Incan Tostadas with Roasted Poblano Sauce

This is one of our favorite meals, and perhaps the one I am most proud of. I first made this meal last summer when I began my crusade to learn how to make authentic Mexican food at home. This was inspired by my Mexican neighbors - they would cook amazing smelling food and I could smell it every time I was in our hallway. It got to the point where Brett and I decided that we either had to learn Spanish and weasel our way into their meal time, or we had to learn how to make it ourselves. Me being a vegetarian, our neighbors - well, not, it was an easy decision.

This was also the first meal I modified and made my own (from a very different recipe I found on All Recipes a few years ago). It has changed very much since the first time I made them, and it has only been for the better - each time we improved upon the last.

The poblano sauce is what makes this meal. The beans and quinoa actually have no seasoning on them - they don't need it.

With that said, the sauce has gotten more complicated since I first made it, so I thought I would provide a visual guide for the steps involved in making the sauce.

Remember the produce legend:
no asterisk = from the grocery store
* = farmer's market
** = CSA
*** = Container or Community Garden















Roasted poblanos out of the oven.















Other sauce ingredients getting ready to go in the oven.















Roasted poblanos after being peeled.















Roasted poblano sauce.

Roasted Poblano Sauce
Makes about 4 cups.

6-10 fresh poblano peppers, washed *
2 tsp coconut oil
1-2 tsp sea salt
28 oz. can fire roasted tomatoes
1 serrano pepper, stem removed (red if you can find one) *
4 cloves of garlic, peeled *
1/2 yellow onion, sliced thick *
a few good dashes of cumin
a dash of Mexican oregano
a dash of freshly ground black pepper

Preheat broiler.

Toss whole poblanos with coconut oil and sprinkle with salt. Place under heated broiler and roast for 3-5 minutes on each side. They should get blistered with black spots.

Remove them from the oven and place them in a paper bag to steam - this will make the skins easy to remove.

Heat the oven to 400.

Combine the remaining sauce ingredients in a baking dish. Roast uncovered for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, removed the skins, stems, seeds, and veins from the poblano peppers and put the peppers in a food processor.

Once the sauce mixture is done roasting in the oven, let it cool for a few minutes before transferring it to the food processor.

Blend in the food processor until smooth and add a bit more salt if necessary.















Incan Tostadas with Roasted Poblano Sauce
1/2 cup raw quinoa, rinsed at least 2 or 3 times
1 cup water

1 1/2 cups black beans, cooked
Poblano sauce
tostada shells

Bring water to a boil, add rinsed quinoa and simmer, covered, for about 20 minutes or until all the water is absorbed.

Layer quinoa, black beans, and poblano sauce on a warmed tostada shell. Repeat for a second layer.

Brett likes to add just a little bit of cheese on his.

Super yummy. I can't wait to have these again.

An FYI: the second post in Brett's "What is Food" series will be published tomorrow, I don't know about you all, but I am looking forward to it - I've been excited about it since he talked about writing it!

'Til next time!