The Taco Plate™ - From scratch
I'm talking the tortillas, steak, beans, pico, salsas, the works!
Let me paint you a picture…
It’s 1 pm (or am), you are hungry, and anywhere but home. As you drive you spot it; a Mexican food truck with permanent patio seating, alongside it a well loved menu with too many options. A modern haven. If you’re anything like me, you order the best thing off the menu; Carne Asada Taco Plate, extra Pico, side of Red and Green Salsa. You go to pay and see 12$ flash across the screen… 5 minutes later as you sit enjoying a plate of food that is almost too good. You can’t help but wonder if you could have this at home.
AND YOU CAN!!!
FULLY FROM SCRATCH BABY!
TORTILLAS! STEAK! BEANS! RICE! PICO! SALSA!
LETS GO!!!!
Ok before we get started, this dish has a lot of components BUT they are pretty simple individually, and don’t require a lot of active effort or technical knowledge. It’s mostly chopping, mixing, and waiting. You don’t have to make each thing from scratch either! For example, below is the same plate (admittedly a day later with leftovers) with store bought tortillas.
But if you make one thing have it be my favorite component-
Beans!
Starting off with the best and OFTEN NEGELCTED part of this dish,
Too many times have I ordered a taco plate or burrito in a rush and realized the base menu item is bean-less 😔. Beans are the tasty glue that hold it all together! While chunky beans are also fantastic, I prefer a smooth refried bean. My bean of choice is black, but pinto or a similar bean will do fine as well. I used canned beans as an easier option but from dry is always best (nearly identical steps, just soak your beans prior and cook as instructed as any other from-dry recipe suggests).
This recipe is pretty chill, mostly mixing stuff in a pot, you do have to dice the veggies and then blend smooth but overall its a relatively passive recipe and can be done with only a handful of dishes (cutting board, deep pan/pot, and immersion blender).
THE RECIPE!
Ingredients:
3-4 cans of black beans (drained with liquid saved!)One onionHandful of garlicCumin, Paprika, SaltOlive Oil
THE STEPS!
Chop onion and garlic. Heat your oil in a pan over medium. Add in your onion cook until golden and lightly translucent. Stir or give the pan a shimmy every minute or so, or whenever it seems they are browning too quick. Then add in your garlic and spices. I used whole cumin for the first time in a while and went with about 2 tablespoons*. Cook while mixing occasionally until fragrant 2-4 minutes. In the mean time strain your beans and save the juice!!
*Next time I’d add more cumin, but add to your own tastes! Beans have a high fat content and can mellow out added ingredients so they can take a lot of spices before it becomes overwhelming.
Now that our base aromatics are done add in your beans. Cover and mix every few minutes to prevent the bottom from burning. We need these beans to be cooked till fully soft so when we blend them it comes out super smooth; about 30-45 minutes but overcooking is not really an issue. Once the beans are soft add your bean liquid back in. Salt to taste and you are done! After the mixture cools a bit use an immersion blender to blend till smooth!**
**If you only have beans as your protein I recommend leaving it chunky for the texture. Additionally if you only have a standing blender you might need to add extra liquid so it blends properly. If your beans end up too runny return to heat and cook down to desired consistency.
I ended up with just under 2 - 32oz containers of beans, which I ate over a few meals but will average it out to 8 - 8oz portions (I probably ate 4-6oz with everything else but its always good to be cautious with rounding)
PRICE BREAKDOWN!
Onion - 1$
Garlic - 50 cents
Beans (1.10$ x 4) - 4.40$
Spices and oil - 25 cents
Total: 6.15$
Per portion (8 total): 77 cents
Onto the next protein~
Steak!
You can do a marinade of crushed garlic, limes, oil, salt, and cilantro, but again with so many other flavors going straight to the pan with salt works wonders. Sear heavily on each side and DONT TOUCH IT in between so you get good browning.
Cook to desired level, I like my steaks on the *almost* rare side. With meat its hard to break down cook time as starting temperature and thickness of the steak can greatly impact timing (and I never use thermometers), best to learn with practice (aka eat a lot of steak).
Skirt steak is probably my favorite cut, I find it to be very versatile, easy to cook, and often reasonably priced. I managed to get a buy-one-get-one deal which left me with 4 hefty steaks at 16$ each, not exactly sure of weight but they completely filled a standard 12” cast iron pan, so I’m rounding to 6 portions per (since we are eating with a bunch of other stuff).
PRICE BREAKDOWN!
Per portion (6 total): 2.66$
“Spanish” rice
My home version of the orangey rice you get at Mexican restaurants.
In a rice cooker (if you cook via stove sorry idk what to tell you) add Arborio rice, onion powder, a touch of paprika, and 1-2 spoons of tomato sauce ( I used leftover homemade spaghetti sauce that was in my fridge). Once cooked fluff and leave to sit, I find that for this kind of meal having dryer rice is better, I like to occasionally mix while its still hot to release excess moisture and prevent it from getting mushy.
PRICE BREAKDOWN!
Rice is so cheap I don’t know the cost per portion so lets call it an even 50 cents.
Tortillas!
I don’t have much experience with tortillas, the ones in the top photo were my first attempt. Since I’m a newbie this recipe and process comes from my friend Alex; usually just a hand model temporarily upgraded to Sous Chef!
Ingredients:
2 cups all purpose flour3/4 cup water3 tablespoons olive oilPinch of salt
Mix all ingredients in a bowl with a fork until barely combined.
Knead till the dough forms a semi-smooth smooth, about 5 minutes. Careful not to over knead or your dough will be tough and harder to roll (due to developing too much gluten structure)
Let rest for a half hour, then split into 6-12 balls depending on desired size (large vs tiny tacos). Roll balls into flatter shapes but not too thin yet.
Get 1-2 pans hot with a bit of oil. Heavier pans are better for holding heat. Once pans are hot roll your tortillas out to final thickness (see above), and add to your pans. Cook on each side for up to 1 minute, flipping and checking as needed. Store on a papertowel and cover soon after cooking to prevent them from drying out. Don’t forget to Reoil your pans if they dry out between batches.
To show you how chill it is, please enjoy this short clip~
PRICE BREAKDOWN!
Tortillas are again also very cheap, so 50 cents for these too.
Pico!
Ingredients:
1 onion, White or Red (rinsed)2 Roma tomatoes1 bunch cilantroJuice of 1 limeSalt and pepper
Chop veggies to desired size, mix, and enjoy.
I like an onion heavy pico, soaking your red (or white if you are sensitive) onion in water helps remove some of its pungent qualities. I like to leave the cilantro bunch intact for easier handling, so I chop until most of the leaves are gone. Stems of herbs in things like pico are great, they still have flavor and are just more veg.
PRICE BREAKDOWN!
Onion - 1$ 🧅💗
Herbs - 2$
Tomaotes - 3$
Lime - 1$ Per potion (10 total): 70 cents
Salsas!
THE BEST FOR LAST!!! Sauceheads unite!!!!
I use Valentina as my base hot sauce most times, and last fall I made a big batch of Salsa Verde with the end of season green tomatoes! But store bought or from a restaurant are great great options.
PRICE BREAKDOWN!
A dollop of sauce is so darn cheap, but mixed with avocado I guess it can be more, so 70 cents here too!
SUBSTITUTIONS!
As always there are a million ways to make this your own!
Protein: Switching up the type and texture of your beans is always an option. And of course swapping out any type of meat works too with virtually no alterations or increase of effort. Heck you can even add bits of rotisserie chicken if you wanna be ultra lazy and cheap
Toppings: Tortillas and meat/beans will usually be the base, but what takes a good taco to great are the accoutrements!
Pico: really just a way to add some fresh veg to your dish. I recommend adapting seasonally. Add in finely chopped radishes in spring or charred corn in summer!
Cheese: I prefer cotija, but any mild cheese will swap in well, or sour cream, or yogurt, something creamy and mild to balance out the bright sauces and spiced proteins
Sauce: There are lot of versions of salsa verde. Pictured below I took a base jar from the store and blended in an avocado to make it creamy and help consolidate components. But if you wanna go outide the norm -
Go crazy! Again it’s just dough and meat with veg, it goes with a lot of stuff!! I’ve thrown some home made ranch on there when I have it stocked in the fridge, who knows many buffalo or BBQ sauce might work if you’re that kind of animal.
Final Per Plate Tally!
Beans - 77 cents
Meat - 2.66$
Rice - 50 cents
Tortillas - 50 cents
Pico - 70 cents
Sauces - 70 cents
Toppings - 25 cents
TOTAL: 6.08$!!!!
Thank you for reading!!
I hope you make yourself some tacos, or at the very least go support your local Mexican food stall.
Happy spring 🌸