Bean and Vegetable Tacos with Homemade Tortillas

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This week’s community pick is by Ben Mclellan. His selfmade tacos with pinto beans and vegetables are a perfect and hearty snack for an evening with friends.

What’s so special about these tacos?

The best thing about these tacos (well, the second, you’ve got to taste them first) is the story behind them. Ben Mclellan and his brother made their shared dream come true with their ‘Food Wheel Drive’: a food truck that travels through Australia giving away homemade tacos. The brothers serve gluten free and vegan tacos–entirely for free—and cover their costs just with voluntary donations from their happy customers. Food, as always, brings people together.

Why do we love this recipe?

In addition to preparing the rice, beans, and the vegetable filling, the tacos need to be homemade–the outcome is definitely worth the effort, so persist before reaching for the store-bought variety. We promise you’ll taste the difference.

Take inspiration from the recipe and use it as a basis for your own experimentation and adapt to personal taste. Try out different sorts of vegetables or beans like black, kidney, or pinto beans, and season your tacos with the spices of your choice. For a non-vegetarian slant, fill your tacos with meat, soft cheese like queso fresco, shredded cheese or sour cream. Simply assemble the fillings on the table and let guests dig in!

Our tips for making tacos

Be sure to get your hands on proper tortilla cornmeal (masa harina), it’s essential for making tacos—as unlike regular cornmeal it has been soaked in a limewater solution to soften up the corn and unlock nutrients, a process known as nixtamalization. Alternatively, you can buy ready-made corn tortillas from the supermarket if you’re short on time.

Pinto beans are the foundation of the original recipe, but if these are difficult to source in your part of the world, you can substitute them for canned kidney beans or black beans. Mclellan dials up the heat with his dose of chili, which we reduced slightly in our version—as always, feel free to adjust the heat to your taste. The recipe makes about 12 tacos and will feed 4–6 people.

Do you have a summery staple you’d like to share? Send in your recipe to community@kitchenstories.com for your chance to be published.