Crispy black bean tacos
Spiced smashed beans and melty cheese folded into tortillas and pan-crisped until they crunch.
- 20 min total
- 20 min hands-on
- Anyone can make this
- Serves 2
- About $2.26 a serving
- 750 calories
- Vegetarian
- Gluten-free
Dolly says: I’d make this on a weeknight. It’s on the table in 20 minutes.
Ingredients
For 2 servings.
- 1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 lime, halved
- 6 corn tortillas
- 1 cup mexican blend cheese
- ½ cup salsa
- 1 cup shredded lettuce (optional)
- ¼ cup sour cream (optional)
From your pantry
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp chili powder
- ½ tsp garlic powder
- ½ tsp salt
- 2 tbsp olive oil, divided
Each serving has about 750 calories, 32 g protein, 81 g carbs and 35 g fat, and costs about $2.26 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No black beans? Pinto beans or kidney beans work.
- No limes? Lemons work.
- No corn tortillas? Flour tortillas work.
- No mexican blend cheese? Shredded cheddar or cheddar cheese or monterey jack cheese works.
- No salsa? Pico de gallo works.
- No shredded lettuce? Iceberg lettuce or romaine lettuce works.
- No sour cream? Plain greek yogurt works.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
and the beans, then tip them into a bowl with the cumin, chili powder, garlic powder, salt and a squeeze of lime.
Drain. Draining means pouring off liquid, like tipping pasta into a colander or spooning extra fat out of the pan. Pour hot grease into a can or jar, not the sink, where it hardens and clogs the pipes.
How you’ll know: Only a few drips are left, and the food isn’t sitting in a puddle.
Rinse. Rinsing means running cold water over rice or canned beans in a strainer while you swish them around. It washes off loose starch and can liquid, so rice cooks up fluffy and beans taste clean.
How you’ll know: The water running out goes from cloudy to mostly clear; it doesn’t have to be perfect.
Mash with a fork until mostly smooth, leaving some beans whole for texture.
Wrap the tortillas in a damp paper towel and microwave 45 seconds, until soft and bendy.
Timer: 45 sec
Dolly’s tip: Cold corn tortillas crack when you fold them. Warm ones bend.Spread a spoonful of beans over one half of each tortilla, top with a small handful of cheese, and fold it closed like a book.
Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large over medium until it , then lay in 3 tacos.
Skillet. A skillet is a frying pan: wide and flat with low, sloped sides. The shape lets steam escape, so food browns instead of stewing.
How you’ll know: It’s the pan you’d fry an egg in, and a 10 or 12 inch one handles most recipes.
Shimmering oil. Oil shimmers when it’s hot enough to cook: its surface looks rippled and wavy, like heat over a road. That’s your cue to add the food, just before the oil would start to smoke.
How you’ll know: The oil looks wavy and runs thin like water when you tilt the pan, with no smoke yet.
Medium heat
Cook 2 to 3 minutes per side, pressing gently with a spatula, until and and the cheese has .
Golden brown. Golden brown is the color of good toast, somewhere between yellow and light brown. It means the outside is cooked and crisp but not burnt.
How you’ll know: It looks like toast and smells toasty; dark brown with a bitter smell means it went too far.
Crispy. Crispy means the outside is dry, firm and crunchy. It comes from high heat, a little oil and room in the pan, because crowded food steams and goes soft.
How you’ll know: It sounds crunchy when you tap or bite it, and it doesn’t flop when you lift it.
Melt. Melting means gently heating something solid, like butter or cheese, until it turns liquid. Low or medium heat keeps it from browning or burning.
How you’ll know: It’s smooth and liquid, and butter may foam a little but hasn’t turned brown.
Medium heatTimer: 2 min 30 sec
Dolly’s tip: Flip with a spatula and a fork together so the taco stays closed.Move them to a plate, add the rest of the oil, and cook the last 3 the same way.
Medium heatTimer: 5 min
Open each taco a little to tuck in lettuce, and serve with salsa, sour cream and the rest of the lime.
Plan this in Dollop, and get the grocery list
Dollop puts this dinner on a night that suits your week, lists only what you still need to buy, and walks you through each step while you cook.
