Vegetarian Tacos 5/5 (1)

Tacos are a traditional Mexican street food or finger food. It’s a palm sized corn or wheat Tortilla bread topped with refried beans, vegetables or meat, drizzled with Mexican Salsa or Guacamole or sour cream, topped with salad veggies with a final touch of shredded cheese. It can be vegetarian with veg fillings or non vegetarian with chicken, beef, meat, pork or seafood fillings.

It’s somewhat similar to our Indian street food Chaat. It’s a handy, tasty and hearty fare. These taco shells can be soft as Indian rotis or hard as chips. Also they are made of three flour breads namely corn, wheat and all-purpose. These breads or tortillas form a basis for many Mexican dishes. Tacos can be open or closed (folded) ones.

It can be keto diet if you choose a keto friendly Tortilla base, the rest of the fillings are keto friendly. Also, it’s absolutely vegan diet if you ditch the cheese and meat, go for refried beans as protein source and do rich salad topping. I made this gluten free as my shells are hard corn crunchy tacos shells bought from stores. Thus, tacos are so flexible, it can be vegan friendly, gluten free and keto friendly. 

In my future post I’ll share my Tortilla recipes from scratch. This post is based on the store-bought corn taco shells with refried beans filling and topped with Mexican salsa, chopped veggies and shredded cheese. Choice of fillings and toppings are purely to your discretion. This flexibility makes this regional recipe a global hit.

All you need is to prepare the Refried Beans and Mexican Salsa using my hyperlink and store it 2 days or a day before. Rest is store-bought taco shells and a few gimmicks; your Mexican vegetarian tacos are at your table.

Check my Indian Palak / Spinach Tacos in the Kitchen Secrets category. I replaced the tortillas with palak rotis from leftover Palak Puri dough and filled with tacos stuffing, resulting into a fusion dish, a Mexican taco in an Indian roti. I recommend you to try this with any Indian rotis, your family and guests will appreciate your creativity and your dish as well.

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Using the hyperlink, and prepare the refried beans;

and the Mexican salsa a day or two before and store it in the refrigerator.

Keep the chopped coloured capsicums, onion, tomatoes, pineapple and lettuce ready on the work table.

Also, keep the shredded mozzarella cheese, salsa, refried beans on the work surface along with taco shells. Preheat the Taco shells in a microwave oven or OTG or air fryer or simply on a non-stick pan flipping both sides a minute. I skipped this step as my shells were super crunchy. This step is optional.

Now start assembling the tacos with the refried beans sufficiently spreading throughout the tacos base. Next, layer the Mexican salsa.

Then, top up with chopped veggies, pineapple, onion, cherry tomato, and iceberg lettuce. Now again fill with mexican salsa and, finally, dress with shredded mozzarella cheese.

Similarly, assemble the rest of the taco shells, and immediately place them in an air fryer or microwave oven or OTG or directly on the non-stick pan gently and let it get grilled for few minutes till the cheese melts. I used tacos stand for grilling in the pre-heated OTG oven.

You can drizzle some ketchup or salsa on top for garnishing.

Serve them immediately, as they’ll turn stodgy and soggy. Now go on, relish every single bite of this delectable Mexican street food.

Recipe Card 

Preparation time: 20 minutes

Cooking time: 5 minutes

Cuisine: Mexican, Latin American – International

Category: Main Course

Serves: 4

Author: Manimala

Ingredients:

Refried beans – 2 cups

Mexican Salsa – 2 cups

Tacos corn shells – 12 (store-bought)

Iceberg Lettuce julienne – 1 cup

Chopped coloured capsicums – ¼ cup each

Chopped Pineapple- ¼ cup

Chopped Onion – ¼ cup

Sliced cherry tomato – ¼ cup

Shredded Mozzarella cheese – ½ cup – 1 cup

Instructions:

1.  Using the hyperlink prepare the Refried Beans, and Mexican Salsa a day or 2 before and store it in the refrigerator.
2. Keep the chopped coloured capsicums, onion, tomatoes, pineapple, lettuce ready on the work table. Also, keep the shredded mozzarella cheese, salsa, refried beans on the work surface along with taco shells.
3. Preheat the Taco shells in a microwave oven or OTG or air fryer or simply on a non-stick pan flipping both sides a minute.  I skipped this step as my shells were already super crunchy. This step is optional.
4. Now, start assembling the tacos by spreading the refried beans throughout the tacos base.
5. Next, fill with the Mexican salsa, then top up with chopped veggies, pineapple, onion, cherry tomato, and iceberg lettuce.
6. Now again fill with Mexican salsa and finally dress with shredded Mozzarella cheese.
7. Similarly, assemble the rest of the taco shells and immediately place them in an air fryer or microwave oven or OTG or directly on the non-stick pan gently and let it get grilled for few minutes till the cheese melts.
8. Serve them immediately as they’ll turn stodgy and soggy.
9. I used tacos stand for grilling in the pre-heated OTG oven.
10. You can drizzle some ketchup or salsa on top for garnishing and relish every single bite of this delectable street food.

Notes:

• These tacos involve zero cooking, just few minutes of grilling sufficient enough to melt the cheese.
• Even grilling can be skipped if you don’t want the cheese melted.
• Refried beans and mexican salsa can be prepared beforehand and stored in refrigerator for later use.
• I used store-bought corn crunchy shells. Tortillas can also be used.
• Check my Indian Palak / Spinach Tacos in the Kitchen Secrets category. I replaced the tortillas with palak rotis from leftover Palak Puri dough and filled with tacos stuffing, resulting into a fusion dish, a Mexican taco in an Indian roti. I recommend you to try this with any Indian rotis, your family and guests will appreciate your creativity and your dish as well.
• Vegetable toppings can be of your choice, any available salad veggies, also try with raw mango, cucumber.
• If you’re diet conscious or if you’re a vegan, feel free to skip cheese.
• Non vegetarians can replace red kidney beans with minced chicken or beef, and prepare the same way as refried beans.
• Tacos can be soft or hard, open or folded, veg,vegan or non veg, wheat flour or corn tortillas. Topping sauces can be salsa, guacamole or sour cream.
• Always serve immediately after assembling to enjoy the crunchy, crispy tacos, and not the stodgy, soggy tacos.