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What’s Cooking: March

Very quick, simple and seasonal tacos from the pantry (mostly)

Raise your hand if you’ve found yourself on a given Tuesday evening, hungry, tired and staring into an almost completely empty fridge trying to figure out what to make for dinner. 

This was me a few weeks ago, and granted, I’m not trying to cook for small children with strong food preferences, but on that night, I had just a handful of ingredients and turned them into something I thought worth sharing. 

Don’t let the photo on the left fool you, my creation looked nowhere near that fancy, but trust me, it was still very tasty. 

Serves 3 – 4

 

Ingredients

Items with an * are available here at the bakery!

  • 1 pack of yellow corn tortillas*
  • 2 cans of black beans
  • 1 onion*
  • 2 – 3 ripe avocados*
  • 1 butternut squash or 2 sweet potatoes*
  • 1 block of chèvre or sheep’s feta*
  • 1 bunch cilantro (optional)
  • Toasted pumpkin seeds* (optional)
  • mixed spices
  • Salt

Preparation

  • Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
  • Roast squash or sweet potato
    • Peel squash or sweet potatoes, cube, drizzle with olive oil, season with salt and seasoning. (I used a middle eastern spice blend of chili, cumin, coriander, cinnamon and black pepper, but regular chili powder is fine here too)
    • Spread on a baking sheet and place in the oven to roast.
  • Beans
    • Peel and dice onion
    • Sauté in olive oil in a heavy bottom pan until translucent
    • add beans and reduce liquid until good consistency for tacos (not too wet)
    • These are the least fussy beans, and also quite plain. We’re making a weeknight dinner here, but if I have time, I do more with these to dress them up a bit and make them more interesting.
  • Tortillas
    • Warming real corn tortillas like the ones we sell takes some attention and technique, but the results are worth it.
    • I like to heat them right from the freezer.
    • Using a butter knife, you can separate the frozen tortillas.
    • In a skillet over medium heat, add a few drops of oil
    • Set the tortilla on the pan and press gently to lightly coat.
    • Flip once to begin warming the other side while it still defrosts.
    • Sometime a few added drops of water can be extremely helpful here too to keep them supple.
    • Once warmed, place in a clean dish towel or covered pan, building a stack of soft, warm, ready to eat.
  • Avocado
    • If I have time, these would be removed from the peel, mashed with some lime or lemon, salt and cilantro
    • Since that takes time and ingredients not always on hand, just some sliced avocado does just fine
  • Assembly
    • I really like softened chèvre and feta, so while it’s less pretty, I crumble that on the tortilla first, then add beans, roasted veg, avocado and finally cilantro and toasted pumpkin seeds if available.
  • Clearly these would be enhanced with any number of other additions, like a simple slaw made with carrot*, watermelon radish*, or some fresh salsa, but just what I described here is a serviceable plate of late winter food.

ENJOY!