Seeing as we are starting late, why not start with something simple too? These black bean tostadas are simple to prepare yet have a strong visual impact and taste amazing. Tostada quite simply means "toasted" in Spanish, and that is pretty much what they are, toasted corn tortillas topped with whatever takes your fancy. We have decided to stick with typically Central American ingredients seeing as we are using their tortillas and language.
Ingredients:
You may notice that we are not particularly specific with our measurements, this is intentional! Food must be sampled as you go along and we do not believe in weighing out each ingredient gram by gram. So just like us you'll have to wing it to a certain extent. Do not be put off by the seemingly long list of ingredients, you will most likely have a lot of these already such as the garlic, spices and onions, and the others are commonly used in many different recipes and shouldn't go to waste.
Method:
If you have bought dried black beans, the first step will be to rinse and boil your beans well in advance, this can take many hours to reach the desired consistency. If you do chose to use dried beans, keep some of the cooking fluid for the next step, there is a lot of flavour in the black liquid that you can utilise.
If you have opted for beans in a tin or carton then your first step is to preheat your oven to 180°C. Following this, cut your red onion into slices and cut your butternut squash into small 2cm chunks; I used butternut squash as it is lighter than sweet potato and compliments the beans well.
Toss the onion and squash together in oil and add a teaspoon each of ground coriander, cumin and half a teaspoon on chilli powder. Season with salt and pepper and mix thoroughly with your hands. Put the combination on a baking tray and place in the middle of the oven for 25 minutes or until the squash begins to go golden brown.
Your next job is to prepare the black beans. Cut up 2 cloves of garlic and fry gently until they just begin to change colour, at this point add your beans. As mentioned before, if you have cooked yours from scratch use enough of the cooking water to just about cover the beans, and if you are using pre-cooked beans drain the beans to remove the brine and then place the beans back in the pan with fresh water and a little vegetable stock. Don't worry if you don't have any, the bulk of the flavour comes from the spices, so add a teaspoon of ground coriander, cumin and a sprinkle of chilli powder to the beans. Cook until almost all of the liquid has been absorbed.
To prepare the salsa, finely dice the tomatoes, a clove of garlic and finely slice the spring onion. Mix these in together along with some shredded coriander leaves and a splash or both white wine vinegar and oil.
For the guacamole, I scoop the salsa out of the preparation dish, letting the juices drain off my spoon into the receptacle. This gives me a great base to start the guacamole - and means my tomato salsa isn't too wet - to which I add the juice from half of a lime and mash an avocado into the mix.
Place the corn tortillas in the oven for 5 minutes of until they begin to brown and crisp up.
Remove the tortillas from the oven, top with the squash and beans. Sprinkle the cheese over the top and place back in the oven for 2 to 3 minutes to let the cheese melt.
Remove the tortillas once again, sprinkle fresh coriander over the tortillas and serve with the guacamole, salsa and a wedge of lime.
We hope you enjoyed this recipe and found it easy to follow. Please feel free to ask if you have any questions.
Ingredients:
- Black beans (300g dried/ 1 carton cooked)
- 1/2 Butternut Squash/ 2 Sweet Potatos/ other vegetable of your choice
- 1 Red Onion
- 4 Corn tortillas
- 1 Ball of mozerella/ 2 handfuls of goats cheese
- Fistful of coriander
- 1/2 White onion/ 1 spring onion
- 2 or 3 Medium tomatoes
- 1 Avocado
- 1 Lime
- Splash white wine vinegar
- Salt & Pepper
- 3 cloves of garlic
- Chilli powder
- Ground cumin
- Ground coriander
- Vegetable oil
You may notice that we are not particularly specific with our measurements, this is intentional! Food must be sampled as you go along and we do not believe in weighing out each ingredient gram by gram. So just like us you'll have to wing it to a certain extent. Do not be put off by the seemingly long list of ingredients, you will most likely have a lot of these already such as the garlic, spices and onions, and the others are commonly used in many different recipes and shouldn't go to waste.
Method:
If you have bought dried black beans, the first step will be to rinse and boil your beans well in advance, this can take many hours to reach the desired consistency. If you do chose to use dried beans, keep some of the cooking fluid for the next step, there is a lot of flavour in the black liquid that you can utilise.
If you have opted for beans in a tin or carton then your first step is to preheat your oven to 180°C. Following this, cut your red onion into slices and cut your butternut squash into small 2cm chunks; I used butternut squash as it is lighter than sweet potato and compliments the beans well.
Toss the onion and squash together in oil and add a teaspoon each of ground coriander, cumin and half a teaspoon on chilli powder. Season with salt and pepper and mix thoroughly with your hands. Put the combination on a baking tray and place in the middle of the oven for 25 minutes or until the squash begins to go golden brown.
Your next job is to prepare the black beans. Cut up 2 cloves of garlic and fry gently until they just begin to change colour, at this point add your beans. As mentioned before, if you have cooked yours from scratch use enough of the cooking water to just about cover the beans, and if you are using pre-cooked beans drain the beans to remove the brine and then place the beans back in the pan with fresh water and a little vegetable stock. Don't worry if you don't have any, the bulk of the flavour comes from the spices, so add a teaspoon of ground coriander, cumin and a sprinkle of chilli powder to the beans. Cook until almost all of the liquid has been absorbed.
To prepare the salsa, finely dice the tomatoes, a clove of garlic and finely slice the spring onion. Mix these in together along with some shredded coriander leaves and a splash or both white wine vinegar and oil.
For the guacamole, I scoop the salsa out of the preparation dish, letting the juices drain off my spoon into the receptacle. This gives me a great base to start the guacamole - and means my tomato salsa isn't too wet - to which I add the juice from half of a lime and mash an avocado into the mix.
Place the corn tortillas in the oven for 5 minutes of until they begin to brown and crisp up.
Remove the tortillas from the oven, top with the squash and beans. Sprinkle the cheese over the top and place back in the oven for 2 to 3 minutes to let the cheese melt.
Remove the tortillas once again, sprinkle fresh coriander over the tortillas and serve with the guacamole, salsa and a wedge of lime.
We hope you enjoyed this recipe and found it easy to follow. Please feel free to ask if you have any questions.