Have you driven through California’s Central Coast recently, a region that grows a sizable majority of America’s produce? If you haven’t, let us paint a picture for you: there’s brown farmland as far as the eye can see, dotted with herds of cattle grazing on dry grass. Even in urban cities like L.A. and San Diego, dried-up parks and lawns make it obvious that California is in the midst of a crippling drought.
But what does the future hold for The Golden State? The folks at KPCC Southern California Public Radio have created a series imagining what California and its agricultural will look like in 2040. “Eating drought-friendly may one day be as common as eating organic or locally sourced foods,” argues KPCC’s Sanden Totten.
With that in mind, the KPCC staff met up with West Coast taco ace Wes Avila of Guerrilla Tacos, who demonstrated how to cook a drought-conscious Mexican meal.
GIF via KPCC/Maya Sugarman
According to the New York Times, “Americans consume the most water by eating meat and dairy products, primarily because a lot of water is needed to grow the crops to feed the animals.” So Avila created a meatless taco with a variety of drought-friendly crops.
The seasoned taquero created a tortilla from sweet potatoes, and filled it with roasted veggies like Indian eggplant, guajillo chiles, peas, scallions, and Roma tomatoes. The resulting taco is gorgeous and we’d like to eat one for lunch immediately.
Want to recreate Avila’s drought-conscious roasted veggie taco with a sweet potato tortilla at home? Head over to the KPCC website to cop Avila’s original recipe.
[via KPCC Southern California Public Radio]
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