Hot Dish: Soy Curls Tinga Taco at Mexican Fiesta Taqueria

The Soy Curls Tinga Taco and the Mexican Fiesta Taqueria crew, from left, Edmundo Aguilar, owner Juan Jimenez, Clara Jimenez, Carmen Jiminez and Johnmar Jimenez. Amy Sowder Photos

By AMY SOWDER

A nutty, smoky, earthy meatiness fills the air as the concoction simmers in a cumin-scented broth at a small restaurant kitchen.

This taco’s filling isn’t the original thing, but in its own spicy, savory way, it’s the real deal.

The Soy Curls Tinga Taco is the vegan version of a Chicken Tinga Taco at the cozy, art-filled, lime-colored Mexican Fiesta Taqueria in Mount Kisco, bordering Bedford Hills.

“Few people know about soy curls. You can’t find these in the typical supermarket,” said owner Juan Jimenez, whose restaurant staff includes his mother, Clara, his cousin, Carmen, and his son, Jimenez. On this day, the only nonfamily member was chef Edmundo Aguilar, who arrived later for the dinner shift.

The taqueria tucked into the plaza anchored by Petco, Optum Urgent Care and Five Guys cooks up all kinds of animal proteins, from steak, shrimp and chicken to chorizo, pulled pork and tongue. But Juan’s menu has a noticeably large number of vegan options, from cauliflower, oyster mushroom and portobello to tofu, falafel and those soy curls, which look like pork rinds but have a more dense chew to them.

Juan learned a lot of vegan delicacies and started creating his own while he was a chef at Sweet Grass Grill in Tarrytown.

“The person who opened the door to the vegan world to me was my mentor, Peter Cervoni,” he said about the food writer and chef for top New York City plant-based restaurants.

Juan also credits David Starkey, founder of ERL Hospitality’s Sweet Grass Grill and Grassroots Kitchen in Tarrytown and Tomatillo in Dobbs Ferry.

Inspired by those experiences, Jimenez started buying more vegan cookbooks, watching videos on the subject, and crafting his own vegan dishes, sourcing from local farms. When he opened his own restaurant in 2022 that highlights the cuisine of his family’s heritage — he was born in a small village near Puebla and grew up in Morelos in south-central Mexico — he incorporated that culinary experience into his menu.

Popularized in Puebla, tinga means “a mess, or mixed up.” It often refers to shredded chicken with a sauce of tomatoes, chipotles in adobo and sliced onions.

Juan’s taqueria does offer tinga with shredded chicken, but also the dried soy curls that soak up his family’s savory broth of onion, garlic, salt and nutritional yeast. Diners can enjoy their tinga with either protein in a taco, bowl, burrito, or nacho plate.

To make the tinga sauce, Carmen blended dry spices including cumin and oregano with fresh tomatoes, peeled garlic, chopped onions and chipotle chiles in adobo sauce. Then Juan sautéed chopped onions low and slow “but not too soft,” he said. He dropped in a couple bay leaves and then poured in Carmen’s vibrant, red sauce, before the broth-soaked soy curls arrived. As Juan stirred with a spatula, the mixture looked and smelled just like shredded chicken tinga.

Meanwhile, Juan made fresh tortillas from scratch using traditional stone-ground, 100% nixtamal masa blanca. He used a tortilla press and when it landed on the flat-top grill, the tortilla bubbled with invitation.

“When you eat your taco with the packaged kinds of tortillas, they rip, but this kind of fresh tortilla can hold the fillings better,” Juan said.

Next, slivers of vibrant watermelon radishes fell from the chef’s knife like piles of paper before they transformed into pink, crunchy matchsticks. Herbal and bright chopped cilantro, a light confetti of white vegan cheese, crisp lettuce and creamy clouds of freshly mashed avocado alighted the top of the taco, “The flavor is spicy, a little sweet,” Carmen said.

And the sauces — don’t forget the three vegan sauces. Choose from a green sauce with avocado, cilantro, jalapeño, tomatillos and garlic; a habanero, mango, pineapple; and a chipotle mayo. Those in the know ask for the other sauces Juan makes, including pear, papaya or guava.

Mexican Fiesta Taqueria is located at 360 North Bedford Road, Suite 2, Mount Kisco.