Vegetarian Tostadas

Happy Friday!

This week’s essay is about the fascinating origins of my home state’s name.

These days, I find myself eating less meat, for my own health and the health of the planet. So I’ve been trying to come up with some vegetarian meal options. And as I’ve learned more about El Paso cuisine from my girlfriend’s family over the past few years, I’ve realized that, at its heart, Mexican food is often vegetarian. So this week’s dish is inspired by my suegra. These tostadas are not as good as hers, but they’re nothing to sneeze at!

I like to have these tostadas as a weekday lunch. You can cook the beans the night before – in my Instant Pot, they take an hour, but in a conventional pot they take at least two. The salsa probably takes 20 minutes to make – you could also make that the night before. And for the actual tostadas, you have three options: you can fry or bake soft corn tortillas, or you can just buy the crispy tostadas at the store. Since I always have soft corn tortillas in my fridge, I usually brush them on both sides with olive oil and bake them – not quite as tasty as fried, but healthier, easier to prepare, and easier to clean up. And honestly, olive oil works great for this, as long as it doesn’t have too strong of a flavor. After baking, you can’t taste it. I try not to cook with vegetable oil because it’s more artificial. You can even bake the tortillas the day before too, as long as you keep them in a sealed container. But warm tostadas are nice.

I usually serve the tostadas with whole beans first, then the next time, turn them into refried beans by pureeing them with a hand blender – really easy. Classically, refried beans would have pork lard whipped into them, which of course is delicious, but not something I typically do. You could also add grated cheese to the warm puree, so that the cheese melts into it. I usually just serve them salted. Dry beans can get a lot creamier than canned ones, without having to add any fats.

Feel free to tailor this dish to your own taste. I topped the tostadas with avocado, shredded lettuce, radishes, and the salsa. You could do shredded cheese or sour cream, chopped white onion, cilantro, charred green onion – whatever you want. The one constant from an El Pasoan’s perspective would be pinto beans. I estimate that one pound of beans makes about 8 servings, or about 28 tostadas, and there should be enough salsa in this recipe for that amount. Since they’re meatless, I can eat four tostadas. 😊

Ingredients

1 lb. dry pinto beans

Soft corn tortillas

Olive oil

Salt

5 medium-sized tomatoes

2 jalapenos (or more, or less, depending on taste)

1 white onion

1 bunch cilantro

1 lime

¼ tsp. garlic powder

1 head iceberg lettuce

1 bunch radishes

4 avocados

Total prep/cooking time: 2 ½ hours for the beans in a conventional pot + 20 minutes for the salsa + 25 minutes for the tortillas + ten minutes for prepping/chopping of accompaniments = ~ 3 ½ hours total. The beans, salsa, and tortillas can all be done the day prior.

Servings: 28 tostadas/8 servings

Instructions

1.       Cook the beans. Put them in a large pot and cover them with about an inch of water.

2.       Bring the water to a boil, then put the lid on and lower the heat. Simmer the beans, covered, for an hour, then check on them for tenderness (they’re most likely not done). If the beans are no longer covered by the water, add more.

3.       Put the lid back on the pot and check every half hour until the beans are tender and creamy, but still intact. Add salt to taste. They will probably need more salt than you think.

4.       Make the salsa. Set your oven’s broiler on high.

5.       Put the tomatoes, jalapeno(s), and about a quarter of the white onion on the baking sheet. Put the baking sheet on a high rack in the oven under the broiler. Let the veg get a good char – it will take maybe ten minutes, and you’ll probably need to flip the jalapeno(s) in the middle of broiling.

6.       Remove the baking sheet from the oven and let the veg cool a bit.

7.       At this point, I remove the cores from the tomatoes with a paring knife, but it’s a matter of taste. Also, remove the stem from the jalapeno(s), and if you don’t want it too spicy, remove the ribs and seeds.

8.       Put the veg in a blender or food processor. Add a good pinch of salt, the garlic powder, and a big handful of cilantro. If you’re planning on eating the salsa soon, you can also add about a tablespoon of lime juice. If not, I would hold off on adding it until just prior to eating, because the acidity of the lime juice sort of cooks the salsa, changing its taste over time. If you want to avoid the problem entirely, you could just leave the lime juice out of the salsa and add it to the top of the tostadas before eating.

9.       Blend the mixture a bit, then give it a taste. Add what it lacks, whether it be salt, garlic powder, cilantro, lime juice, or even a bit of fresh onion. Not blending the mixture to your desired consistency initially leaves you room to add other things and continue blending it.

10.   Bake the tortillas. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

11.   Put as many tortillas as you want to eat on a baking sheet. I can usually eat four tostadas.

12.   Brush each side of the tortillas with olive oil. Place the baking sheet in the oven on the top rack.

13.   Bake the tortillas until they’re brown. No need to flip them. It should take about 15-20 minutes. Try to get them totally brown, not just light brown with white splotches, otherwise they’ll be chewy rather than crispy.

14.   While the tortillas are baking, prepare your accompaniments. Slice some lettuce, radishes, and avocado. Sprinkle salt on the avocado.

15.   Warm up the beans in the microwave if they were prepared prior. If you want to puree them, warm the beans in a pot on low heat, then use a hand blender to get them to the consistency that you want.  

16.   Remove the tortillas when they’re brown, and sprinkle salt on them.

17.   Put about two or three tablespoons of beans on a tortilla, then add the other toppings.