The minute I wrote the title for this post I thought, "But wait...is it a tostada or a chalupa? What's the difference?" So, of course, I googled it. Turns out, in Mexican cuisine, a chalupa is a layer of masa dough that's deep-fried to become a shallow corn cup while a tostada is what's pictured here--a flat corn tortilla used as the base for other foods. HA! I love it when I'm right!
Now that that's settled...
You know those meals that you eat over and over again because they're simple and fast and you don't have to use a recipe to crank them out? Well, tostadas are that meal for me. I make them all the time because they're filling, tasty and an easy way to use up all the contents in my veggie bin before they go bad. I always have a batch of corn tortillas in my fridge (they're usually 99 cents for 20 tortillas), and I bake them for about 10 minutes until crisp. There's really no need to fry them, although you could if you really wanted to.
For this go-round, I made a quick bean dip in my food processor using black beans, jalapeno, cilantro, fresh garlic, cumin, olive oil and salt and pepper. You could just as easily use cannellini or red beans and switch up the spices to accommodate different toppings. Then I sliced up some bananas, topped with Monterey Jack cheese and broiled until the cheese melted.
But like I said, this wasn't my first trip to the chalupa rodeo. Here are some other combos that light my fire:
sauteed zucchini + red bell pepper + onions + cheddar + black beans + cumin
grilled chicken + goat cheese + fresh cilantro
white bean dip (red onion + garlic + jalapeno + olive oil) + sauteed onions and peppers
grilled shrimp + monterey jack + fresh avocado slices
mango + goat cheese + fresh jalapeno (seeded and deveined)
Sounds good, right? Can you think of another combo I should try?
