How Rick Martinez Amps Up The Flavor Of Vegan Tamales

Comfort food comes in all shapes and sizes depending on where you are in the world. Take for instance Mexican corn tamales. These doughy pockets of satisfying goodness can be filled with all kinds of ingredients that can fit into any diet, including vegan and vegetarian. In fact, tamales are practically made to be meatless, all you need is a flavorful base dough and a tasty filling. According to Rick Martinez, food writer and media personality, there are multiple ways to really amp up the flavor of vegan tamales. In an exclusive interview with Daily Meal, Martinez told us that it's important to take every opportunity to build flavor in a vegan tamale. The first place to start is in the dough itself.

"If you're doing a vegetarian or a vegan version, because I like adding flavor, I would not use water," said Martinez. "I would use a veggie stock, a really nice veggie stock, mushroom stock." Mixing your masa with flavorful stock or broth will give the pocket around the filling some extra depth and umami flavor.

Of course no tamale is complete without a savory, sometimes spicy filling. The sky's the limit on vegan ingredients to use for a tamale, but again the most important principle is to build flavor whenever you can, according to Rick Martinez. Author of the book "Mi Cocina: Recipes and Rapture from My Kitchen in Mexico" and host of the Babish Culinary Universe show "Pruébalo" on YouTube, Martinez recommends leaning into charring and roasting any aromatic vegetables and creating a flavor-packed oil before mixing it into the filling.

"When I make vegan or vegetarian tamales or even refried beans, I love basically charring onions in oil," said Martinez, adding, "you can use olive oil or whatever oil you want, but if you really, really, really deeply char the veg, alliums in the oil and then use that, it's [a] charry, oniony, garlicky oil." What you're doing is creating caramelized, savory flavors in the onions using the maillard reaction, a technique every cook should understand, which will give your filling a deep, satisfying flavor. 

You can also experiment with other flavors to make your tamales a little more complex, like upgrading refried beans with honey and 'Nduja. Find what tastes good to you and use it to scale up your tamales.

Not unlike making an herb oil (which is a little different than an herb-infused oil), Rick Martinez' allium oil can do a lot more than simply take your tamales to the next level. If you make a little extra, it's nice to have around for all sorts of savory, Mexican-inspired dishes like enchiladas, stews, and even drizzled into taco fillings. Store any extra oil in an airtight container in a cool, dark place so that the flavors don't fade. The refrigerator is great for storing flavored oils if you don't plan to use your oil for another recipe in a day or two, just keep in mind that it may solidify a little from cold temperatures.

Since you're already doing all the tamale-making work, however, you can use up your allium-infused oil to make extra tamales for later. Non-meat tamales will stand up to as much as six months in the freezer, so you can have them ready to go another night when you don't feel like cooking. With a little extra flavor from charred onions and garlic like Martinez recommends, you can have a home-cooked, meatless meal anytime.

"To me, it's fantastic," said Martinez. "I like to use that with both [refried] beans and tamales if I'm doing vegetarian."