Quick Fix: Carrot and Green Chile Tacos with Ricotta and Cilantro

TACOS!!!!

These tacos need no explanation-- simple and awesome.

What you need!!
Super delicious tortillas (try Abbo Blue and Abbo Blanco local--to Boulder--heirloom, organic tortillas!)
Olive oil
1/2 medium onion, diced
2 carrots, grated
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 roasted Hatch chile (you can have these frozen from last year or from the can!)
1 tablespoon of plain almond/milk or 1/2 tablespoon of cream
Cumin
Salt

1/2 cup of ricotta cheese
1/2 cup of finely chopped cilantro
Salt
Pepper

To Garnish
Avocado*optional
Pickled Onion*optional (see previous recipe)


Saute your onions and carrots in a light coat of olive oil, until slightly sift and golden brown over medium-high heat (about 5 minutes)

Add green chile, almond milk (or cream) and let it evaporate, stirring to coat all of the veggies. Add 1 teaspoon of cumin and salt to taste. Stir and let ingredients simmer on medium low for about 7-10 minutes.

While veggies are simmering, mix ricotta, cilantro, salt and pepper in bowl...boom. Done.

Heat your tortillas (I prefer to heat mine in a lightly oiled, hot cast iron pan) and then top your tacos. Enjoy-- these were super tasty.

Chicken Tinga (for spicy shredded chicken tacos, tostadas, etc.

Ally, do you remember long ago when we had a BIG Mexican fiesta for your dad's birthday? And I made that REALLY spicy shredded chicken? Well this is the recipe, only I have since toned down the spice. **Though I did love how spicy that batch turned out, I didn't realize how spicy it was until the next day...and that is never fun. So this is a more, uh, forgiving recipe.

This chicken is good on tacos, on tostadas, in enchiladas, on a salad, with beans, with rice-- the possibilities are endless. I however, am always partial to tacos.

What you will need:

1/3 of an onion, diced
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1 lb of boneless skinless organic chicken breasts
1 32 ounce can of organic diced tomatoes
1 tablespoon of chipotle in adobo sauce or 3 tablespoons of fresh/previously frozen/canned green chili (either come canned in the "ethnic" aisle of the grocery store// you can get at Mexican grocers)
Ground cumin
Mexican oregano
Salt

To serve:
6-8 tortillas
"Stuff for ensalada" (today I used romaine, red cabbage and cubed cucumber, pickled onions and cilantro)
Sour cream/Crema or crumbly Mexican cheese

First, in a soup pot (that has a lid) saute the onion and garlic briefly over medium heat in a scant amount of olive oil two-three minutes, then add the whole chicken breasts, tomatoes and chili/chipotle. Cover the pot and let this simmer on medium heat for 45 minutes. 

While the tinga was cooking, I prepped a small salad to top my tacos with, chopped romaine, shredded red cabbage and cubed cucumber. I then discovered that I still had pickled onions in my fridge, and chopped them into small pieces and used them with a tablespoon of their juices to dress the salad. Wa-la. You have a light salad to top your tacos with.

After 45 minutes of simmering, remove your chicken breasts and let them cool. Turn the heat down on the tomato/tinga sauce that is still on the stove. Shred the chicken once it is cool (with your fingers or a fork) and add it back into the sauce. Season with cumin (about two tablespoons), Mexican oregano (about one hefty tablespoon) salt and pepper. Add up two half of a cup of water or broth to bring moisture back into the shredded chicken so that you may return it to medium heat without it burning or sticking to the pan. Let the shredded chicken simmer with the sauce and spices for about another 10 minutes, stirring regularly.

 Meanwhile, heat up your tortillas, today we did it the quick way in our cast iron, over high heat.

Ready whatever other toppings you have (cilantro, sour cream, cheese, lime).

Top your tortillas with all of the fixins.

Happy taco eating!!!

xoxooxoxoo

Quick Vegan Taco Filling: Anasazi Bean and Yam

So, geez. It's been a long couple of weeks. I sort of feel like I have been swallowed up under a tidal wave of a schedule, and so I am completely lacking time, especially Monday-Wednesday. Though it is all exciting a stuff I still can't help but feel like I don't have the space to concentrate on the things that make me feel good (like going to yoga and cooking delicious dinners for my woo-bear, AJ). In order to compromise both my tight schedule and my desire to cook a solid meal at the end of the day, I chose TACOS as a quick way to make a really satisfying dinner.

I will try to post a lot of taco fillings throughout the life of this blog as we eat them often and they always have basically whatever I can find in my cupboard or in the dredges of my refrigerator...so it is always a random, wild interpretation of the traditional taco fillings we are used to.

Tonight, I had yams.

What you will need for this recipe

2 cups of cooked beans (I had made anasazi beans in the slow cooker, with just water out and no seasonings of the sheer hurriedness of my life this week, they cook identically to the black bean recipe previously posted on this blog)
2 medium to small yams, skinned and diced
1/2 an onion, diced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 bunch of kale, chopped roughly
Salt
Cayenne (a pinch!)
Cumin, ground or whole or both
Coriander
Taortillas (we get Abbo Blue, local organically cultivated blue corn tortillas by Abbodanza farm/seeds: Rich, AJ's mentor found and culivated the strain of corn they are made of from a heirloom variety in Mexico: they are SO DELICIOUS)
1 avocado
Salsa, any other condiment you like on your tacos

First, preheat your oven to 350 degrees. You will need the oven for your tortillas later.
Then saute the onion until translucent in a good layer of olive oil on medium high heat (I prefer, when cooking in my cast iron, especially with taco fillings, to get a "blackened" quality to my ingredients, especially with the likes of potatoes or yams). Add yams and saute, constantly flipping so as to keep them from sticking for about 6-10 minutes, or until they are soft and getting golden (or blackened edges, like I like them). Add your drained beans and garlic and stir in over medium heat for about 2-4 minutes. Season with salt, cumin, coriander and pinch of cayenne or another chili powder if you like spice.

Add chopped kale and let it wilt and get a little crispy, stirring for about 5 minutes. Taste and continue to season accordingly if you so desire.

Meanwhile, while the filling is resting on low heat and covered (because it is now done) lightly paint olive or grapeseed oil on your tortillas and place on a cookie sheet. Set in the oven and let them get soft and warm-- if you like them slightly crispy leave them in for up to 10 minutes, but I usually keep mine in for about 7. Certain tortillas are denser and take longer, so stick your nose in at 5 minutes, 7 minutes, 10 minutes etc. and you'll know when they are heated and to your liking.

 While the tortillas are warming up in the oven, slice your avocado and ready any other condiments you might like (cheese, sour cream, crema, salsa, cilantro, hot sauce, etc.)

We kept ours simple and when our tortillas were ready we filled them with the yam-bean-kale fillings and only added the sliced avocado and salsa.

Twenty minute dinner, YAY. Who doesn't like tacos????

Refried Black Beans

You will need the homemade black bean recipe from previous in this blog to make these black beans (or if you were in a pinch, obviously you could substitute canned black beans). I usually turn 75% of my black bean batched into refried beans to be in the fridge for general food stock for quick bites during the week.

Ingredients:

Olive oil

1/2 of a medium onion, diced

Chili powder (to taste)

Cumin (to taste)

Salt (to taste)

Four garlic cloves, minced

Black beans, about five heaping cups

1/2 of a lime, juiced

First: Saute your onions in a oiled-pan on medium high until translucent, about seven minutes. Add chili powder and cumin about two minutes in so that the tastes set into the onions as they cook. I use about 1/2 tablespoon of chili powder and one half tablespoon of cumin to begin, and then taste and season from there. Add garlic, and saute until tender, about three more minutes.

Second: Drain your black beans of most (about 75%) of the liquid that they cooked in with a slotted spoon. I am preparing these beans straight from my slow cooker as you can see:

Third: Add drained beans into your saute pan, stirring for a moment until they are warm and completely mixed with the other ingredients. Taste your beans--- season with more cumin, more chili and salt if you like, at this point.

Fourth:  Turn heat to low on the pan. With a potato masher or dough knife,  mash your beans until they are a nice, pasty consistency. If they need more liquid, add water, or better yet, use the liquid they cooked in until they are a texture that you like (some people like their refried beans really runny and some like they thick).

Fifth: transfer to a smaller sauce pot and return to medium-low, add the juice of half of a lime and add any additional salt for your taste's approval.

Eat with arepas (next recipe), in tacos, as a side or with your morning eggs. YUM! These last in the refrigerator for about five days in a good container (AJ says more, of course, but I like to recommend on the safer side...)

ENJOY!