This meat-free Mexican-inspired dish combines dynamic flavours of fresh vegetables, herbs, nuts and chillies. Influenced by a stuffed taco Thomasina tried in a Mexican restaurant, she combines her loving memories of ‘surreptitiously snapping them off the plants in my aunt’s garden in Wales, where we would go for the summer holidays’ to make an intriguingly modern plant-based meal. Celebrating Mexican flavour, this recipe combines Thomasina’s love of good ingredients woven with Mexico’s consciousness and native plant species.
Bean taco ingredients
- 75g (2½oz) flaked (slivered) almonds
- 500g (1lb 2oz) green beans, topped
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 3 garlic cloves, sliced
- 3 tbsp capers (the bigger the better)
- 12 small corn or flour tortillas
TO SERVE
- Fresh Tomato Pico
- crumbled feta (optional)
- sliced avocado (optional)
How to make Thomasina’s bean tacos
1. Put your largest frying pan (skillet) over a medium heat and when hot, toast the almonds, shaking the pan until they are mostly a lighter shade of caramel. Put aside to cool.
2. Turn the heat up under the pan and add the beans in two batches. Sauté each batch for 4–5 minutes until they are looking a little blackened all over and starting to blister. Season with sea salt and remove from the pan into a warm bowl. Now pour in the olive oil and add the garlic and drained capers (watch for spitting if they are still a little wet). Cook for a couple of minutes or so until the garlic is golden and empty onto the beans.
3. Warm the tortillas in a pan, over a flame or in the microwave (page 245) and wrap in a dish towel to keep hot.
4. Pile the beans into the tortillas and top with the garlic and capers, spooning over heaped spoonfuls of the tomato salsa. Sprinkle with the almonds and crumbled feta and avocado, if using, then munch with gusto.
FRESH TOMATO PICO
This salsa, the classic pico de gallo, is fresh, citrussy and delicious, especially when made with great tomatoes. Not only does it look good sprinkled over dishes, glistening with the oil and lime, but it adds sparkling acidity to anything you ladle it on. Make it all summer when tomatoes are blooming, or with those wonderful winter varieties, keeping them outside the fridge to maintain their sweet, delicate flavour.
MAKES A LARGE BOWL
- 6 very ripe plum or cherry tomatoes
- small handful of coriander (cilantro)
- 1 small red onion, very finely diced
- 1–2 green chillies, preferably jalapeños,
- very finely chopped
- 1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
- juice of 1–2 limes
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 1 tsp soft brown sugar
- salt and pepper
Cut the tomatoes into quarters and scoop out the watery insides (you can keep them and use them in a vinaigrette or in a soup). Dice the flesh.
Roughly chop the coriander leaves and finely chop the stalks and stir into the tomatoes with the onion, chillies, oil, half the lime juice, the salt and sugar. Check the flavour and add more salt, pepper or lime juice if you think the salsa needs it. Leave to marinate for at least 20 minutes before you are ready to eat.
