Blackened Shrimp Tacos with Spicy Kale Slaw

Tacos! We love ’em. Exhibit A. Exhibit B. Exhibit C.  I know I speak for all four of us here at Fridge to Fork when I say we can frequently be found throwing leftover meats and veggies into a tortilla and calling it dinner. So, when pinole blue sent me some gorgeous, all-natural pink corn tortillas during the month of October, I got in the kitchen to whip up some tacos with what I had on hand. These delicious blackened shrimp tacos with spicy kale slaw are what resulted. I’ve been making them on repeat ever since!

Prior to making these tacos, I had been working on a recipe for a cashew-based sauce similar to buffalo sauce. I used some leftover sauce I had in the fridge along with kale and a pre-shredded cabbage and carrot mix I had in my veggie drawer. While I had initially intended to just use kale, I decided that adding a bit more crunch from the cabbage was important for the texture of these tacos! I ended up with about a half and half blend of kale to coleslaw mix, as you’ll see below.

For the seasoning on the shrimp, I used one of my favorite seasonal products from Trader Joes: BBQ Rub and Seasoning with Coffee & Garlic. I looove this bbq blend. You can buy it in their stores in the summer months. If you don’t have it, any bbq rub or blackening season will work!

While the sauce for this recipe is killer (if I do say so myself!), the real shining star in this particular recipe was the tortillas. These Pinole Blue Tortillas were a serious level up from the typical, mass-produced tortillas I’ve bought at the grocery. Not only do these taste so much more fresh than a store-bought tortilla, the story behind them is compelling. Eddie Sandoval, the founder of Pinole Blue, is a first generation Mexican American. His parents are from Chihuahua, Mexico, and Eddie has fond memories of traveling there as a child and bringing Pinole back home to the states. He founded Pinole Blue for two reasons: to expose more people in the U.S. to Pinole and stone ground tortillas, and to give back to the Tarahumara people, who produce these delicious raw products. Proceeds from every purchase go back to the Tarahumara tribe.

As if that weren’t enough, the tortillas pictured were created with the Susan G. Komen foundation. They use a naturally occurring pink corn with some added beet juice (no dyes!). Colored corn, their signature ingredient, has 20% more protein than yellow or white corn and has the same antioxidants as blueberries (which is where the unique color comes from). Their traditional stone ground blue tortillas boast equally impressive nutritional stats. Needless to say, I’m a Pinole Blue convert! I hope you’ll give these tortillas a try.

If you cook these tacos, be sure to let us know how they turned out in the comments below! We can’t wait to hear your thoughts 🙂

[tasty-recipe id=”2388″]