august 26, 2020

Here’s what I love about tostadas and tacos. One or two makes a fine snack or appetizer and several make a filling meal. Given a wide variety of tastes at the table, they can be made vegan, vegetarian or carnivore style with all types of meats and seafood. Spiciness can be customized with homemade or store bought salsas with varying levels of heat. In short, these are ideal for crowds.Not many of us are feeding crowds these days (see today’s date for just why, future readers) but with proper distance and safety measures you can still gather for a backyard feast with southwest flair.

to make this dish homemade, bake your own tostadas and and make salsa

Think of these tostadas as one snapshot in a kaleidoscopic array of crispy discs. Here we have a vegan black bean and vegetable base, with goat cheese added for vegetarian vibes, and then it’s up to you if  you want to add crumbled bacon or chorizo, change up the cheese to white cheddar or queso fresco and swap out the summer squash and corn for veggies of your choice. Make your own tostada shells with corn tortillas or used purchased tostada rounds. If you have baby tomatoes, they make a colorful and textural addition to all the creamy and crunch. Offer a couple types of salsa both mild and spicy and watch folks create their own personal masterpieces. Restaurants that formerly capitalized on buffet style service now offer one person serving dishes, and your event can assign one master of all ingredients to help craft the tostadas for guests.

There is another more mundane reason I’m particularly enamored of tostadas and tacos and that is their presence at the breakfast table the next day if, and only if, there are leftovers. If you want a classic egg tostada dish, try my Breakfast Tostadas with Tomato Avocado Salsa. The salsa that would add zing to these Black Bean Goat Cheese Tostadas is the vivid green Spicy Salsa Verde.

Black Bean Goat Cheese Tostadas

recipe by Michele Humlan, The Good Eats Company

makes  six tostadas

ingredients

one 15 ounce can black beans, drained but not rinsed
one medium clove garlic, zested on microplane zester
½ teaspoon chile powder
¼ teaspoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon lime juice
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
½ teaspoon hot sauce, or to taste
8-10 ounces zucchini cut in ¼ inch coins
kernels from one ear fresh corn
6 corn tortillas, white or yellow
4-5 ounces goat cheese, crumbled and chilled
for topping : cut halves of baby tomatoes
optional garnishes : cilantro leaves, lime wedges
Spicy Salsa Verde, or salsa of your choice
cooking spray, kosher salt

directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. In beaker attachment of immersion stick blender or small bowl of food processor, blend black beans with garlic, spices, lime juice and olive oil until a smooth paste; season with hot sauce to taste; can be made ahead 2 days.
3. Spray large non insulated sheet pan with cooking spray, spread out zucchini coins, sprinkle lightly with kosher salt and spray them lightly.
4. Bake zucchini for 12 minutes or until just tender; set aside to cool.
5. On another smaller sprayed sheet pan, toss corn kernels with a pinch of kosher salt and roast about 7 minutes; set side to cool.
6. Decrease heat to 350 degrees.
7. Spray another sheet pan with cooking spray and place tortillas, evenly spaced, and bake until golden on the bottom, about 8-9 minutes, turn them over gently and bake another 3-5 minutes; watch, as they can darken quickly.
8. To assemble, divide black bean paste evenly among the tortillas, then top with corn and zucchini.
9. Scatter goat cheese over the tostadas and bake about 5-7 minutes or until cheese softens.
10. Top with tomato halves and garnish if desired with cilantro.
11. Serve while still warm with salsa of your choice.