Vegan + Vegetarian Tamales

Easy, filling and cheap, the best college food = Tamales 

 Ingredients:

• Banana leaves or corn husks
• Maseca (corn flour)
• Cheese/Vegan Cheese
• Hot sauce, I prefer Valentina
• Any other vegetables you want..

 Directions:

1. Cut up all of your ingredients, it makes it more fun for creation time..
2. Start soaking the corn husks in a large bowl of water. 
3. Add some chilly flakes and salt into a bowl (to taste).
4. Add in some 5 cups of Maseca (depending on how many tamales you want..)
5. Add in enough water that you can make a dough like substance and knead. 

Try cutting everything you want to add into strips, makes the entire process much easier.

I like to add carrots, tomatoes, chili peppers, jalapenos, cheese, zucchini and pretty much anything else I may have lying around the fridge that would otherwise go bad.

Add in the goodies make sure to pile them on vertically. The husks will be laid out in a < > where the bigger part will overlap each-other, facing inwards.

Ideally you would simply use the leaf itself to tie the tamales up, but I tend to cheat and just use some string.

You will fold over the husks so that they hold the tamale tight enough, then quickly tie it together.

Meantime, you should get some water boiling in a big pot, use a vegetable steamer or if you want to really experiment, use a handful of fern branches, stacking the tamales up above them in a log cabin style.

Cook, steam rather for ten minutes and serve!