Here at MyChef we have plenty of opportunities to use our own recipes when cooking for our clients. It’s a wonderful part about the job because it means our chefs can research, develop, and perfect their recipes to get them to a point that’s hard to do in many other environments. Periodically we will share recipes of our own that are big hits with our clients.
Today I’m going to share of my own that I was lucky enough to have featured in IN Kansas City Magazine. First up is a fun AND healthy Spaghetti Squash Shrimp Taco Bowl.
The Background
I’ve cooked for a number of vegetarian and vegan clients in my days. I find cooking for them to be an incredibly fun challenge. You have to be creative to keep things fun and fresh. It can get boring and repetitive very fast. I had a client that loved anything with Latin influence. She had recently switched to an all vegetarian diet to help lose weight and asked for a taco bowl. Immediately your mind goes to a Chipotle-esque style “bowl” with lettuce, beans, peppers, cheese, etc…but I thought that was too normal and easy to do.
The spaghetti squash is one of my favorite ingredients. It’s flesh doubles as low carb noodles to satisfy your pasta urge. The flavor is mild yet exciting and adapts to whatever cuisine you’re making. And from everything I’ve seen….people LOVE spaghetti squash. I have my bowl.
I decided to use red cabbage mainly because of the color. It POPS when placed in a spaghetti squash bowl, plus it’s texture will stand up well to the beans, peppers, and sauce. Black beans were a favorite of this client, plus when cooking vegetarian beans in general are loaded with protein. Black beans and taco bowls go hand in hand so there’s my protein source.
The challenging part was finding a sauce. Keep in mind we are meal prep chefs so putting a dollop of guacamole on top wouldn’t look too good in 4 days when my client will be eating it. I still wanted to avocado aspect somewhere in the dish. I had recently re-watched The Chef Show, on Netflix with chef Roy Choi. He made an Asian influenced Salsa Verde that I really dig. While I didn’t use his recipe, I did come up with my own and added an Avocado. The extra lime in the salsa kept the sauce from turning brown, hence solving my gross-looking guacamole dilemma.
Conclusion
You can read the full recipe here. I added shrimp for those of you who aren’t vegetarian, but this recipe will work with chicken, steak, or other fish (maybe omit the cheese). And not that you needed any proof…but I really did make this recipe and even photo shot it at my home (my lovely Sous Chef has a wonderful eye for photography). Maybe I just needed a reason to brag about my wife….who knows!
Enjoy!
