Color Kitchen

Rainbow Tacos!

With more protein and less starch than regular corn tortillas, the blue corn kind make a great, colorful alternate. I find pre-made blue corn tortillas in my local supermarket, but if you can’t find them, make ‘em! Check out the recipe in the previous post.

Assuming you’ve got your tortillas sorted out, let’s move on to the filling.

I like my tacos to have the following:

1. protein

2. rice

3. salsa!

4. crunchy somethin’

and, naturally,

5. guacamole.

Let’s divide and conquer.

PROTEIN. This time I made chicken. I also do a mean shrimp taco and an equally yummy fried sole taco, but that will come later…

Take a skinless chicken breast, rub it with a mix of 1/2 teaspoon tarragon, 1/2 teaspoon coarse sea salt, pinch of oregano, two pinches cayanne, 1/2 teaspooncumin, the tiniest pinch of garlic powder (that stuff is REALLY strong, always be careful with it!), and some black pepper. 

Line a small baking dish with aluminum foil, place your chicken in the dish, pour acan of black beans ontop. Cover, place in the oven on 400F for about 35 minutes. If you don’t have a baking dish, you can just use 3-4 sheets of aluminum foil and make yourself a pouch for the chicken/beans. Just be careful taking it out of the oven! 

RICE

Chop 2 tablespoons of red onion. Place a large pot on medium heat, and add 2 tablespoons of corn oil to heat. Add 1/2 teaspoon salt, then add onions and allow to brown. 

Rinse 1 cup long grain white rice, then place in the pot and mix with the oil/onions until well coated. Add 1/2 cup water, stir, and repeat 3 times (for total of 2 cups of water). Allow mix to boil until almost all water has been absorbed by the rice, then lower the heat and cover. Cook a remaining 5 minutes, stirring and checking to make sure the bottom of the pot isn’t burning the rice. Turn off the heat, keep covered.

Chop 1/2 cup fresh cilantro. Mix into the rice once heat is off, right before serving.

SALSA

Chop one cucumber. Chop one tomato. Chop 1 teaspoon red onion. Add all ingredients to 1/2 cup fresh corn. If you don’t have fresh corn, you can quickly thaw some frozen corn in a pan, or use canned corn if need be. Squeeze 1 teaspoon lemon juice over the mix, plus a pinch of cayenne and a pinch ofpaprika. 

CRUNCH

Cabbage! Red, green, napa— they all work wonderfully to give soft tacos a satisfying crunch without frying anything. Slice thinly and serve to taste.

GUACAMOLE

Mash one avocado. Mix in 1/2 tomato, chopped. Mix in 2 tablespoons red onion, chopped. Mix in 1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped. Squeeze fresh lemon juice to taste, and add salt and cayenne pepper as you see fit. You’ll have to test-taste your way through this, since EVERYONE likes their guac a little differently…

This is a really great meal if you are throwing a small party or just cooking for some friends. Why? Because the ingredients are simple, it’s easy to make in bulk, and everyone can serve themselves! I like to put each of the fillers into cupcake liners, then lay them out for the taking. This is a dish to make friends with!

Check out the slideshow of the whole meal, right here: Rainbow Taco Photoset

(Photos by Mia Tramz)