Breville’s Vegan Fajita Tacos with Salsa Verde, Black Beans, Guacamole & Horchata

October is going to be a very exciting month! I am celebrating one of my favourite appliances, the Breville Sous Chef® Food Processor with a GIVEAWAY! To celebrate, I am hosting one last online party for 2012 and have invited some of the world’s leading vegan chefs, restauranteurs, bloggers, authors, and celebrities, to bring you “Gluten Free Vegan Recipes with Breville USA.”

Just like “Gluten Free Baking With KitchenAid” and “Raw Food Recipes with Excalibur”, I will be featuring a different website every day. This month, I will  be sharing a different Gluten Free Vegan Recipe that can be made or partially prepared with the amazing Breville Sous Chef® food processor.

Those of you who have been following me for a while would be well aware of my commitment to authenticity, and maintaining the integrity of Healthy Blender Recipes. I only promote and give away products that I use in my kitchen; and if you come over to my house for dinner you will find a well loved Breville Sous Chef® Food Processor enjoying pride of place on the counter. All of the gluten free vegetarian recipes on my website utilize a blender, mixer, or a food processor, and when I use a food processor (which is almost every day) this is the one I use. I really wanted you all to know about it, and celebrate it this month.

After using all of the leading food processors on the market, I can honestly say that this is hands down, the BEST food processor I have ever used! Not only is the design gorgeous, but the functionality has been extremely well thought out and tested. The Brevile Sous Chef® has a powerful motor, large capacity bowl with measurements, excellent pulse feature and amazing timer function. But what sets this machine apart is the extra wide feeding chute, the small and large pushers, the adjustable slicing blade with 24 settings, and the emulsifying disc. All of these features give you great control, making this machine extremely versatile.

I make a lot of Raw Food, and this machine is fantastic for uniformly chopping and shredding vegetables and fresh herbs for food prep; shredding veggies for raw salads; grinding raw nuts and seeds for meals and flours (it makes the quickest almond meal I have seen); and finely chopping and incorporating dried fruit. This machine also makes great fresh nut and seed butters, or rustic dips and spreads; and pulls together thick sticky batters for raw balls, raw crusts, and raw cookies. I also make conventional gluten free cakes and cookies with tremendous results too. The dough kneader makes wonderful gluten free breads and breakfast treats.

But the adjustable slicing disc is my favourite feature. You can slice super thin pieces up to thick cuts. The slicing and shredding disc is AMAZING for tomatoes! It also makes really uniform shredded pieces for gorgeous raw salads. The julienne disc offers incredible control over sizing. You can make really long pieces by laying the vegetables horizontally in the wide feeding chute! The emulsifying disc is really amazing too. I have made delicious mayonnaise, fresh fruit sorbet, and ice cream. It is also super easy to clean. I cannot rave enough about this machine. It is absolutely phenomenal!

Breville is a household name in Australia. I grew up with this incredible brand, and they have already gained a reputation in America for superior products. I have personally visited their test kitchen in L.A, and witnessed the testing process; their strive for excellence in product quality; and superior customer service. Not to mention, the appliances are just GORGEOUS -- sleek, modern, extremely intuitive, and easy to use. Every one of their machines has been really well thought out in design and function.

Breville are known for their incredible Juicers. In fact they can’t keep them in stock long enough after the endorsement of Joe Cross from Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead, who changed his life with the power of juicing, and who will be sharing a recipe as part of this event.

But Breville also makes wonderful Bread Makers, Ice Cream Makers, Ovens, Grills, Sandwich Makers, Slow Cookers, Rice Cookers, Toasters, Woks, Kettles, Coffee Makers, Coffee Grinders, and Espresso Machines. They also make the best immersion blender I have every used. I also just got their new Risotto Plus Slow Cooker and it is sensational! 

Being a proud Aussie, I grew up with Breville products. They were (and still are) a household name in Australia, and have been taking the U.S by storm since their launch at the IHA Show in 2003.

So who is “Breville?” Well, in true Aussie style, Breville was started in 1932, after two men, Bill O’Brien and Harry Norville, placed a bet on 4-1 pony ‘Peter Pan,’ in the famous Melbourne Cup horse race and won. They fulfilled a dream, merged their two names, came up with the word ‘Breville’, and started “Breville Radio”. But by the late 50’s, television really replaced the radio, and they quckly turned their focus to small appliances.

In 1972, John O’Brien, (Bill’s son) founded the Breville Research and Development center in order to expand the small appliance business. Two years later, the world’s first scissor-action sandwich maker was invented, selling 400,000 units in its first year; making it one of the most successful product launches in Australian history. In fact, so iconic is this machine, in Australia, New Zealand, and the UK, toasted sandwiches are still affectionately known as ‘Brevilles.’ The term is so widely used it has been added to the Australian dictionary. 

Breville then followed this success up with their first food processor, the ‘Kitchen Wizz’. They then offered blenders, yogurt makers, waffle irons, and all kinds of other time-saving convenience appliances. By the early 80’s Breville had opened an office in Hong Kong, and was exporting to 15 countries. During the 90’s, Breville continued to solidify it’s strong-hold on the Australian market with revolutionary innovations like the high-wall heating electric wok, the health grill, panini press, and award-winning Juice Fountain and espresso machines.

In 2001, Breville’s merger with Australian kitchenware company HWI, helped support the expansion of Breville’s Centre of Design Excellence, and bring Breville design and innovation to North America, where Breville products consistently compete well in consumer reports. Most recently, the Breville Sous Chef® rated highest against 34 other major brand food processors using the stringent guidelines of the Consumer Reports Test Facilities.

So, this incredible food processor can handle all of the amazing recipes I am sharing this month. It seems only fitting that we open this event with a recipe developed by the staff at Breville USA. My dear friend Michelle Smith-Aiken stepped up and created these fabulous Vegan Fajita Tacos with Salsa Verde, Black Beans, Guacamole & Horchata. Talk about delicious! She is an incredible chef and everything she makes delights me. So this is DAY 1 of "Gluten Free Vegan Recipes with Breville."

Michelle was born in New Jersey, and learned the ins and outs of farm to table cooking at an early age from her grandmother "Nanny", who had a small garden next to her house and was always enlisting Michelle to help her harvest whatever was in season.  Whether it was snapping fresh beans, husking corn, or picking the sweetest ripest Jersey tomatoes, Michelle knew whatever was in the garden would be a part of dinner. It was there in her grandmother's kitchen that her love for cooking was ignited. This was the the start of an exciting journey and love of all things "food."

Michelle has lived mainly in the South, where she learned the basics of her flavour profile. She learnt Southern cooking techniques helping her Tennessee born Step-Mom in the kitchen. Then, in 2009, Michelle fulfilled a life-long dream and attended Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts.  While attending school, she also worked for a Gluten Free company called Sof'ella Gourmet Natural Foods, where she assisted the head chef in developing recipes for gluten free baked goods, as well as savoury foods for their company, as well as private labelling products for companies like Trader Joes, Fresh & Easy, and World Market.    

Because of her culinary background, Michelle became a Category Manager for Food Prep at Breville USA in 2011, where she has influenced many of Breville's award winning products. Michelle is currently developing the US-based Breville Test Kitchen for testing products and developing recipes, and remains passionately committed to Breville excellence. 

Michelle, thankyou for making this event happen. You ROCK! 
There are some DELICIOUS gluten free vegan recipes coming your way this month. But start with Michelle's incredible vegan fajitas. They are just YUMMO! 
Please post comments on the recipes that peak your interest and support these amazing chefs. 

*Please note: I did NOT receive payment or product for this post or event. 

Recipe developed by Michelle Smith-Aiken from Breville USA
Follow on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and You Tube