Unbelievably Good Vegan Tostadas

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Meatless Mexican Tostadas

Is anyone else on the meatless Mexican food train? I definitely am. I love Mexican food. I grew up on it in Southern California, and when I went vegan one of the things I missed most was being able to go to a street side taco stand and ordering 3 carne asada tacos. Or eating a fully loaded burrito with a side of corn elote to myself. Oh man, those were the days.

While my recipes may not be as authentic as a street side taco stand, they’re are still extremely tasty with all the Mexican flavors. And if you’re reading this and you have any Mexican cooking tips and tricks for me, please let me know because I’m always looking to learn more in the kitchen. But I will say, the tomatillo salsa verde cruda I used on these tostadas is very authentic and has such a fresh flavor to it. I ended up using it as a dip for chips, a salad dressing and a taco sauce. Definitely add the tomatillo salsa verde cruda to your tostadas!

Back to the actual tostadas! I chose to use portobello mushrooms and broccoli as my meat substitution. Both of these veggies have great flavor on their own, they are easy to cook up. And I think they have a bit of texture and taste to them that can be considered comparable to meat. Maybe I’ve been vegan too long, because I’d bet any meat eater would debate me on that claim.

You can use a variety of different vegetables as the main component for your tostadas. Cauliflower is a very popular choice, fried (or not fried) avocado, walnut and mushroom mix, tofu or a fake meat product. Any choice will be super delicious. Use what you have and use as many vegetables as you’ve got.

I charred the veggies on a hot cast iron skillet that resembles a grill. You can use a non-stick pan or a regular cast iron skillet for this. Make sure your pan is on high heat before you add the vegetables. Then make sure you are moving the vegetables around constantly, because you want them to char and not burn. Veggies can burn very easily on high heat so make sure to monitor closely for 10-15 minutes. Once they get some black edges and soften, taste test them and pull them off the heat and set aside.

Make sure to cook your vegetables separately as they will have different cooking times. If you put them in the same pan at the same time, one type of your veggies will not fully cooked due to different cooking requirements.

Once my veggies came off the heat, I started to heat up the oil needed to crisp up my tostadas. I handmade my corn tortillas, which is very simple and I recommend it. But if you don’t have time or the equipment, you can do 1 of 2 things. You can buy tostadas ready to go and skip this section. Be advised most of them are usually broken in the package. Or you can buy a package of corn tortillas and fry them up yourself.

Bring the oil up to roughly 500 degrees Fahrenheit. The amount of oil you use will be dependent on the amount of tortillas you plan on frying up. The tortillas need to be able to be submerged in the oil. I used a pot just larger than my tortilla size and used about 2 cups of oil.

Make sure you are using high heat oil such as vegetable or grapeseed oil and not olive oil for this part. You also need to make sure your oil doesn’t burn. If you start to see smoke coming from the oil, remove it from the heat immediately. Wait for it to cool before putting it back on the heat to fry your tostadas.

When your oil is ready, using a metal spoon or spatula, lower your first tortilla into the pan. The tortilla should cause lots of bubbles in the oil and should start to turn a golden brown within seconds. After 30 seconds, flip the tortilla. And when it’s the desired golden brown color remove it from the oil and place it on paper towels or a drying rack to cool and allow for the excess oil to drip off.

The best thing about tostadas and tacos is the assembly! The assembly is so easy because everyone can assemble their own however they want. My preference is to put a sauce on the base, then my main veggies, topped with a Mexican corn slaw, fresh salsa, cilantro, jalapeño or hot sauce.

Enjoy this one guys! Let me know how yours turn out.