In our house your birthday warrants a week of birthday meals. Every meal is one of the birthday person’s favorite foods. It started a couple years ago when I had too many ideas for Will’s birthday dinner, so I just decided to make all of them.

Will loves anything Buffalo-ed (that is with Buffalo hot sauce not buffalo meat), and as a challenge created a spreadsheet called “Will It Buffalo?” with meal ideas for me. I’ve been picking my way through them over the years, and you can see all the recipes here. It was inevitable that a Buffalo dish would make it into the birthday week meals, and given Will’s love of tacos might equal his love of Buffalo sauce, we ended up here.

I love tacos that have a hearty bean component as the main protein, so these start with a base of spicy chickpea dip (which is excellent on its own), topped with a combination of cooked and raw vegetables for great contrast in flavors and textures.

In my Potter Hill CSA share this week I received red cabbage, fresh onions, leeks, 2 small heads of lettuce, a bunch of mixed beets, kale, radishes, celery, basil, zucchini, summer squash, and cherry tomatoes. The lettuce, cherry tomatoes, and basil went into a steak salad with herb dressing from the Smitten Kitchen Every Day Cookbook (very similar to this salad). I used onion, celery, and cauliflower and broccoli leftover from last week in the tacos. Tonight I’m making a kale salad with beets similar to the one from a few weeks ago, but without the onions and cheese. Tomorrow I’m going to make these Korean Bulgogi Burgers with the red cabbage and subbing my French radishes for the daikon (not at all traditional, but that’s the game with a CSA!).

Buffalo Chickpea Tacos

If you can’t be bothered to make the chickpea spread, just buy some hummus and stir in the hot sauce. The recipe below makes the equivalent of 2 8-ounce containers, which is plenty for the tacos and some extra for snacking. I used both broccoli and cauliflower because I had a small head of each, but feel free to use one large head of either, or sub other vegetables like zucchini, summer squash, cabbage, or corn (you can broil any of them in the same manner).

Chickpea Spread

• 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
• 1 medium onion, chopped (about 1 cup)
• 1 clove garlic
• 3.5 cups cooked chickpeas (or 2 15-ounce cans), rinsed and drained
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1/3 cup cayenne hot sauce, such as Frank’s (if you like it really fiery, go for 1/2 a cup)
• 1 teaspoon salt

Taco Toppings

• 1 small head of broccoli, chopped (about 1/2 lb)
• 1 small head of cauliflower, chopped (about 1/2 lb)
• t tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup minced red onion (1/2 a small onion)
• 1 cup minced celery
• 1/4 minced celery leaves (or parsley)
• 1 cup crumbled bleu cheese
• 1 cup deseeded and chopped tomato (2 small or 1 large)

For serving

• 1 cup bleu cheese dressing
• 18 small corn or flour tortillas
• hot sauce

Heat the vegetable oil over medium high heat. Add in the chopped onion, and saute for 10-15 minutes, until soft, translucent, and browning in places. Remove from the heat and cool slightly.

Turn on a food processor with an S-blade and drop in the garlic close from the top. Run the food processor until you can’t hear the garlic bouncing around anymore. Scrape down the sides with a spatula, and then add in the cooked onions, chickpeas, extra virgin olive oil, hot sauce, and salt. Process until uniformly smooth and then taste for seasoning. Alternatively, mince the garlic, then add to a large bowl with the onions and chickpeas. Mash with a fork or potato masher, then add in the olive oil, hot sauce, and salt and mash again until a spread forms.

Move a rack to the top of the oven and turn broil on high. Chop the broccoli and cauliflower into 1/2 inch pieces, and then toss on a baking sheet with the vegetable oil. Broil for 10 minutes total, tossing halfway through, until the are lightly charred.

Serve tortillas warmed, and let everyone assemble their own (lots of extra hot sauce on mine, please).