Taco Tuesday: CSA Veggie Taco Recipe

I’ve been splitting a CSA share with a friend, and I think my favorite thing about it (other than it feeling like a veggie-lover’s Christmas every other week) is the fact that it pushes me to find new ways to use familiar veggies because, some weeks? There is a lot of zucchini, you know?
The other night, Jared was really in the mood for tacos, and I was really in the mood to use up some of my veggies. So, even though the zucchini, carrots, onions and kale I had on hand didn’t exactly scream fiesta, I decided to give it a try.
Now, it’s worth mentioning that I’ve ordered veggie tacos (not bean tacos, mind you, but vegetable-type veggie tacos) about a million times in various establishments, and I have yet to be thrilled. The veggies are undercooked, overcooked, bland, over-seasoned and, almost every time, they’re inexplicably cold. How is it that every other type of taco can come out piping hot, but veggie tacos become room temperature the moment they hit my plate?
So, knowing that I was almost certain to be disappointed — if a Mexican restaurant can’t turn this stuff into an awesome taco, what chance do I have? — I started chopping.
(See, that’s the other overlooked issue when it comes to veggie tacos: the veggies aren’t chopped small enough, which leads to a big ol’ mess as soon as you take the first bite and pull out half the vegetables inside. I actually spiralized my zucchini before chopping the zoodles into smaller bits, and diced the carrots and onions to a reasonably small size to make sure I could get a little bit of everything in each bite.)
After that, I sauteed the veggies (adding in the kale, torn to pieces) in olive oil with a ton of garlic, chipotle peppers in adobo, some red pepper flakes and chili powder. I turned the heat off while they were still a bit crunchy to avoid mushiness, but kept them in the pan for a couple more minutes while waiting for the crunchy shells to be ready.
Then, I scooped the veggies directly from the hot pan into the hot shell, slapped on a bit of plain Greek yogurt, diced tomato and avocado, and enjoyed the best freaking veggie tacos of my life. Hot, spicy, flavorful but not too heavily seasoned (unless you don’t like garlic, that is) — I found veggie taco perfection.
Even more exciting: I made them again, this time for a meat-eating friend, and she loved them. I switched out the kale for tropical spinach this time and used some lipstick peppers from the farmer’s market, but twice in a row? This must be IT.
This made me realize something. If I could make tacos this tasty with these vegetables, what other veggies could I use? I’m already a huge fan of using sweet potatoes and black beans, but what other seasonal veggies would you pop in there? —Kristen