In many ways, tacos embody the concept of Simply Perfect. They are cheap, extremely easy to prepare and assemble, a great vehicle for leftovers, and endlessly customizable.
In short, a taco dinner makes a perfect weeknight dinner!
The only *musts* are a filling and some shells. After that, you can get creative with the rest of the fillings! Vegan cheese shreds (if that’s your thing), fresh tomato, salsa, lettuce, guacamole or diced avocado…you name it.
Shells
Because I almost always set up a “taco bar” when we have parties, I am a frequent purchaser of those taco kits you can buy in the supermarket. This means that H and I usually have leftover taco shells (both hard and soft) and seasoning packets in our kitchen.
If you are not a taco kit hoarder like me, though, you can buy individual boxes of taco shells at the store (I used these beautiful non-GMO Garden of Eatin’ shells in the tacos pictured below), or you can just use soft corn tortillas (I like the ones from Trader Joe’s).
Filling
I have two favorite go-to fillings, both of which are extremely easy and delicious.
The first one uses Beyond Meat’s Beyond Beef crumbles (in either the original “Beefy” or the “Feisty” flavor…both work great in this). To make this filling, I lightly saute some finely chopped red onion and red bell pepper. Once they are softened, I add the frozen crumbles and cook everything together until warmed through. Lastly, I stir in about 1/3 of a packet of taco seasoning.
If you do not have pre-made taco seasoning, you can easily make your own by combining some salt, chili powder, cumin, and oregano (and anything else that tastes yummy to you!). Have fun with it!
The second filling uses ultra-cheap and readily available black beans. I simply rinse a can of beans, then add it to a pan with a couple of spoonfuls of tomato sauce and some taco seasoning, and cook it until warm.
I LOVE these taco beans and the leftovers never last long.
Once your filling is ready, you can stuff tacos and eat them neatly as shown above, or you can break up the shells and serve yourself a big ol’ taco mess like I did here:
It isn’t pretty but man did it taste good.
Either way, they’re super-fun to eat!
A.Cook in the Making 