Protein-packed vegan, gluten-free crêpes are filled with a hearty filling of sautéed mushrooms, spinach, and leeks. The finishing touch? A drizzle of tahini. Each of these savory tacos offers a whopping 6 grams of plant-based protein!
This was quite possibly the most difficult recipe to name. Initially, I set out to create a high-protein, vegan crêpe recipe. However, after a few rounds of testing, I decided to put a creative twist on things and use the crêpes as tortillas to create high-protein breakfast tacos. If there were no bounds to appropriate lengths for blog post titles, I think I would call these Vegan Breakfast Tacos with Crêpe Tortillas and Warm Spinach, Mushroom, and Leek Filling Topped With a Drizzle of Tahini.
Fortunately there are unspoken rules about this sort of thing, so I won't officially subject you to lengthy and confusing titles with nouns turned adjectives and commas galore.
Back to these crêpes turned tacos.
The crêpes are made using a similar method as these lentil + quinoa protein pancakes, but rather than using lentils and quinoa, dried split yellow peas and chickpeas take their place. To make them, you'll simply soak the dried peas and chickpeas in water overnight, add them to a food processor along with a variety of seasonings, and process the mixture until you have a smooth batter. Then, just as you would cook pancakes, crêpes, or tortillas, you'll heat oil in a small skillet, pour in a small amount of batter, and cook until you have a golden-kissed crêpey-tortilla.
The filling is super simple but so delicious. You'll sauté baby bella mushrooms, spinach, and leeks in a dab of coconut oil and season everything with salt and pepper. After you fill your tortillas with this spinach-mushroom goodness, you'll drizzle a bit of tahini and sprinkle on some fresh basil (if you so choose). Then it's time to fold, bite, savor, and repeat. And please do repeat, because each taco has 6 grams of plant-based protein, healthy fats from the tahini, and an abundance of nutrients that will leave you feeling energized and ready to take on the day.
📖 Recipe
Vegan Crêpe Tacos with Warm Spinach-Mushroom Filling
Ingredients
For the High-Protein Breakfast Crepes
- ½ cup dried yellow split peas
- ½ cup dried chickpeas
- 1 ½ cups plain, unsweetened almond milk
- ½ tablespoon nutritional yeast
- ½ tablespoon olive oil
- 1 teaspoon white wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar
- ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
- ¼-1/2 teaspoon fine-grain sea salt
- ⅓-1/2 cup water or as needed to thin
For Spinach-Mushroom Filling
- 1 tablespoon coconut oil
- 10 ounces baby bella mushrooms, stemmed and sliced
- 5 ounces baby spinach
- 2 leeks, cleaned, halved and sliced (white and light green parts only)
- Sea salt, to taste
- Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Garnishes
- Tahini
- Fresh basil, thinly sliced
Instructions
For the High-Protein Crepes
- Soak the dried yellow peas and chickpeas in water overnight or for at least 8 hours. Drain off soaking water and rinse.
- Add the soaked yellow peas, chickpeas, almond milk, nutritional yeast, olive oil, vinegar, garlic powder, and sea salt to a food processor. Process for 5-6 minutes or until you have a smooth batter.
- Pour the batter into a large bowl and stir in ⅓-1/2 cup water to thin the batter.
- Heat a small (about 6 inches in diameter) nonstick skillet over medium head and drop a dab of coconut oil into the pan. Once the oil has heated, pour in just under a half-ladle of batter. Cook for 1-2 minutes and flip. Cook another 1-2 minutes or until both sides are golden. Set aside and repeat until the batter is gone. You should end up with approximately 8-10 crepes/tortillas.
For the Spinach-Mushroom Fillling
- Add the coconut oil to a large skillet and heat over medium.
- Add in the mushrooms, spinach, leeks, salt, and pepper and saute for 8-10 minutes or until the vegetables are tender.
To Assemble
- Gently fill each of the tortillas with the mushroom-spinach filling. Drizzle with tahini, sprinkle with chopped basil, and serve immediately.
- Refrigerate remaining tortillas and filling.
Notes
Nutrition
Meredith @ Unexpectedly Magnificent says
Tacos for breakfast? Sign me up! I love the idea of using crêpes for these. Genius! :)
Ashley says
Thanks so much, Meredith! At first, I thought the crepe taco idea might be crazy, but I was so happy with the end result. I hope you have the chance to make these!
Rosanna says
Ashley,
I'm so impressed with your post/pictures that I had to write a comment. Love your recipes and this one I believe it's another winner!.. I'm making it this weekend! Thanks for all you do!
Ashley says
Hi, Rosanna! Thanks so much for your sweet and supportive words! I hope you enjoyed the recipe! :)
Lisa says
I am looking forward to making these - one question though: To shorten prep time, would can garbanzo beans suffice? Thanks!
Ashley says
Hi Lisa! I'm guessing that canned garbanzo beans would be just fine, but you might want to eliminate or reduce the amount of water stirred in prior to cooking depending on how much water content they're holding. Also, would you still be soaking the split yellow peas or using a canned version of those too?
Karen says
These crepes are unreal! I have to admit, I've never, ever, had a crepe before....so I'm thinking now is the time to try them out, they seem easy to make too. Great recipe!!
Ashley says
Thanks, Karen! I hope you have the chance to try these crepes. They're definitely a bit different than a standard crepe since they don't have eggs but have a similar delicacy and richness about them, which I love.
Lynette Locatelli says
Ashley,
This looks like another winning recipe. I live in the middle of no where so some of these ingredients might be a challenge. I look forward to tracking them down and trying it!
Ashley says
Thanks, Lynette! I hope you can track down the ingredients. Some of the dry ingredients are available online if that helps at all.
Michele says
Hi - I'm so excited to try these out! One question though, after I soak the yellow peas and chick peas, do I have to cook them before putting them in the food processor? Thanks!
Ashley says
Hi Michele! So glad you're going to give them a try. No need to cook the yellow peas and chick peas after soaking; the soaking alone will soften them enough that they'll blend up perfectly smooth!
Julie says
I tried these today but i had no peas so i used a full cup of chickpeas instead and cooked in olive oil instead of coconut on a nonstick pan. i dont know if any of these modifications made a difference but the batter was hell. it was so watery i didnt add the extra water and instead cooked it. it fell apart, was done on the outside but mushy in the center and completely broke into pieces. very sad too as the flavors were wonderful and very tasty. but the trouble of trying to get that batter to form into the beautiful crepes in the picture wasnt worth it :(
Ashley says
Hi Julie! I'm so, so sorry that the batter gave you so much trouble. I've never tried using all chickpeas and no yellow peas, but I would have thought it would work out just fine. However, this batter is actually quite easy to work with with the original ingredients so it must have made a difference. This is probably a silly question but you did use dry chickpeas that had been soaked in water rather than canned or cooked chickpeas, right? Either way, I'm so sorry that you spent so much time and effort on it only to have a frustrating experience. I test my recipes several times before posting them for this very reason because there is nothing more frustrating than a recipe flop!
Julie says
thank you for your response... i bought pre soaked chickpeas that were nonetheless soaked overnight as well (the same way i prep them to make falafel and its never been an issue). however i got a lot of compliments on the taste, and we used them as a sort of "plate" for the spinach mushroom filling because it was impossible to roll them into crepes. also i added some salted boiled potato cubes to the spinach mushroom mixture and it have it a wonderful hearty taste, i feel it would work great for breakfast. i will try again sometime in the future im sure because the taste is too good to pass up. i'll let you know how it goes!
Jen says
Hi Ashley,
I made these crepes exactly as the recipe describes, and I was not able to flip my crepes. They feel apart and ended up being more of a polenta then anything. The filling is great and I ended up eating it on lettuce boats. I do find that coconut oil is a poor lubricant for pans. Are you using a non stick pan? I am using a copper bottom one.
Ashley says
Hi, Jen! I'm so sorry to hear that you weren't able to flip them. That definitely should not happen if you use a nonstick pan, which is noted in the recipe instructions. I haven't tried them in a copper pan, but I'm guessing that would make a significant difference as the batter is fairly delicate. I will play around with this recipe this weekend and see if I can make some adjustments so that they work in other types of pans. I'm sorry for the hassle, and thanks for reporting back with your results. I'm glad you at least got to enjoy the filling!
Annie says
I also had this result. I halved the recipe amounts (I'm just one person - 8 tacos would be a lot!) but everything else was exactly as in the recipe - dried chickpeas and dried split peas, soaked overnight; nonstick pan. I didn't add any extra water though as it was already extremely runny. I tried with more oil but it still just stuck. It was bubbling in the middle but would just disintegrate with any spatula (silicone, plastic, wooden). The "polenta" was tasty though!
Ashley says
Ugh, I'm so, so sorry that you had this result, Annie. I'm so confused on how to accurately problem-solve the sticking/falling apart issue with the crepe recipe, because I've tested it twice since hearing there were issues with it and it worked well without sticking or breaking apart (and I'm not a gentle crepe flipper). That being said, clearly, something is faulty with the way I wrote the recipe if my experience is the exception rather than the rule, so it needs more work. I'm going to temporarily pull this one down (if I can, I hope I can) to retest and rewrite it to make it bullet-proof (or should I say "pan-proof"). Again, I'm so sorry that you had such a frustrating experience with this recipe -- it's unacceptable to invest time and care into a recipe and not have it turn out, and that bummer is totally on me. Thanks for taking the time to report back with your experience and feedback, Annie; it's so helpful.