avocado.

Hello my dears!

I’ve been thinking about joy all week, ever since I published Tuesday’s bonus post. The more I’ve thought about joy, the more I’ve actually felt it, not just as a concept, but in blood and bones of my body. To me it feels like a bubbling up from my belly, or like little tickles around my eyes, or like a wash of serenity over my mind, or like a soft embrace around my heart. I think it’s useful to explore where we feel joy in our bodies, as it allows us to better recognize it when it shows up, but also to magnify it. Just like I stoke the fire in my wood-burning stove to help it burn brighter, when we stoke our joy, it gives it oxygen to grow.

So this week, let’s stoke some joy!!! (which sounds awfully similar to, “let’s toke some joy,” which just made be laugh, fueling even more joy.)

As I talked about on Tuesday, joy isn’t separate from our other emotions. She can be snuggled up in there right alongside grief and sorrow. When we open ourselves to joy, however, we can feel her sweet glimmer even during the hardest of times, even if only for a second here or there. Suddenly joy will be experienced in the simplest of things—the feeling of a loved one’s hand in yours, the smell of toast as it goes from blond to brown, the sun reflecting off a window, just so…

Things I’ve been loving

One of the best ways to stoke joy is to talk about it. Name it. Track it. In doing so, we pull our focus towards joy like bellows to a flame, causing the flames to burn brighter. We can feel this quite literally in our bodies. Just writing this is making me feel all bubbly and bright inside! (Also, it feels important to distinguish joy from gratitude. Gratitude, for me at least, always starts externally, bringing appreciation into the body. However, joy is always internal—it starts in the body and rises up. That being said, gratitude is a great way to open the door to joy.)

This week, my invitation for you is to track more of your joys. Call them out when they happen or take a few minutes to write down some things that have brought you joy over the past couple of days, like I’ve done below (in no particular order):

• Seeing my daughter wrapped around her favorite stuffed animal in deep sleep

• Watching pita bread puff up while cooking it in a skillet (it was my first time making these gluten-free pita, and they were fabulous)

• Seeing the orange glow of the early morning sun hit the mountains across from our house (a view we only get in the winter)

  

• Feeling the warmth of a piping hot bowl of vegetable chili warm my body on a freezing night (the recipe is in my book)

• Feeling, for a split second, in complete darkness with my hands on my heart, totally free

• Listening to my daughter hum to herself as she baked muffins

• Feeling the spark of inspiration flow into me (while watching my daughter bake) for a new muffin recipe (which is coming next week)

• Writing in my journal with a new pen

• Watching a puff of clouds roll by my skylight

• Smelling a cinnamon raisin bagel toasting

• Snuggling on the couch in my favorite hoodie

• Writing this newsletter (my joy is now bubbling over!)

What about you? What has brought you joy this week? Let’s stoke this fire, my loves!

Mole-Crusted Cauliflower Tacos with Lime Crema

The first time I bit into these cauliflower tacos I released a deep guttural sigh of satisfaction—it felt like the most primal kind of joy. The recipe burst through unexpectedly one night when I had a head of cauliflower and no idea what to make for dinner (I freaking love it when that happens—it’s its own form of joy).

Cauliflower florets get tossed in a quick and easy mole-inspired spice paste that’s rich with chili powder, garlic, cumin, cocoa powder, and a wisp of cinnamon and maple syrup. The florets are roasted until tender and crusty, then get loaded into tacos with a cool lime crema, quick pickled onions, salty cotija cheese, and buttery avocado. They’re a revelation—the cauliflower is a tad spicy and sweet, contrasting with the creamy, crunchy and bright toppings. Even my kids, who aren’t usually enamored with cauliflower (to put it nicely), devour them.

You can download a PDF of the recipe here (I’ve also included text and JPEG versions of the recipe below):