Weekend Tostadas

Cooking at home can be fun, particularly when it brings back good travel memories. 
Saturdays used to mean visiting one of our local Mexican restaurants for a late lunch after a morning ski, ride or hike. When COVID hit and we couldn’t go out to eat, we didn’t want to lose that connection to world food, so we improvised. First, it was chicken nachos, then turkey tacos. Now we have evolved to tostadas: prawn (that’s shrimp) & guacamole tostadas and black bean & sweet potato tostadas. Both are super simple, fresh, and healthy. Of course, they also pair very well with a Margarita, which is a key part of the weekend Mexican lunch. 

Shrimp tostada:
The secret to making a good tostada is having something to hold it together. This one is held by guacamole (you can find our go to guac recipe by Gabriel on pinterest). 

For the shrimp tostada, peel & cook the prawns (shrimp). We do a quick sauté in olive oil and butter and sprinkle with a bit of taco seasoning (here’s our fav on pinterest). 

Make a quick coleslaw (even parts shredded carrot & cabbage, thin sliced red onion, a bit of chopped fresh jalapeño. Mix together and add a dollop of good mayonnaise & some fresh squeezed lime juice, salt & pepper to taste, and you’re good to go.

Black bean & sweet potato tostada: 

This one was created because we had leftover roasted sweet potatoes in the fridge, but we love it so much, we’ve made it again. 

Start by roasting your sweet potato, after cutting into 3/4ish cubes. Drizzle with olive oil, salt & pepper, then into the oven at 350 for about 20 min or till soft. Our oven cooks super hot so just keep an eye on em.

Now to the black bean dip (based off recipe from Milk Street, but we simplified): 10 minutes tops, so after you put the sweet potato in, jump to this. In a food processor, add 2x cans of black beans, drained but not rinsed. Keep 1/4-1/2 c of the bean juice to add back in. Add a tablespoon of ground cumin, another T of ground coriander, 2x chipotle chilies from a can in adobe sauce, 1 T adobe sauce (or more, depending on how spicy you like it), 2 T lime juice, and a bit of salt. Process til smooth and adjust seasoning to taste. 

If you have any leftover, which you will, it can be a dip, or used for tacos, nachos, quesadillas or even as a side for other Mexican fare. 

This tostada can also benefit from the freshness of a quick and dirty Pico de gallo. Finely dice onion, tomato, cilantro & some jalapeño for heat ,mix and add a little salt or splash of lime to taste. 

Building is easy: beans on the tostada to keep it all together, add sweet potato, oaxaca cheese (or whatever you have in the fridge, the one we used for this is feta). Pico on top, and done. Or you can be fancy with some chopped cilantro. Of course if you have kids, let them go wild and build a storm for a tostada plating contest while you enjoy that margarita.

Don’t just stick to these ones: open the fridge & experiment with whatever you have. Cooking is about experimenting, with no boundaries. Some (& most) times it works, other times, not so much, and you just chalk it up to experience and keep trying.

As your local favorites open again, make sure you support them for either take away (take out) or dining. They need your help & maybe you’ll learn something when you try a different dish that looks or sounds interesting. Our next Mexican food adventure will be enchiladas…