Vegan Baja Fish Tacos with Mango Salsa
Dig in to these amazing vegan Baja fish tacos with mango salsa- they’re fresh, bright, crisp, juicy, and everything you could ever want for that sunny beach taco experience. We use a jackfruit and seitan based vegan fish alternative, with a crispy, fried batter, crunchy purple cabbage, and the most amazing, juicy mango salsa with red onion and lime. All stuffed into a warm corn (or flour) tortilla, it’s all you could ever want for in a Baja fish taco, with no need for the fish!
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From Baja with Love
The namesake of the famous Baja Fish Taco is Baja California, which is in Mexico (for those of you wondering, the US state of California was actually named such after Baja California. The Spanish who landed in Baja California named it California after a fictional island, and then travelled North naming the other land they encountered California as well). The while there have been fish tacos eaten for thousands of years, the Baja fish taco as we know and love it hit the food scene about 60-70 years ago. This taco has a lightly battered, deep-fried fish, a corn tortilla, some shredded cabbage, and fresh lime juice. These tacos had been popular in Baja California for a period of time when, in the 1970’s, a student at San Diego State decided to spend spring break surfing down south. He brought the fish taco back with him, and, as time went on, they became wildly popular in the state of California, as well as other parts of the country. My Baja fish taco comes inspired by some vegan ones I had in California, at El Cantero in Monterey. They serve theirs with a mango or pineapple salsa, so I followed suit with my mango salsa. If you’re in the Monterey area, I highly suggest checking them out- they have a huge menu, and it’s all vegan. If not, you can always make a batch of these fish tacos with me!
Looking for Vegan Mexican-Inspired Dishes? Try one of these!
- Instant Pot Black Borracho Beans with Potatoes
- Baked Chile Relleno Cornbread Casserole
- Flavor-Bomb Vegan Snacking Hominy Recipe
- Hibiscus Flower and White Bean Vegan Tostadas
- Vegan Posole with Tempeh and Mushrooms
- Easy Air Fried Crispy Potato Tacos
Ingredients You Need for Baja Fish Tacos
- Vegan Fish is the main element of this dish. I used a recipe of mine, vegan fishless fillets, which I recommend you make the day before so that you have less going on when you’re making your tacos. If you like, you could probably also substitute hearts of palm, although it won’t have the same amazing flavor.
- Purple Cabbage gives a great crunch to the dish, and a beautiful color
- Tortillas are another must-have. Corn is more traditional, but you can use corn or wheat (let’s face it- there’s no fish in our fish taco, so we’re really not sticking too much to traditions here).
- Mango is needed for the salsa. Let one large, ripe mango. If you are using smaller mangos, you might want more than one. The salsa also uses jalapeno, purple onion, garlic, cilantro, and lime.
- Carbonated Water is the most unusual ingredient in the batter. The other ingredients, flour, spices, and baking soda are things you probably have around. Make sure you get an unflavored, unsweetened water.
How to Make Vegan Baja Fish Tacos
Before you get started on any tacos, make sure you’ve prepared your vegan fish. You can do that a few days in advance, if you like (in fact, I recommend it). I used all three fillets in this recipe, but you can use just one or two if you’d rather scale it down a little. I suggest making the salsa next, by chopping all the ingredients and mixing together. The flavors will meld together nicely as you finish the rest of the dish. We’re going to be frying our vegan fish in a batter that’s similar to a beer batter, but instead of using beer we’ll be using carbonated water. The bubbles in the carbonated water help to give a nice and light, crispy batter- it’s the same trick to good tempura! Because of that, you don’t want your batter sitting around loosing air for too long, so don’t start your batter until you’ve begun to heat your oil. When you dip your fish in the batter, you want to make sure it’s not too coated otherwise it will puff up into giant pieces. Shake off the excess batter- I actually like to drag the “skin” side of my fish on the side of the bowl to remove most of the batter there, because I like to be able to see it through the batter in the final fried fish. Fry it for a few minutes, flipping it part way to fry both sides. I let my fish drain afterwards on a cooling rack with a baking sheet underneath, but if you don’t have a cooling rack you can always go with the classic plate lined with a paper towel to soak up the leftover oil. Grab that salsa from the fridge, some chopped cabbage, and heat up a few tortillas. If you like a little more richness and creaminess, you can also add a vegan sour cream or mayo type sauce, but I didn’t think it needed it. Enjoy!
Vegan Baja Fish Tacos with Mango Salsa
Ingredients
- One batch of Vegan Fish
- 1 cup purple cabbage, thinly sliced
- Vegetable oil, for frying
- Taco-sized tortillas
- 1 large ripe mango
- 1 jalapeño
- ¼ medium purple onion
- 1 clove garlic
- A few sprigs of cilantro
- 1 lime
- Salt and pepper, to taste
- ½ cup all-purpose flour
- ½ tsp. baking soda
- 1 tsp. garlic powder
- ½ tsp. smoked paprika
- ½ tsp. salt
- ¼ tsp. black pepper
- ½ cup carbonated water
Instructions
- First prepare the mango salsa. Peel and core the mango, and chop it into small cubes. Remove the seeds from the jalapeño, and mince it along with the garlic. Dice the onion, and finely chop the cilantro, stems and all. Place it all in a mixing bowl along with the zest and juice of one lime. Season with salt and pepper to taste, mix well, and place in an air-tight container in the fridge until serving.
- Heat a pot of vegetable oil to 350°F (175°C). While you wait for your oil to heat, chop the fish fillets into slices. Prepare a baking sheet with a metal cooling rack on top. In a mixing bowl, combine all the dry ingredients for the batter and whisk together. Add the soda water and whisk. Once the oil is hot, dip a piece of the fish into the batter, shaking off any excess batter and place into the oil. Work in batches so you don’t over-crowd the pot. After a couple minutes, flip the pieces of fish over in the oil and let fry for another minute or so. Transfer the cooked fish onto the prepared baking sheet, and repeat until you’ve fried all the fish.
- To assemble the tacos, add some chopped cabbage to the center of a tortilla. Lay a couple pieces of the fried fish, and top generously with mango salsa. Serve with wedges of lime, if desired.
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