I would venture to guess that most of us would like to eat more vegetables. Why is it so hard? Veggies are delicious! I think it’s the prep that gets in our way. There’s usually some peeling and chopping involved, and sometimes we just don’t have the energy, even though we’re always glad when we put the effort in. One solution to this problem is to make vegetable dishes that re-heat well. Enter veggie tacos!
Batch Cooking Vegetables
If you want to make a big batch of veggies that you can eat for a few days, it’s important to pick the right ones. You don’t want to choose vegetables that have a delicate texture or that break down significantly when cooked, unless they’re going into a soup or something. You want to stick with hardy vegetables like potatoes, carrots, corn, beans, beets, etc. These hold up very well to roasting or sautéing.
Veggie Taco Filling
The filling for Veggie Tacos is very versatile. I served it on corn tortillas with cheese, sour cream, salsa, and extra lime wedges, but you can absolutely serve this filling on flour tortillas or make nachos or quesadillas. Any of those options would be very delicious.
The vegetables I chose for these tacos are sweet potato, onion, red bell pepper, corn, and black beans. I really wanted the flavors of the veggies to shine, so I kept the seasoning simple, but effective with just cumin, coriander, salt and lime juice.
Lime juice is a key component of this recipe. It really brings all the vegetables to life, and makes these veggie tacos even fresher tasting. Don’t skip it!
A note on sautéing sweet potatoes: because they are so dense and starchy, sweet potatoes can be a little tricky to cook on the stove and get them cooked all the way through. The first time I made this filling, the sweet potato cooked up with no problem. The second time, it was taking forever, so I very very carefully added a few tablespoons of water to my pan and quickly put the lid on. The steam helped them to finish cooking. If you do this, just be super careful. Steam can burn you pretty good, and water and oil are not friends. I would recommend taking the pan off the heat to add the water.
Garnishes
The garnish options for veggie tacos are endless. You can use cheese, salsa, guac, cilantro, extra limes, crema, queso fresco, etc. This is a dish where there is definitely something for everyone. I like feeding my kids this way, because they get to choose what goes on their food, which makes them happy, and they generally eat more.
Leftover Goodness
Veggie taco filling re-heats amazingly well. I made these for dinner last night, and I had them again for lunch today, and they tasted exactly the same. You could do tacos one night, and quesadillas a few days later. This filling would also be delicious cold on a salad. I love a flexible recipe!
When you make these tacos, will you please leave a comment? I’d love to know how it went. Also, please share this post if you enjoyed it! Until next time.
Veggie Tacos
Ingredients
For the Filling
- 1 sweet potato, diced
- 1 red onion, diced
- 1 red bell pepper, diced
- 2 cobs of corn, kernels cut off or about 3/4 cup of frozen corn
- 1 can of black beans, drained
- 2-3 Tablespoons olive oil for sautéing
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
- juice of 1 lime
- salt to taste I probably used 1 to 1 and 1/2 teaspoons
For Serving
- tortillas
- shredded cheese
- sour cream
- salsa
- extra lime wedges
Instructions
- Preheat a large skillet over medium heat.
- Add a couple of Tablespoons of olive oil to the pan.
- Add the diced sweet potatoes, and sauté them until they are soft almost all the way through. If you have particularly stubborn sweet potatoes, you can very carefully add a few Tablespoons of water to the pan and quickly cover the skillet with a lid. Steam them for a few minutes until soft. I recommend adding the water with the pan off the heat.
- After the sweet potatoes are soft, add the onions and peppers. Sauté until the onions are translucent, about 10 minutes.
- Add the corn, sauté for 2-3 minutes.
- Add the drained can of black beans. Stir to combine the filling.
- Add the lime juice. Scrape up any yummy brown bits that are stuck to the pan. The lime juice will loosen them from the pan.
- Add the cumin and coriander. Stir.
- Add salt to taste. Add it gradually, tasting often, until you are happy with the salt level.
- Serve with tortillas, shredded cheese, sour cream, salsa, and any other taco fixings you'd like.
