Best hard tacos ever.

When it comes to tacos, I’m a big fan of the hard shell, but sometimes I find store-bought hard shell tacos to be kind of flimsy. Like with some tortilla chips, I feel like the manufacturers aren’t starting with whole corn tortillas. They’re probably starting with some strange paste that they can mold and fry, but the end results are always a bit sub-par.

Homemade hard shell tacos are a bit tricky though. You need to hold them in place and fry them until crispy. They do make a strange device that will make it possible to do this at home, but personally that seems like more work than it’s worth.

So I came up with a much quicker and easier method for making darn good crispy tacos at home. These are actually a delicious mash up between an enchilada, a taco, and a taquito. But trust me, you’ll have a hard time giving them up once you try them!

Shredded Chicken Hard Tacos

Yield: 12 tacos

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 50 minutes

Ingredients:

1 pound boneless skinless chicken breast, poached and shredded
1 15 ounce can black beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 red onion, diced
1-2 jalapenos, minced
1/2 Cup salsa
6 ounces pepper jack cheese, shredded
12 corn tortillas
Salt and pepper
Olive oil

Toppings:
Sour Cream
Avocado
Lettuce
Hot Sauce

Directions:

1) Add chicken breasts to a medium pot and cover with water by 1/2 inch. Bring to a simmer and simmer for about 15 minutes or until chicken is cooked through.
2) Once chicken has cooled a bit, shred it. Also, dice onion and pepper and drain and rinse the beans.
3) Add 2 tablespoons olive oil to a medium pan over medium heat. Once hot, add onions and peppers and cook until soft. Then stir in shredded chicken, black beans, and salsa.
4) Stir mixture until it's heated through and season with salt and pepper.
5) On a large griddle or in a large skillet, add a tablespoon of olive oil over medium-high heat. Working with one tortilla at a time, add it to the hot pan and top one half with chicken and shredded cheese. Fold tortilla over to form a taco. Press down on it lightly so it holds it's shape and move it to the outer part of the pan while you work on a second one. Do as many tacos as you can fit at once without them overlapping.
6) Cook tacos for about 3 minutes per side until tortilla is crispy and cheese is well-melted.
7) Serve tacos immediately with avocado, hot sauce, lettuce, and sour cream.

Preparing the Filling

There are really no rules when it comes to fillings for these tacos. I used some chicken and black beans, but you could take it in any direction really.

If you do want to use chicken though, the easiest way to prep it for the filling is to lightly poach it in a few inches of water for about 10 minutes or until it’s cooked through completely. Depending on the thickness of your chicken breast, you might need a few more minutes. Then, once your chicken is cool, you can shred it up with a fork.

You could also use leftover chicken from a different meal.

Poached and shredded.

Besides the chicken, I also recommend using some fresh red onion and jalapeno which gives the filling great Tex-mex flavors.

Just dice both relatively small. If you want more heat, then leave the seeds in the peppers.

Good Tex-mex flavors.

To finish off the filling, add a drizzle of oil to a medium pan over medium heat and add your onions and peppers. Cook them until they are soft, about 4-5 minutes, then stir in your chicken drained black beans.

The filling stuff.

I like to add some salsa to mine also which just kind of rounds out the flavors and ties everything together. It’s a bit of a shortcut, but it works like a charm.

Stir this all together over medium heat until the filling is hot.

Salsa is a helper here.

Making the Tacos

These tacos are actually pretty easy to make. Don’t be intimidated!

Corn tortillas are really strong. They don’t burn easily so you have a lot of flexibility in your cooking time which is nice. I like to make mine on a large griddle but you could also use a large skillet.

Just add a drizzle of oil to the pan and get it hot over medium-high heat. Then work with one tortilla at a time. Start by just warming the tortilla up for a seconds and then top half of it with a large spoonful of filling.

Like so:

Try not to overstuff.

Next, top it with some grated cheese. Any cheese will work, but I like pepper jack.

A little goes a long way.

Then the only tricky part is to fold the top part of the taco over. Once you have the taco folded over, press down on it lightly so it holds it’s shape.

The very important fold.

Once you have one taco shaped, you can move it out to the side of the pan and get started on a second taco. When I’m really rocking and rolling, I can do about six at a time on my griddle.

Cook them for about 3-4 minutes per side so they get nice and crispy on the outside.

Nice and crispy.

Toppings and Servings

I made up a plate of some of my favorite taco toppings for these guys including sour cream, avocado, and chopped lettuce. Hot sauce wouldn’t be a bad idea either.

Standard taco fare.

Serve up a few of the tacos with some toppings and you are in for a treat! Three tacos is a pretty hearty meal. Two would be a good lunch.

Awesome plate of food.

These guys turn crispy and delicious as they cook and then you can kind of pry them open and stuff them with all kinds of delicious toppings. The shells are a lot more substantial than those flimsy guys you buy in the store that crack and shatter with the slightest touch.

I know these are good because my Tex-Mex aficionado wife requested them two nights in a row!

Fresh and delicious!

I’m rapidly becoming a huge fan of tempeh. I think I might like it better than tofu when it comes to soy products. It has a lot more texture and is honestly a lot easier to cook.

When meat eaters ask me what vegetarian options taste most like meat, the answer is tempeh. It’s just very hearty and flavorful.

Plus you can grill it!

This salad took me just a few minutes to toss together and it fed me and Betsy for a few days. It’s very healthy and perfect for the summer!

Grilled Tempeh Salad

Yield: Serves 6.

Ingredients:

1 block of tempeh, 12-16 ounces is good
3 ears fresh sweet corn
1 can black beans (15 ounces)
1 jalapeno, seeded and minced (optional)
1/4 Cup basil, minced
Olive oil
Salt and Pepper

Yogurt Sauce:
1 Cup yogurt
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 lemon, juice only
1-2 Teaspoons hot sauce
1 Tablespoon fresh dill, minced

Directions:

1) For sauce, mince garlic and dill and stir with other ingredients. Let chill until needed.

2) Rub corn and tempeh with a bit of olive oil and season with salt and pepper.

3) Grill corn over medium-high heat for about 12 minutes until there are light grill marks on each side.

4) Grill tempeh over medium-high heat for about 8 minutes until it has a crispy exterior.

5) Cut corn off the cob and cube tempeh. Mix with rinsed black beans and minced basil. Stir in a bit of olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Serve warm or cold!

The Sauce

I’m not even sure that you entirely need a sauce for this salad. It’s pretty good without it, but I decided to whip one up just to try it and I really liked it with the sauce.

So you can take it or leave it.

If you take it though, you’ll need these things.

Impromptu sauce.

See that dill? From my garden. No big deal. I just grew it from THE EARTH.

Anyway, dice up the garlic and dill really finely and stir everything together. Add as much hot sauce as you want really, but start with a tiny amount.

Mine kind of took on a light pink hue.

Pretty tasty!

Grilling Things

It’s not really necessary to grill the things in this recipe, but I like the slightly charred flavor. If you don’t have access to a grill, you could roast the corn for a few minutes and sear the tempeh in a hot pan.

Same results.

This time of year, use fresh corn if you can find it!

Gotta love summer.

Rub the corn and tempeh with a light coat of olive oil and season them with salt and pepper.

I used a garden veggie tempeh, but use whatever flavor you want!

Weird looking, but good!

Heat your grill up to medium-high and toss on your corn and tempeh. I’d recommend starting the corn about 5 minutes before the tempeh.

The tempeh will need maybe 4 minutes per side. It’s already cooked so you really just want to crisp up the outside a bit and give it some nice char.

Turn the corn every few minutes and you should be getting a few light grill marks on them.

My grill almost revolted RE: tempeh.

When everything is done on the grill, cut the kernels off the cob and mix it with some black beans. I used canned beans that I drained and rinsed really well.

Cube up the tempeh and mince a jalapeno and some basil. The jalapeno is optional, but I like the heat.

Then just stir everything together and drizzle in a tiny amount of olive oil. Season with salt and pepper and you’re all set!

Tasty!

This is great as-is, but like I said, I think it’s fun to serve a bowl of the sauce on the side.

Really good!

This was one of those meals that’s not only filling and tasty, but leaves you feeling very healthy when you finish it.

It works great as a side, as a main dish, or as a lunch.

I’m telling you, as a pretty solid carnivore, I can’t get enough tempeh these days.

Interesting color...

Betsy and I hosted a Cinco de Mayo happy hour last week and I wanted to make a few different dips to go along with the ‘ritas and ‘ronas. Guacamole and pico de gallo were requested, but I wanted a third dip that was a bit experimental.

The only thing I new for sure about this dip is that I wanted it to have black beans in it.

My plan was to just mix stuff in until I had something that was tasty on a chip.

Luckily it didn’t take me too long to get there even though the ending dip ended up being kind of a strange orange color.

Black Bean Chili Dip

Yield: 5 cups

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 10 minutes + cooking time if using dry beans

Ingredients:

4 Cups black beans, cooked
1/4 red onion, diced
2 red jalapenos, minced
Small handful cilantro, minced
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1/2 Cup sour cream
1-2 Tablespoons chili powder
1 Teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional)
Salt and pepper
Tortilla chips for dipping

Directions:

1) Cook beans if using dry beans.

2) Mix beans with veggies and stir in olive oil and sour cream.

3) Add spices to taste and serve with chips.

Cooking the Beans

If you’re in a rush, you can 100% use canned beans for this dip.

I find that dried beans have a slightly firmer texture which I liked in this dip. If you want a softer dip though, then you should just use canned.

If you’re using dried, soak them in cold water overnight to make them easier to cook. I never really noticed it before but soaked black beans are actually purple!

Purple beans!

Of course, after you boil them in salted water for an hour or so they soften up and turn a more familiar color. Mine still weren’t exactly black, but whatever. They tasted good already.

Still not black!

The Dip Process

I kind of just tossed stuff into the bowl for this guy. I started with some red onion and cilantro. I had these leftover from the guacamole and pico so I figured it should work in this dip also.

Some flavorful veggies.

I also added in a few diced red jalapenos to give it some heat.

The dip was pretty dry at this point. In fact, it was more like a black bean salad then a dip. So I found some good stuff to add to it that would hopefully make it more dip-like.

Fixing the dry issue.

I added a good drizzle of olive oil and some sour cream and I liked where it took me. It made them kind of a strange black/white color, but the consistency was good. You could add more sour cream or greek yogurt if you wanted it even creamier.

White black beans.

Now it was just a seasoning game for me. For some reason I grabbed chili powder. It was a good grab.

Actually homemade...

Mix in a Tablespoon or two of that along with some cayenne if you want it spicier. Then season it with salt and pepper and you’re all set!

As with most dips, this gets better if you let it chill in fridge for an hour or so before serving.

Not as spicy as I was thinking...

The requisite dip-on-a-chip shot:

Pile it high!

This was a pretty unique dish. Most people couldn’t quite put their finger on what the flavors were, but they had no problem eating two big bowls of it. It’s a lot heartier than other Tex-Mex dips so it’s great for a dip-based happy hour.

As with most the recipes I make, I encourage you to customize this guy as you go. There’s all kinds of veggies or spices you could add to this to make it your own.

Thanks for this Austin.

There’s this really cool spot across from the Austin Convention Center called Moonshine. They serve kind of new style Southern food. Stuff like chicken fried steak that’s as big as a plate, but then they also bring out free spicy popcorn when you sit down. It’s that kind of place. While I was in Austin I met some of my family that I haven’t seen in a very long time for a dinner there one night and I really loved the food.

My favorite thing was this slightly spicy macaroni and cheese dish that had green chiles, black beans, corn, and chicken. It was so delicious I mentally bookmarked it as something I had to try to replicate.

I’m not sure how technically close my version is to theirs, but it tasted darn close to their version so I’ll count it as a win!

Green Chile Mac and Cheese

Yield: Serves 6-8.

Prep Time: 45 minutes

Total Time: 45 minutes

Ingredients:

1 pound elbow macaroni
1 pound pepper jack cheese
1 large chicken breast, grilled or pan seared
2 poblano peppers (if you can find Hatch green chiles, use those)
1 Cup black beans (I used canned)
1 Cup sweet corn, frozen works best
3 Cups Milk
1 small onion, diced
4 Tablespoons butter
4 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 Cup panko breadcrumbs
Salt and Pepper

Directions:

1) To roast peppers, add them directly to the flame over a grill or a gas stove. Turn the peppers ever minute or so until they are completely charred. Add the peppers to a bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let sit for 10 minutes to steam.

2) Remove peppers and peel or rub off skin. Don't rinse the peppers under water. Once peeled, remove seeds and dice them up.

3) If you're using chicken, season it with some olive oil, salt and pepper, and some dried chili flakes if you have some. Sear it for about 5 minutes a side and then finish it in a 350 degree oven until cooked through, about 15 minutes. You could also grill it. Let the chicken rest for a few minutes and then dice it up into small bites.

4) Toast panko crumbs in a dry skillet over medium heat for about 5 minutes, tossing occasionally. They should be lightly browned. Set aside for later.

5) Drain and rinse black beans from can and set aside.

6) Melt butter in medium to large pot over medium heat. Once melted add diced onion and cook until onion is soft, about 5 minutes. Stir in flour and cook for another few minutes.

7) Whisk in milk in 1 cup batches. Add it slowly to avoid lumps. Continue to cook the sauce and turn the heat down to medium-low once the milk is added. It should start to thicken and be the consistency of a light gravy.

8) Whisk in cheese and once cheese is melted, add roasted chiles.

9) Cook macaroni according to package, drain, add macaroni back to pot and add cheese sauce to macaroni. Stir to combine, then add diced chicken, beans, and corn. Season with salt and pepper.

10) Before serving, add toasted breadcrumbs on top.

There’s some good stuff in this mac and cheese, but try not to add too many fillers. One cup of beans and corn is enough to give it some good texture. At the end of the day you want it to be a mac and cheese with some stuff in it, not a salad covered in cheese sauce.

Roasting the peppers

If you’re in a pinch, you could use the canned roasted peppers that they sell for this, but if you have a grill or a gas stove, you can just roast your own. It just takes a few minutes and is a cool party trick.

Blistered!

Crank your heat up to high on your gas stove or grill and lay the peppers right on the flames. Turn them every minute or so until they are almost completely charred. You’re looking for like a 90% char coverage.

When they are done, add them to a bowl and cover them with some plastic wrap.

90% char is good.

The plastic wrap will help them steam and make them easier to peel. Let them sit for about 10 minutes. After that they should be cool enough to handle and also the skins should peel right off.

To Wash or Not To Wash

When you’re roasting peppers, it’s kind of a messy job to peel them. You’ll be tempted to run the peppers under water to rinse off all the extra skin. I do not recommend this. It’ll make your peppers cleaner, but it’ll also wash off a ton of great flavor that’s on the outside of the peppers. They been steeping in their own delicious pepper juices for 10 minutes and to wash all that off is crazy talk.

So just do your best to get off most the skin and then remove the seeds, dice them up, and add them to a bowl.

Peeled and chopped.

Other ingredients

The original mac and cheese dish had some grilled chicken that was folded in to the mac and cheese. It wasn’t an excessive amount of chicken. Just a few pieces here and there.

I seasoned a few chicken breasts with olive oil, salt and pepper, and some dried chili flakes. Then I just seared them for about 5 minutes per side in a cast iron skillet and then finished them off in a 350 degree oven until they were cooked through, another 15 minutes or so.

You could just as easily grill these or, heck, just leave them out.

I only used one of these for the actual mac and cheese.

Optional protein.

The other thing that made this recipe was some toasted breadcrumbs that they added on top of the mac and cheese right before serving it. Since it’s not a baked dish, it needs some crunchy texture.

I added about a cup of panko to a dry skillet and toasted it until it turned a nice tan color, about 5 minutes. Sprinkle this on the dish right before serving it.

Really good topping.

Making the cheese sauce

The important part of this dish is obviously the cheese sauce. I made a pretty standard version, but added some onion to my roux and also used pepper jack cheese to give it a bit of a kick.

Start by adding your diced onion to the butter in a good sized pot. Stir the onion and butter over medium heat until the onion is translucent and soft, but not browned, about 5 minutes. Then add in the flour and continue to cook for another few minutes.

At this point you’ll have a standard roux with some onion mixed in.

This roux will make ya cry!

Slowly whisk in your milk to the roux in 1 cup batches. It should thicken up pretty nicely. After three cups it might be a bit runny, but continue to simmer it over medium low heat and it’ll thicken up. When it gets to the consistency of a light gravy, start stirring in your cheese.

It’s a lot of cheese, but it’ll fit.

Just the beginning of the cheese...

Once all your cheese is melted, stir in your green chiles also!

Bam!

Finishing the dish

Cook the macaroni according to the package and when it’s done, drain it and add it back to the pot. Then stir in the green chile cheese sauce!

It might look a bit runny, but it’ll thicken up as we add more stuff and it cooks together a bit.

It'll seem a bit runny.

Stir in the chicken, corn, and black beans. Continue to stir it over low heat and season it with salt and pepper. It’ll need a good pinch of both.

You can serve it right out of the pot!

Lots of goodies in there.

If you were making this for a dinner party or something (recommended) you might want to put it in something more decorative.

It’s one of the best mac and cheese dishes I’ve made!

One of the best I've made!

I forgot to sprinkle on the breadcrumbs before snapping my last picture, but they are pretty essential. Don’t forget them! They give the dish some great crunchy texture.

This might not be a beginners mac and cheese. You have to make a cheese sauce, roast some peppers, and maybe sear some chicken, but it’s totally doable and it makes a mountain of food.

If you’re a mac and cheese fan then you should give this a shot. If you aren’t a mac and cheese fan then I’m not sure why you read this far!

Frank's did not sponsor this post. Unfortunately.

When it comes to making economical, healthy meals, it really doesn’t get much better than beans in my opinion. There were a few other options in last week’s poll, but I was excited that you all picked beans as the winner.

I knew I wanted to keep this dish simple, but still make something interesting so instead of making a normal rice and beans dish (which I normally do on the stove top), I thought I’d try to make it more like a casserole which means it’s a bit more hands off.

While this dish is really healthy, really cheap, and very flavorful, it does require a few hours of time – especially if you start with dried beans. You can shave off some time by using canned beans, but I think that dried beans have a slightly better texture.

Rice and Bean Casserole

Yield: 8x8 dish. Serves 6.

Prep Time: 20 minutes + bean cooking

Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes

Ingredients:

1 1/2 Cups dried black beans, soaked overnight (or two 15 ounces cans black beans)
1 1/2 Cups long grain rice (I used brown rice, but white rice would be quicker)
1 medium onion, diced
1 red pepper, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 Teaspoon cumin seeds
1 15 ounce can diced tomatoes
1 small can roasted green chilis
1/2 Teaspoon cayenne (opt.)
2 Cups Tortilla chips, crushed (for topping)
Salt and pepper
Hot sauce (for serving)

Directions:

1) If you're using dry beans, soak them overnight in cold water. Skim out anything that floats and pick out any pebbles. When you're ready to cook, drain the beans and rinse them.

2) Chop the veggies and add them to a heavy pan over high heat with the oil. Cook until veggies are soft, about 5 minutes. Add cumin seeds and continue to cook another minute.

3) Add dried beans and enough water to cover the beans by about an inch. Bring to a simmer, cover, and simmer until beans are tender, about an hour.

NOTE: If you're using canned beans, still cook the veggies, add in the beans and water, but only simmer for a minute or two to blend flavors.

OPTIONAL: If you want, remove half of your beans and mash them with a masher then add them back into the pot. This will give some different texture to your beans. I like the different texture this gives, but it's not completely necessary.

4) Add green chilis, rice, tomatoes, and cayenne (if you're using it) to bean mixture. Also add a good pinch of salt and pepper. Stir well to combine.

5) Pour mixture into a square casserole dish, cover with foil, and bake at 350 for about an hour. Check it after 30 minutes and add more liquid if it looks dry.

6) Taste for salt and pepper and add more if necessary.

7) As an optional step, crush up a cup or two of tortilla chips and sprinkle tortilla crumbs on top of casserole. Bake for another 15-20 minutes.

8) Serve with hot sauce! Use leftovers for burritos!

Cooking the beans

You definitely don’t need to use dried beans for this dish, but I like them and they are way cheaper.

To prep them, you just need to soak them overnight in cold water, picking out any bits that float. Also, be on the lookout for any pebbles that might have squirmed into the beans. Then drain and rinse them the next day right before you start cooking.

Pretty cheap eats.

I also like to throw in a few whole cumin seeds while the beans are cooking which gives them kind of an earthy flavor. I like to use whole cumin seeds because you can be a bit more liberal with them and the flavor isn’t so in your face as the ground variety.

They cook for so long in this dish that they almost dissolve away by the end.

I just leave these guys whole.

To start cooking the beans, add your olive oil to a heavy pan over high heat and once the oil is hot, add the diced red pepper, onions, and garlic. Cook this for a few minutes until the veggies are soft. Then toss in the whole cumin seeds and cook for another minute. This will give the cumin seeds a chance to toast a bit.

This will smell good.

Add water to this dish until it covers the beans by about an inch and bring it to simmer. Simmer the beans, covered, until they are tender, probably 45 minutes to 1 hour.

If you’re using canned beans, go ahead and cook the veggies and cumin, then add in the canned beans and water and bring to a simmer, but then you can just simmer it for a few minutes to blend the flavors. You still need the water though to cook the rice in the next step.

Blending the Beans

As a optional step, I like to take out about half of my beans and lightly mash them with a masher. This gives the beans two different textures in the final dish. Some are kind of creamy and some are firmer. You could skip it though if you wanted.

Mash attack!

Finishing the Casserole

Whether you mash your beans or not, for the next step you’ll need all these things.

Other good stuff.

Add the tomatoes, chilis, and rice to the pot with the veggies and beans and add a good pinch of salt and pepper. If you want it spicier, feel free to add a pinch of cayenne.

As this simmers, give it a good stir and cook for just a minute or two. Then pour the whole mixture into a square casserole dish.

This will look kind of murky and strange, but trust me. It’ll work out okay.

Strange brew...

Cover this with foil and bake it at 350 degrees until the rice is nice and soft. It’ll probably take about an hour. If you use brown rice like I did, you might need an extra 15 minutes.

If you use instant rice, you’ll have a big pot of mush. So don’t use instant rice.

Check it after 30 minutes or so and if the casserole looks dry, add more water to it so the rice can continue to cook.

This was mine after about an hour. At this point, be sure to taste it again for salt and pepper and stir in more if needed.

Now it's looking good.

The Topping

You can 100% just serve the casserole as is, but I thought it’d be fun to put a topping on it.

Tortilla chip crumbs were the obvious choice and also a great way to get out some aggression!

A tortilla topping.

Smash up a few chips and add them to the top of the casserole.

This was a good touch if I do say so myself.

Stick this back in the oven for another 15 minutes or so and the tortilla chips get a bit golden brown and nice and crunchy. They also absorb any extra liquid that might be in the casserole.

I obviously served mine with hot sauce, but it’s pretty good just like this.

A spoon full of casserole...

This was really good on day one, but it was maybe better on day two because I rolled it in a tortilla with some cheese and made an awesome lunch burrito with the leftovers!

A tasty way to clean out the fridge!

I’ll be the first to admit that cleaning is not my strong point. I like to say that it’s because I have a creative soul, but it probably has more to do with my general laziness. If I really focus my energy on it, I can clean, but most of the the time I do a pretty half-assed job.

I’m having to change my tune these days though because Betsy has already left for Colorado (she’s there actually!) so I’m left to my own devices and it’s my responsibility to make sure our apartment is spotless before I leave.

I’ve been saving the fridge for the last thing because who knows what lurks in its dark depths…

At the same time I wanted to make sure that I used as much of the food as possible before I left. After asking you all to comment on what one-pot dish I should make, it seemed like a stew-like dish was the favorite which worked out perfectly with my clean-out-the-fridge idea because turns out that you can throw almost anything into a beef stew.

Yield: Serves 2-4.

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 50 minutes

Ingredients:

1 pound good quality beef. I used a sirloin steak, cubed.
1 small onion, diced
1 small red pepper, diced
2-3 jalapenos, diced
Handful of carrots, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 stalks celery, diced
1 can black beans
1 can corn
2 Tablespoons oil, (canola or grapeseed works best)
1/2 Cup red wine
2-3 Cups water
1 Teaspoon paprika
1/2 Teaspoon cumin seeds, toasted if you want
1/2 Teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 Teaspoon fresh thyme
Salt and pepper

Garnishes: Shredded cheese, Greek yogurt, sour cream, avocado, crackers

NOTE: This is my version because it's what was in my fridge. Add to it, subtract from it. Make it your own. The whole idea of this stew is that you buy as few things as possible. The only things I bought just for this dish was the beef and the avocado.

Directions:

1) Mince all your veggies to roughly the same size. If you're using jalapenos and/or garlic, you might want to mince them finer just so you don't get a big bite of one.

2) Cube the beef and dust it lightly with flour.

3) In a medium heavy pot, add a few tablespoons of neutral oil over high or medium-high heat. Once hot, add beef and brown well on all sides.

4) Remove beef but leave any oil remaining. Add vegetables to pot and stir. Turn down heat slightly if veggies are burning. If the pan is dry, add a bit more oil. Cook for a minute or two until veggies are just starting to soften up. Add a pinch of salt.

5) Add red wine and deglaze pan, scraping up browned bits from the beef with a spatula.

6) Once deglazed, add beef back to pot and cover slightly with water. Bring to simmer, add spices, and simmer for 10-15 minutes until liquid is reduced and beef is tender.

7) Add beans and corn if you're using them. Stir and simmer for a few more minutes.

8) Serve immediately with garnishes.

The Basics

Again, the key to a stew like this is to buy almost nothing. You could add a ton of different veggies. In fact, I think you could add almost any vegetable to it and it would probably be good.

Pretty random stuff.

I chopped up everything so it was roughly the same size except for the jalapenos and garlic which I minced a bit finer. This took a bit of time but it’s really the only work involved in this stew.

All chopped up!

The Beef

You could get away with a lot of different cuts of beef for this. Almost any roast or steak cut would work. The thing about roasts is that they tend to be a lot tougher so you’ll need to cook them longer to soften them up. I bought a small sirloin steak that I cubed up which was pretty tender to start with so it didn’t need as much simmering.

I dusted the cubes in a pinch or two of flour just to dry them out. This will help them brown and also make the sauce thicker in the end. A very light coating will do the trick.

Cubed and lightly floured

Starting the stew

Add a few tablespoons of a neutral oil to heavy pot if you have it. Ideally, you would have a dutch oven or something cast iron so it can get nice and hot and sear the beef well. I only have one medium-sized pot with me so that’s the one I used.

Add the oil and crank up the heat. When the oil is glistening, add all your beef and let it brown nicely on each side for a few minutes.

Wish I would've had my dutch oven for this.

See all that browned stuff that stuck to the pan? That’s the most important part. That’s where all the flavor and color is going to come from in the stew.

When the beef has cooked for a few minutes and is nice and browned, remove it but try to keep the oil in the pot. Add all your veggies to the pot next and turn the heat down to medium. If the pan looks really dry, add a bit more oil, but it’ll probably be okay.

Stir this all together and add a pinch of salt. The veggies will start to pick up some of the brown bits as they cook.

Smellin' good!

The Spices

I moved most of my spices already but kept a few standards that I figured might come in handy. The only thing I wish I had for this that I didn’t have was some good chili powder. It tasted fine without it though and I wasn’t going to buy it or make it just for one dish.

These guys provided plenty of flavor for me.

Chili powder would've been nice.

Back to the stew

When the veggies have cooked for a minute or two, add the red wine to the pot. It’ll sizzle and hiss, but use the liquid to scrape up any left over little bits on the bottom of the pan. This is called deglazing and it’s important.

After you scrape up all the bits, add the water to the pan along with the beef. Add enough water to just cover everything. Some recipes call for beef stock or something, but I think water is the best bet. It keeps the flavors really clean and as you can see, there’s plenty of color from browning the beef earlier.

Simmer simmer.

Bring this all to a simmer and add all your spices. Simmer for 10-15 minutes and then add your corn and beans.

Let this all simmer together for as long as you want! Try a piece of beef and make sure it’s seasoned well and tender. Adjust the salt and pepper if needed and also cook it until the sauce is fairly thick but not gravy thick or anything.

This was my finished pot!

Threw in some random canned veggies.

If you’re like me, then you like stew with avocado and some Greek yogurt or sour cream. I also love it with crumbled tortilla chips and cheese, but I had some yogurt so I went that route.

Very tasty.

This was very good.

So while I might not be good at cleaning in general, I think I’ve done an okay job at cleaning out the fridge at least.

And I’ve eaten well along the way!

Can't go wrong with beans and cheese!

Quick Administrative Note: A bunch of people have emailed me about past comments not showing up on posts. When I installed the new commenting software, I had to import all of the old comments into that system. Turns out it takes a little longer than I thought to do this. The good news is that they are almost all done and most of them should be showing now. This is also causing Macheesmo to be a bit slow. It should be back up to normal speed soon!

Also, I know that there’s some issues with the new site showing in Chrome… working on it!

OK. On to more important things. Things like beans and cheese and dips.

Let me tell you what I don’t always love about bean dips. Sometimes I think they are too beany. And I say that as a man that loves beans. So for this dip I ramped up the veggies in the dip and added a good amount of cheese to make it more of a dip and less like just refried beans in a bowl.

Bean and Cheese Dip

Yield: Serves 6-8.

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

2 cans pinto beans
1 can black beans
1 red pepper, minced
2 poblano peppers, minced
1 jalapeno, minced
1/2 onion, minced
8 ounces cheddar cheese, shredded
1/2 - 1 Cup water
1/2 Teaspoon ground cumin
6 Tablespoons butter
Salt and pepper
Cilantro (for garnish)
Tortilla chips (for eatin')

Helpful Equipment:
Food Processor (like I say... helpful, but far from essential)

Directions:

1) Mince up veggies into very small pieces. If you have a processor, just give them a quick whirl in the food processor until they are minced, but definitely not a paste.

2) Melt butter in a medium pot over medium heat and when hot, add all the veggies.

3) Cook for about 5 minutes until veggies are soft.

4) Drain beans in a colander and then rinse quickly under cold water. Add beans to veggie mixture.

5) Cook for a few minutes until beans are really soft.

6) Either use the processor to blend up the entire mixture until smooth (you can also use a blender at this point), or add the water to the pot and mash up the beans with a fork or masher until they are pretty smooth. If you're blending or processing, add water until smooth. If you don't have a processor the dip may not end up quite as smooth, but just call it rustic and eat it anyway.

7) Add dip back to the pot if you processed it and heat over low heat. Add the cheese to the pot and stir until melted. Add spices and taste for salt and pepper.

8) Serve immediately with cilantro and chips. The dip is great warm or cold.

Starting the dip

The cool thing about this dip is that it’s actually good at any temperature. And it’s a lot more flavorful then that stuff in a can that you find in the chip aisles.

You’ll need these guys to get started.

Feel free to customize this!

Since this is a dip, you really need to mince your veggies. You can 100% use a knife for this obviously, but I was in a hurry so I just roughly chopped everything and took out most of the seeds and gave it a whirl in my food processor.

I was lazy on this day

Of course, if you use a processor you also run the risk of over-processing the veggies. If you make a soup, you’ve gone too far!

But getting them pretty finely chopped is great. Literally this is like 3 seconds in the processor so don’t just turn it on and walk away or anything. If you do happen to over process it a bit, it isn’t the end of the world since we’ll be blending it all together later anyway.

Be careful if you use a processor...

Cooking this down

These veggies have a lot of flavor as is, but we can cook them a bit to pull out even more flavor.

In a medium pot or pan, add your butter until it’s melted. 6 Tablespoons sounds like a lot maybe but it’s really not considering how much dip we’re making. We’re basically going to make re-fried beans in this pan as part of the dip so the butter helps with that. If you wanted to be totally traditional you could use lard as well.

Once the butter is hot, add all your veggies and cook until they are soft, probably 5 minutes over medium heat. Stir pretty regularly.

Water's got to go...

While your veggies cook, open your beans, drain them in a colander, and give them a quick rinse under cold water. Then add your beans and spices (besides cumin, you could add some paprika, cayenne, or maybe a pinch of chili powder) to the pot and cook them until they are hot.

A little watery is okay at this point.

Finishing the dip

You have a few options at this point. In my opinion, the best thing to do is to add this whole mixture back to the food processor (or blender) and blend it until smooth. Add some water to the mixture until it’s smooth. The amount of water you’ll need to add will depend on a lot of variables so I can’t give a firm amount, but just add it 1/4 Cup at a time until the mixture is really smooth and blending easily.

I probably added about 3/4 cups of water.

Then add this all back into the pot to heat up again so we can melt the cheese!

But Nick. What if I don’t have a blender or food processor? I think you could still make this. As you cook the beans in the pot, just mush them up really well using a fork or masher. Mix in the water and continue to mash. Eventually I think it will mash up just fine. It might be a little more rustic than with the food processor, but it’ll still be delicious.

Smooth and cheesy!

Put this slightly ugly brown mixture over low heat and once it’s hot again, add all the shredded cheese and stir until melted.

Then taste for salt and pepper. Mine definitely needed a good pinch of both. Then serve it up with chips and cilantro on top if that’s your thing.

Dip on a chip!

This is really delicious. The dip has some heat and loads of flavor from the veggies, beans and cheese. As I said, it also stays a pretty smooth consistency when it’s cold so it’s fine to serve at any temperature.

I think it’s best warm though because then the cheese is really melted and awesome.

This might seem like a bit of work for some bean dip, but trust me, your guests will love it. Or if you don’t have guests you can just house the whole thing by yourself. Either option is fine.

Gooood tacos.

There comes a point in every home cook’s life where you are faced with feeding more people than your kitchen might normally accommodate. This could be a holiday party or a birthday thing, or it could just be because you happen to be super-duper popular.

There are some meals that absolutely are a bad idea for this kind of thing. Any dish that you have to individually cook is bad. Anything with a lot of steps is worse. Anything that requires a lot of primping or careful watch is definitely out.

Enter taco night.

It’s probably the best way that I can think of to happily feed a huge amount of people with as little stress as possible. For a recent taco night I hosted, I made three different things for the meal including some really killer tacos. I thought I’d take a post and take you all through the process!

The key to a low-stress taco night is splitting up your work. So ideally you have some pieces that you can do a day or two before, some stuff you can make earlier in the day, and not much that you need to do when people arrive.

My do ahead dish for this taco night was a simple and fresh corn and black bean salad!

Corn and Black Bean Salad
Serves 10-15 people plus you’ll probably have leftovers.

- 4 ears of fresh sweet corn, cut off the cob
- 2 cans of black beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 red onion, diced
- 1 green pepper, diced
- 1 red pepper, diced
- 3 limes, juice only
- 1/4 Cup cilantro, chopped (optional)
- 1-2 jalapenos, minced (optional)
- 1 Tablespoon fresh tarragon, minced (optional)
- Salt and pepper

A simple salsa

Making the salad. There’s not much to know about this salad other than the fact that it’s amazing. It does take some time to chop up all the stuff, but that’s why it’s a great thing to do the day before the taco night. Plus, that gives it a day to chill in the fridge. The flavors only become better.

One tip for cutting the corn off the cob is to do it with the ear standing upright in a large bowl. Then as you slice the corn off it falls in the bowl rather than scattering all over the counter.

Then just slice and dice all your other stuff and mix it together! If you wanted to add some heat to the salad, be sure to dice up a jalapeno or two also.

Taste this as you go and adjust the flavors and season with salt and pepper.

Dicin' and mixin'

So you can serve this as a side salad or with chips. It’s great no matter what and leftovers keep for at least a week.

The Guac. If you’re hosting a legit taco night, you need to make some serious guacamole. Now, I’ve made a few versions of guacamole over the years, but the crowd said that this was one of the best guacs they’ve had.

We destroyed this stuff.

Real Deal Guacamole
Serves 10 if you’re lucky.

- 6 avocados
- 2-3 shallots, minced
- 3 serrano peppers, minced
- 2 ripe tomatoes, diced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1/2 Cup cilantro, minced (optional for cilantro haters)
- 2 limes, juice only
- Salt and pepper

This is really basic stuff, but one of the important things about guac is to make sure you dice up all your ingredients evenly. Big chunks of stuff isn’t really good.

Also, I find it easier to chop up everything but the avocado, like this:

Real guacamole making.

And then mix in all the avocados!

Some of the best I've made.

I wouldn’t make the guac the day before, but you can definitely make it an hour or two before. Once it’s mixed, just lay a sheet of plastic wrap over the top (so the plastic is on the guacamole) to keep it from browning and store it in the fridge until you need it.

The main event. Ok. So if you’re a really dedicated Macheesmo reader, these tacos might look familiar to you. That’s because I’ve made them before.

They are my yam, poblano, and chorizo tacos. I’m posting them again because they work great for a taco night. They are kind of unique, but also because they are some of the best tacos I’ve had and you should probably make them.

Yammy Chorizo Tacos (taken from Bon Appètit)
Serves 10.

2 pounds chorizo, out of casing
3 large yam or sweet potato
4 poblano peppers
2 large red onion
3 lime (just the juice)
Flour tortillas
Cotija (or feta) Cheese
Kosher salt

Killer taco stuff.

Prepping for the tacos. Again, you can do some of the prep work for these tacos way before people even arrive. One thing you can do is peel all the yams (or they are sometimes labeled sweet potatoes in the states) and dice them into matchsticks.

I usually go for about the length of my pinkie finger. You can also chop up the poblano peppers into the same size pieces.

Take your time here.

The only other thing you can do prior to guests arriving is making the pickled red onions for the tacos. Just slice two red onions really thinly and combine them with the juice from a few limes and a good pinch of salt. Put those in a plastic container and give them a good shake and store them in the fridge until you need them. You could make these a day in advance without a problem.

For those keeping track, that means before anyone has even arrived we have the corn salad done. The guacamole is made and ready. The yams and poblano peppers are in matchsticks ready for the tacos and the red onions are pickling in lime juice.

There’s almost nothing to do at this point.

The only thing you need to do is cook the chorizo. To do this, just remove all the chorizo from the casing and cook it in your largest pan over high heat. Cook it until it’s well browned and smells delicious. Like this:

This will smell awesome.

Next, remove your chorizo from the pan, but don’t rinse the pan! Use all that oil from the chorizo and add your matchsticked veggies to the pan.

Cook the matchsticks until they are tender but not soft. Add a bit of neutral oil if they look dry. Try not to overcook the veggies or they just become soggy. About five minutes should be more than enough.

Then add all your chorizo back to the pan (you need a big pan), and your tacos are ready to go!

Then you can kind of set up an assembly line with tortillas, the filling, the pickled onions, and some crumbled cheese and you’ll look like a party genius.

The start of the assembly line.

I think I fed 10 people with this meal and barely broke a sweat because I had done almost everything before anyone even arrived.

SO I was able to relax, have a beer, and a few tacos of course.

Just the best taco you'll ever eat.

I didn’t have any vegetarians at this dinner which made my life easier, but if I did I would’ve just cooked up some mushrooms or crumbled tofu and used that with some spices (cayenne, paprika, cumin) instead of the chorizo for a taco filling.

So if you need to feed a lot of people and are stressing…

Look to the taco dinner.

Love the taco dinner.

The flavors in this are perfect for summer.

This dish has maybe taken me longer to post than any single dish ever on Macheesmo. It’s not because I kept screwing it up either. It’s because I kept somehow losing the photos! The photos in this post are from the third take on this dish.

While I was mildly irritated at making the same dish three times just from a posting point of view, I was perfectly happy making this dish three times from an eating point of view, because man is it good.

Mojo chicken (pronounced Mo-ho) is a Cuban dish. You can actually mojo a bunch of stuff: shrimp, pork, etc. I’m not sure that I’ve ever seen mojo veggies though. It’s usually meat. I went with chicken just out of simplicity here.

Now I’m not Cuban. I’ve never been to Cuba. I’ve eaten mojo-something like maybe half a dozen times. My point is that I make this my own way but it might not be traditional. Don’t be afraid to tell me off in the comments, or set me right, if you disagree with my mojo.

Mojo Chicken

Yield: Serves 4.

Prep Time: 20 minutes + marinade time

Total Time: 50 minutes

Ingredients:

4 skin on pieces of chicken (I usually do a mix between thighs and breasts).
2 Cups orange juice
2 limes, juiced
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 inches fresh ginger, peeled and grated
1/4 Cup cilantro, chopped
1 Teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 Teaspoon cumin
Salt and pepper

Cilantro rice:
Basmati rice (I usually cook 2 cups at a time. Just cook according to package.)
1 lime, juice
2-3 Tablespoons cilantro, chopped

Quick Savory black beans:
1 can black beans
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1/2 red onion, diced
2 cloves garlic
1 Teaspoon paprika
Salt and pepper

Directions:

1) Mix all the marinade ingredients in a large bowl. Be sure to mince the garlic and ginger finely or you can also pulse them in a food processor. Once your marinade is combined, pour off 1/2 Cup of the marinade for later.

2) Add all the chicken pieces to the marinade and let sit for at least an hour but overnight would be just fine.

3) To make the beans, add the chopped onions to a medium saucepan with the olive oil over medium-high heat. Cook for a few minutes until the onions are soft, then add the garlic and paprika.

4) Add the drained canned beans and stir together for a few minutes. Taste for salt and pepper and keep warm until ready to serve.

5) For the cilantro rice, cook basmati rice as directed. When done, add lime juice and chopped cilantro. Stir together and keep warm until you're ready to serve.

6) You can cook the chicken either in a large heavy pan (cast iron works great) or on the grill. Either way, sear the chicken over high heat for a few minutes a side until brown. Then transfer to medium heat to finish cooking.

If you're using the grill, just move the chicken to a indirect heat spot or if you're using a skillet, transfer the chicken to a 350 degree oven.

7) Baste the chicken a few times with marinade. It's okay to use the same stuff that you used to marinate the chicken since you're going to be cooking it. My chicken took about 20 minutes to finish cooking completely. Just keep an eye on it as the marinade can burn.

8) Serve chicken on a bed of the rice and beans.

This looks like a lot of ingredients, but a lot of things are duplicates so don’t freak out on me here.

Marinating the Chicken

This is a citrus packed marinade which is great because the citrus helps tenderize the meat. These are the basics:

You could go some different directions here.

If you wanted to be really thorough here you could puree the ginger, garlic, and cilantro together which would make it a much smoother marinade, but I just diced everything really finely and then whisked together all the liquid ingredients.

Flavor town!

Before you marinate the chicken, pour about 1/2 a cup of marinade and reserve it for later. It’s awesome to pour over the finished dish.

Then just place all your chicken pieces in the marinade. Skin on chicken is always the best in my opinion, but you can definitely use skinless if that’s your thing.

I let this sit for at least an hour, but overnight would be just fine.

The longer the better.

Making the black beans

I actually make this dish on a weeknight normally and making a batch of dried beans isn’t always practical so this is my quick way to spice up canned black beans. Basically, just chop up the red onion and garlic.

A bit of a shortcut, but still good.

In a medium saucepan, add the olive oil over medium-high heat and then toss in your onions. Cook the onions for a few minutes until they start to soften, then add the garlic and paprika. Drain your black beans and then stir the beans into the onions. Season a bit with salt and pepper and stir until the beans are warmed.

This prep takes just a few minutes but adds a ton of flavor to the canned beans.

Cilantro Rice

This is kind of an optional deal also, but I really like it. Basically, I just cook basmati rice as directed and when it’s done I add a few Tablespoons of lime juice and a bunch of chopped cilantro.

This stuff is addictive.

Kinda like Chipotle's...

Cooking the chicken

I actually think the best way to cook this chicken would be on a grill, but if you’ve read Macheesmo for awhile you’ll know that I’m very grill-less right now. So I used a cast iron skillet.

Regardless of how you cook it, the key is to cook it on high heat for awhile and then on lower heat for a bit to finish cooking the chicken all the way through. You have to be a bit careful because the marinade can burn if you put it over high heat for too long.

I cooked mine on high heat for a few minutes per side and then transferred it to a 350 degree oven to finish cooking. A few times while cooking I basted the chicken with a bit more marinade. It took about 20 minutes in the oven to finish cooking.

A grill would work also.

To serve this awesome stuff, I laid out a bed of rice and then piled on some beans and topped it with the chicken. Serve a little bit of the sauce on the side so you can pour it over the chicken and everything.

It’s a delicious dish. The chicken is really tender and the citrus goes great with the smokey beans.

Very tender.

This dish has some great summer flavors actually. All the citrus flavors are really refreshing. And leftovers are just as good.

So get your mojo on and try this out!

Beets in a burger!

I think this recipe wins the award for me getting the most crap about a dish. Turns out that if you bring a delicious homemade vegetarian burger to a BBQ, people will make fun of you.

I mean it was relentless! People ate them and agreed that they were interesting and tasty, but then they proceeded to mock me for the rest of the night.

Which is fine by me. Next time I’m just going to mix up a batch of these and just eat them in my house by myself. That’s somehow better right?

Anyway, the point is that if you can find a forgiving BBQ or just want a change, these burgers are pretty darn good.

Beet Burgers

Yield: 10-12 burgers

Prep Time: 1 hour

Total Time: 1 hour 20 minutes

Ingredients:

1 Cup cooked brown rice (1/2 Cup dry)
1 onion, diced
1 poblano pepper, diced with seeds removed
3 large red beets, diced small
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
Juice from 1/2 lemon
2 Tablespoons cider vinegar (I left this out because I didn't have any, but I think it would work well)
3 Tablespoons parsley, minced
1 Teaspoon coriander
2 Teaspoons dried thyme
1/2 Teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional)
1/4 Cup - 1/2 Cup all-purpose flour
Salt and pepper
Olive oil

Normal burger stuff like buns, cheese (provolone or Gruyere work nicely), toppings.

Directions:

1) Get a pot of water boiling and add 1/2 Cup of brown rice along with a pinch of salt. Boil until rice is slightly overcooked but not mushy, about 35-40 minutes. Strain the rice when done.

2) Peel and dice the beets into 1/4 inch cubes. Seed the poblano pepper and dice small along with the onion. Mince the garlic.

3) In a large pot, add a Tablespoon of oil and put it over medium high heat. Add the onions, peppers, and garlic and cook until the onions are translucent, about 5 minutes.

4) Add the beets to the onion mixture, cover, and cook until the beets are soft over medium heat. They should be done in 15-20 minutes. Stir in the cider vinegar near the end.

5) Combine the beet mixture with the rice and drained beans and mush everything together. Add the spices and taste for salt and pepper.

6) Cook the burgers by shaping them into patties and adding them to a very hot oiled skillet. They should sizzle. Flip them after a few minutes. Add cheese once you flip it. If you cover the pan with a lid (or plate) the cheese will melt faster.

7) Serve with a toasted bun and whatever toppings you want!

Adapted from a Kitchn Recipe.

The Beets Mixture

One of the problems that some veggies burgers have is that they can be a bit mushy. These guys definitely don’t have that problem. The rice, beans, and beets give a really great texture to the burger that almost gives it kind of a meaty feel and a really nice deep flavor.

Basic stuff.

The beet base for these burgers is really easy. The hardest part is just chopping up all the stuff. Be especially aware of what you’re wearing when you’re dicing the beets. HINT: Wearing white is a recipe for disaster.

Dice up the poblano peppers (take the seeds out), onions, and beets into pretty small cubes. I diced them into about 1/4 inch cubes.

Good chopping practice!

Next, add a Tablespoon or so of olive oil to a large pot and put it over medium-high heat. Then add the onions, peppers, and garlic and cook them until the onions are translucent which should take about 4 minutes. Then stir in the beets, cover the dish and cook until the beets are soft. Stir the dish every few minutes until it’s done just to make sure nothing burns. It’ll probably take about 15-20 minutes for the beets to cook.

Stir in the cider vinegar near the end and set the bright red mixture aside.

While you’re working on the beet mix, get a large pot of water boiling separately and add a good pinch of salt to it along with 1/2 Cup of rice. Boil the brown rice until it’s a bit beyond cooked. It’ll make it easier to mush and form later.

It’s not important how much water you use when boiling the rice in this case. Just cook it until it’s the right consistency and then drain it using a strainer.

Rice is a burger works nicely.

Combine the rice with the black beans (I just used canned) and mush them together a little bit.

In a bowl!

Then add all of the beet mixture along with the spices.

The original recipe called for a few Tablespoons of flour to help thicken the mixture, but mine was pretty wet when I was done and so I added a bit more flour. The burger mix should be shapeable obviously so just add flour in small increments and try forming a patty out of it. It’ll be pretty delicate (or at least mine was) but it should stick loosely together.

This was what my final mix looked like. Don’t forget to taste it and add some salt, pepper, or any of the other spices if it seems under-seasoned.

All mixed up!

Cooking the Burgers

While it’s nice to fire up a grill and cook these guys, they are actually really hard to cook on the grill. I was able to do it by spraying the grill with some non-stick spray and grilling them on high heat for just a few minutes a side. It was pretty touch and go though.

I think the real way to cook these guys is in a heavy pan. You don’t need anything special. Just your largest skillet should do the trick. Add a tiny amount of oil to it and crank up the heat to high. Then form your burgers and add them straight to the pan. They should sizzle!

Cook them for a few minutes a side until they are nice and browned on the outside. Obviously these are cooked already so you just want to give them some texture. Mine cooked beautifully in a pan and it was a lot easier than the grill.

You can try the grill if you're advanced.

If you’re using cheese (probably should) then just add it when you flip the burger. If you cover the pan the cheese will get really melted.

Then add a burger to a toasted bun and chow down!

Bright red!

I thought these were awesome and ate a few of them. The beet mixture keeps great in the fridge for a week or so. It would be totally acceptable to have some on hand and cook up a burger when the mood struck you.

Of course, you wouldn’t want to tell anybody about it because they would ridicule you.

Whatever though. I don’t mind suffering through a few snide comments if it means I get to eat this burger. It might not be for everybody, but there’s no doubt that I’d choose this over a normal veggie burger and probably on many occasions over a real burger.

If you refuse to at least try something like this then the joke’s on you suckers!