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Cinco de mayo is just a few days away, and if you want a crowd-pleasing meal that will have everyone wanting more, then you definitely need to try this Tostadas recipe!
As I outline in my Live to Cook one-month challenge, exploring a new destination is a great theme to have to challenge yourself in the kitchen! If you’re new to exploring Mexican cooking, then this tostadas recipe is an excellent opportunity for you to get out of your comfort zone! For this Tostadas recipe, you’ll actually need to prepare lots of classic Mexican toppings, so you’ll be a pro at Mexican cooking after preparing this recipe! To get started on your cooking journey for free, sign up to my email newsletter, plus all of my latest recipes will be sent straight to your inbox!
To follow along with making the beef mixture and how to assemble these amazing Tostadas for a fun Cinco de Mayo fiesta, then don’t forget to watch the video at the bottom of this post! If you’re not already, it would mean a lot if you would please subscribe to, and please hit the bell button so you receive the notifications when my video recipes go live! Let’s get cooking!
What is a Tostada?▼
Tostadas translates to “toasted” in Spanish. The dish “tostadas” is a Mexican favourite where the base, tostadas - deep fried tortillas - are topped with a meat mixture, refried beans, guacamole, salsa or Pico de Gallo, and cheese, just to name a few toppings! They’re absolutely a hit at restaurants, but once you’ve got all your elements ready, you can easily make these at home!
What’s the difference between tacos and tostadas?▼
Tostadas are flat and open-faced, with the tostada as the base. On the other hand, tacos use hard taco shells or tortillas. Additionally, toppings are added all over the tostada, whereas with tacos, the toppings are added down the middle, making it easier to eat as a “taco” as we know it.
Why You’ll Love Tostadas
- Make-ahead friendly: While you should assemble your actual tostadas fresh, you’ll see that all of our toppings can actually be prepared in advance! When you are ready to eat, all you’ll need to do is reheat some of the toppings, assemble, and enjoy!
- Self-serve: I always love DIY meals, like my DIY Taco Casserole! It’s lots of fun when you can make your own dish from a spread of ingredients. I find it’s just as much fun to assemble your tostada as it is to eat it, because sometimes I like to put different toppings, or try the toppings in a different order. There is no wrong way to eat a tostada other than not eating it at all!
- Ingredients can get finished: As I mention in my free motivational guide to explore your potential in the kitchen, Make Cooking Fun!!, your meal ideas should be centred around any sauces or condiments that are laying around in the fridge. Do you need to use up a lot of tomatoes? Then making the Pico de Gallo for topping here is perfect! Additionally, tostadas would be a great way to use up lots of ground beef that you’ve purchased!
- Delicious and exciting to have: Need I say more? That’s a good enough reason to enjoy tostadas!
Ingredients for Tostadas
For all ingredients and their quantities and to save the recipe for later, scroll to the bottom of this post or press the “Jump to Recipe” button for the FULL PRINTABLE recipe card. The recipe card will also let you scale the recipe so you know how many tostadas you can make with the amount of meat you’re using, no estimates required!
For the Meat Mixture
- Ground beef: I’m using a mixture of medium ground beef and lean ground beef since I had a mix of these two meats to finish up. The higher the fat content in your ground beef, the juicier your tostada mixture will be! However, feel free to use whatever ground beef you want.
- Chicken broth: You can also use beef broth if that’s what you have, but chicken broth has a very specific flavor that I love adding in cooking. Beef broth will give a deeper flavor.
- Tomato paste: A little bit of tomato paste will give you some depth without adding any actual tomatoes to the meat mixture.
- Spices: Dried oregano, ground cumin, ground coriander, and paprika.
- Onions: Use your favourite kind of onion finely diced.
- Salt and pepper: Always to taste.
- Garlic: Freshly minced garlic cloves.
- Olive oil: To sauté the meat and the seasonings.
For the Toppings:
- Tostadas: Tostadas is actually just the name for tortillas that are deep fried, and they make the base for your tostada toppings. I was able to find a pack of pre-made tostadas to save some time, but if you can’t find tostadas, just fry up mini corn tortillas so that they are hard and crunchy. If you don’t want to fry the tortillas, you could also bake them in your oven at 400°F for about 5 minutes on each side, depending on how thick your tortillas are.
- Refried beans: You can use canned ones, but your tostadas will be much more delicious if you use homemade refried beans. Get my recipe here.
- Pico de gallo: I’m using my fresh homemade pico de gallo, which you can see how to make here.
- Guacamole: Check out my guacamole recipe here.
- Tomatillo salsa verde: For a drizzle on top. See how to make it here.
- Cheese: I’m just using a Mexican cheese blend here, but cheddar, Monterey Jack, or something more authentic like queso cotijo or queso fresco will be very awesome!
How to Make Tostadas
For the Meat Mixture
Heat oil on a pan on medium heat. Add diced onions and let the onions soften, about 4-5 minutes.
As the onions start to become translucent and soften, add the ground beef. Season with salt and pepper. Break the ground beef into as small chunks as possible using a spatula or wooden spoon and cook the beef until there is no pink remaining.
Cook the beef until there is no excess water remaining. Then, add paprika, ground coriander, oregano, and ground cumin.
After, add minced garlic and tomato paste. Mix well and cook out the spices and tomato paste to intensify the flavor, about 5-8 minutes. Drain any excess fats from the beef (or you can do it later).
Add chicken broth to create a gravy, and then bring the beef mixture to a gentle simmer on low heat to get a thick sauce. Adjust for salt if needed.
As the mixture cooks, the fat of the beef will come up. Take paper towel and blot the surface, and remove whatever fat you don't want to have. Continue to gently simmer until the sauce thickens to your liking.
For Making the Tostadas
When the beef is done cooking, it's time to assemble the tostadas. Place a tostada on a plate and assemble in the following order: refried beans, meat, cheese, guacamole, pico de gallo, salsa verde. Enjoy!
Other Meat Mixtures:
- Ground chicken or turkey instead of beef
- Birria
- Carne asada
- Al pastor (shredded pork)
- Cajun shrimp from my Cajun Shrimp Lettuce Wraps
- Grilled or fried blackened baja fish
Other Topping Ideas:
- Lettuce
- Sliced avocados
- Sour cream
- Crème fraiche
- Cilantro
- Your favourite hot sauce
How do you eat Tostadas?▼
They seem tricky to eat, and yes they will be messy! Just bite into them and enjoy the crunch and all the tasty toppings!
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