A Stand for Tacos

With all the cooking going on around here lately, we eat a lot of new dishes, but go back to favorites frequently--mostly when I'm feeling lazy or uninspired. We eat these tacos often--they are easy, fast, and delicious. I'd serve these tacos to people I was trying to win over. They're much different than what I think of when I think of a regular taco--there's no meat, just beans; there's goat cheese; and there is a lot of cabbage. You can still have your meaty taco with shredded yellow cheese and pico de gallo, but add these to your tacosphere. There's room.

That's right! There's room in your belly!

This is one of the few of my recipes I consider an original. I saw a recipe for black bean tacos on Epicurious and built a recipe around my tastes and preferences. A couple of notes: 

Beans: I usually cook dried beans instead of using canned. I cook a pound or so of beans at a time, which yields roughly six cups of cooked beans, and then I freeze them in two- or three-cup batches. Besides giving better-tasting beans, this is more economical than using canned beans. On top of that, the BPA and DEHP used in some canned goods present health concerns. Canned beans work just fine too though. 

Tortillas: In the great debate of flour vs. corn tortillas, I am firmly on the flour side for this recipe. I once tried adding a little virtue by using whole wheat tortillas. Let me say: Get your virtue somewhere else and go with white flour tortillas. I've made my own tortillas before, but they've never been pliable enough to withstand the folding required here. I'm sure that fresh, homemade tortillas would propel these tacos to worldwide fame, but in the meantime, I suggest the handmade flour tortillas from Trader Joe's.

Crispy Black Bean Tacos

Yields 4 large tacos

Bean mixture

2 cups black beans (or 1 15-ounce can, drained and rinsed) 

1 teaspoon ground cumin
½ teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon chili powder mix, divided
salt and pepper to taste

Slaw

3 teaspoons olive oil
juice from 1 lime
2 cups shredded cabbage
3 tbsp red onion, minced
1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro

4 flour tortillas
1/3 cup crumbled goat cheese

cooking spray

Place beans, cumin, garlic powder, ½ tsp chili powder mix, and salt & pepper in a small bowl; partially mash and set aside.

Mix olive oil and lime juice in medium bowl; add cabbage, red onion, ½ tsp chili powder mix, and cilantro and toss to coat. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Set aside. 

Preheat the oven to 200, and prepare a pan or sheet of aluminum foil to keep the tacos warm while the last one cooks. Heat a large nonstick pan over medium-high heat and coat it with cooking spray. 

Place a tortilla in the pan, and spoon 1/4 of bean mixture onto one side of the tortilla. Sprinkle goat cheese on top and cook for 1 minute. Fold taco in half, pressing them down a bit to smash the beans and cheese together, and cook until the tortilla is golden brown, about 2 minutes per side. (I usually start the next taco at this point, temporarily covering the folded taco with the new taco, spraying the pan again before each taco. Having two tacos in the pan just speeds up the process.) Remove the taco from the pan and transfer to the oven to keep warm. Repeat with the remaining tacos. When ready to serve, gently open the tacos and fill them with slaw. Serve with lime wedges, sour cream, and hot sauce.

Per taco: 354 calories, 12g fat, 14g protein