Tasty Tostadas

A Low-fat, Highly Versatile, and Tasty Snack, Lunch, or Dinner

Sep 26, 2007 Terri Rutter

Loved for its delightfully light but hearty crunchy texture, the tostada is a reliable quick dinner fix that can be made any way you like it.

This reliable staple of Southwestern cuisine, the tasty—and trusty—tostada can be made with just about anything that suits your fancy. Heat up a corn tortilla and throw on top of it any savory leftovers or canned goodies you can find. The tostada is as versatile as bread, but more fun to eat. Kind of like a sandwich, the tostada holds a variety of ingredients on top of its crunchy surface. With no top layer to keep everything together, the tostada is messy, but well worth the trouble.

While the recipe below offers up a great basic tostada, the possibilities are endless. The tostada is firm enough to hold up to just about anything, and its corn flavor goes well with a variety of foods. Mixing hot and cold toppings lends a nice variety of textures. Keep in mind that because the tostada itself isn’t cooked, any toppings desired warm need to be cooked (or at least warmed up in the microwave) beforehand. Meat must be cooked thoroughly before adding it to a tostada.

Try anything you can think of from the pantry or the refrigerator that needs to be used up. Scrambled eggs and grated cheese topped with a little salsa make for a great brunch dish. Leftover roasted pork, chicken, or sausage stirred up and warmed with a little barbecue sauce is delicious. Cooked rice or beans are great, too, as are sautéed vegetables atop humus or other type of bean spread. Traditionally, tostadas are topped with layers of raw vegetables, like a little salad: lettuce, chopped tomato, and onions. You can add to this list, or eschew it all together and go for shredded carrot and zucchini, or olives, feta, and cucumbers. It’s all up to you.

One final note: tostadas are best eaten with your hands, not a knife and fork. Just make sure there are lots of napkins nearby!

Tasty Tostadas

  • 4 corn tortillas
  • 2 cups of cooked and shredded pork, beef, or chicken
  • 1 can refried beans, cooked according to instructions
  • ½ cup of grated Monterey Jack or cheddar cheese
  • 4 leaves of romaine lettuce
  • ¼ cup of chopped onions
  • 1 chopped tomato
  • 4 TBS of salsa
  • 1 chopped scallion
  • 2 TBS chopped cilantro
  • 4 tsp sour cream

Directions:

  1. Heat tortillas in microwave for 30 seconds, on top of a hot grill, or in a preheated 350° oven for 5-7 minutes. They should be crisp, but not brittle.
  2. Top each hot tortilla, in this recommended order; divide each ingredient evenly among the 4 tostadas:

  • 1) refried beans
  • 2) cooked meat
  • 3) grated cheese
  • 4) 1 tsp sour cream, salsa, chopped lettuce, tomatoes, and onions
  • 5) finish with scallion and cilantro
  • 6) add a dash of hot sauce to the top, if desired
Makes 4 servings.

Try these other tasty and trusty tortilla recipes:

Top a Tortilla

“Do it Your Way” Quesadillas

The copyright of the article Tasty Tostadas in Healthy Cooking is owned by Terri Rutter. Permission to republish Tasty Tostadas in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.