Who says that tacos are only a quick snack? With this recipe you transform this popular street food into a hearty and filling meal.
Admittedly, these are not authentic tacos. They are the Americanised version of the Mexican original, using hard shells. In addition, I’ve focused on making this a healthy and filling meal, making sure you get enough protein and that it is a balanced dish. I love making this dish on the weekends, each person serving themselves while watching a good show on the television or just having a lovely conversation with family over good food.
It’s also an easy recipe to adapt to everyone’s preferences. The taco filling stays the same, but you can adapt and choose your own toppings. Our favourite way to eat this is to first fill the taco shells with some fresh spinach, add the taco filling, and then top it off with some (vegan) cream or feta cheese, and some salsa sauce.
I’ve adapted this recipe from the Black Bean and Roast Pepper Tacos recipe in Annie Bell’s book Plant Power. The ingredients have stayed mostly the same, but I made the recipe easier to follow and I am cheating by substituting fresh tomatoes with canned ones. I am also using my airfryer to roast the peppers, making this a quicker dish to prepare. And i you don’t have an airfryer, I adapted the recipe so as to still keep this within a 35 minute cook!
Taco night
10 minutes preparation + 25 minutes cooking — serves 3
Ingredients
- 3 red peppers
- 2 cans good quality peeled tomatoes
- 1 can black beans
- 2 red onions
- 1 pack taco shells
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 0.25 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
- Olive oil
- Salt and pepper
- Optional: fresh spinach, cheese, salsa, guacamole as toppings
Preparation
- Heat the airfryer to 190 degrees. Alternatively, heat the oven to 210 degrees.
- Wash the peppers and slice into strips of 1cm thick.
- Mix the peppers with 2 tablespoons of olive oil and some salt and pepper.
- Roast the peppers in the airfryer for c. 22 minutes. Alternatively, roast them in the oven for 30 minutes, turning them halfway.
- Peel and finely slice the garlic.
- Peel and chop the red onions.
Preparing the taco filling
- Heat some oil in a large saucepan and once hot, add the onions. Fry the onions on a medium heat for 5-7 minutes until soft and starting to brown.
- Meanwhile, drain the peeled tomatoes. Make sure to remove as much liquid as possible from the pile of tomatoes.
- Chop the peeled tomatoes and only keep the flesh of the tomatoes.
- Add the garlic, ground cumin, paprika and cayenne pepper to the onions. Mix through for a minute.
- Add the tomato flesh to the onion mix and simmer to evaporate the remaining liquid.
Bringing it all together
- Drain the black beans and wash them with cold water.
- Remove the peppers from the airfryer/oven and mix them with the balsamic vinegar.
- Pop the taco shells in the hot airfryer / oven for c. 3 minutes to heat them up.
- Meanwhile, add the peppers and black beans to the taco filling and heat through for another minute.
- Serve the cooked taco shells with the fillings, and optional garnishes.
Enjoy your meal!
Did you like this?
Leave a comment below if you made this recipe, and let me know what you think. Tips and feedback to improve the recipe are always welcome too!