Tex-mex

Spiced Beef Fajita Tacos with Avocado Cream and Restaurant Style Salsa

May 3, 2017 by The Partial Ingredients

For Cinco de Mayo I wanted to showcase one of my favorite “food truck” style taco recipes. As you can probably tell by my post history I am a big fan of tacos. I wanted to incorporate my favorite part about fajitas–the seasoned peppers and onions–into a taco recipe. The beef is seasoned with a medley of spices that complements the bell peppers and caramelized onions. The salsa is a simple “restaurant style” recipe made with oven roasted tomatoes and blended with chilies, garlic and jalapenos. It also happens to be excellent with chips so have some of those handy for an appetizer! One of my latest favorite taco toppings has been avocado cream which sounds fancier than it is. While avocados are always perfect on their own, I sometimes like to mix them up a bit. All you need is a ripe, well mashed avocado, sour cream and lime juice. Mix together and there you have it–super easy! Top this one with plenty of the salsa and lime juice. I used a finely shredded sharp cheddar to garnish but a crumbly queso fresco or white cheddar would be excellent as well.

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Southwest Pasta Bean Soup

March 13, 2017 by The Partial Ingredients

Don’t you hate when you have almost all of the ingredients for something you want to make but are missing like 2 or 3 of the most important ones? I had this happen recently when I wanted to make Pasta e Fagioli (Pasta Bean Soup) but I was missing the Pancetta and the Cannellini beans. I was in a bit of a pickle until I realized I had regular bacon and pinto beans. Then I had the idea–why not make a Southwest version of the classic Italian Pasta e Fagioli (that’s Fajh-oh-lee) soup? Well, this is not exactly your grandmother’s pasta bean soup but it has a lot of the same elements of the traditional recipe. It’s made with almost exactly the same format as my recipe found here. There are a few choice differences though as the flavor of the bacon provides a smokier flavor than the pancetta. Instead of rosemary I used fresh sage and dried basil for the herbs. Instead of Ditalini pasta I opted for Gemelli since I had some of that laying around. It worked out nicely!

It’s funny how just a few ingredient changes transformed the recipe into something totally different. I still went with parmesan cheese as the garnish but you could probably use a white cheddar instead. I added about the same amount of red pepper to the recipe but adding another 1/2 teaspoon would really give this an extra oomph of heat. I loved the way these small changes did so much to change the recipe and it’s become one of my regular favorites!
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Slow Cooker Beef Fajita Soup with Roasted Peppers

April 14, 2016 by The Partial Ingredients

Slow Cooker Beef Fajita Soup with Roasted Peppers

Spring has been lovely this year with the recent rains and the wildflower blooms. The last few days it’s been particularly windy so I got in the mood to fire up the slow cooker for some soup. This one takes all the great elements of beef fajitas and combines them into a soup. You really can’t go wrong with that! Smoky Adobo chiles combine with roasted peppers and chili spices alongside a medley of beef, rice and beans. To prevent the rice from soaking up all of the stock I just prepare the rice separately for each bowl and mix it into the soup at the end. I love roasted peppers and I thought they brought the perfect fajita flavor to the soup. After cooking for 8+ hours, all the ingredients became fall apart tender and delicious! You can garnish this soup with nearly anything that works on fajitas–chopped green onion, cheese, sour cream, sliced avocado, jalapeno slices, cilantro…you name it!
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Slow Cooker Beef & Bacon Chili

September 7, 2015 by The Partial Ingredients

Fact: chilis and slow cookers are a match made in heaven. Chili cooked on the stove is great but the slow cooker really does bring it to new heights. On the stove, I’ve found that it’s a lot easier to burn and due to the thickness it’s hard to get it heated evenly without stirring fairly often. That’s where the slow cooker comes in. You get a nice even cook with no burning on the bottom, plus you get a much more tender meat that falls apart easily and the beans are always fully cooked. This chili has a lot of great stuff going for it, even before you begin the process of slow cooking. Ground beef meets crumbled bacon meets smoky chipotle spices. The secret ingredient in this one is apple cider vinegar, which adds just a hint of tanginess. This is THE “Game Day” chili, folks. Serve it with rice or Corn Muffins on the side or have it as is. Garnish with whatever fixin’s you like: grated cheddar, avocado slices, chopped green onion, sour cream and sliced nacho style jalapenos are all great choices.
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Southwest Green Chile and Sweet Corn Black Bean Burger

July 25, 2015 by The Partial Ingredients

It’s high summer and what could be more summery than black bean burgers? Don’t give the ‘bean’ part the side eye yet, carnivores. I promise this recipe is delicious and full of flavor. I’ve made similar black bean burgers in the past and this one also did not disappoint. While I’m a big fan of regular beef burgers, bean burgers are a great change of pace. You can do all kinds of things with these burgers; the possibilities are pretty much endless. Since fresh corn on the cob is in season I used that as part of the bean filling and it provided fresh bursts of sweetness in the burger. I used pepper jack for the cheese but you can use any that suits your fancy. This recipe makes about 8 large patties but they can be stored for 2 days in the refrigerator before cooking. I served mine with a batch of baked chipotle fries and it made a fantastic side!
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Slow Cooker White Chicken Chili

June 29, 2015 by The Partial Ingredients

I tend to go in phases with meals and lately I’ve been really into using my slow cooker. Even though it’s almost July and not exactly slow cooker season, I’ve been enjoying the convenience of letting it do most of the work! Luckily there hasn’t been a heat wave yet to suppress my use of it yet. This recipe is a lovely combination of slow cooked chicken, white beans, peppers and spicy tex-mex flavors. I love the way slow cookers treat all kinds of meat–it just falls apart so nicely! And this recipe is no exception, the chicken turned out perfectly cooked and fall apart tender. As usual, slow cookers can vary by model so feel free to adjust cook time depending on how hot your cooker runs. This recipe can be adjusted based on your timing needs as well: cook on low for 6-8 hours or on high for 4 hours. I used chicken breasts for the meat but feel free to mix it up and add dark meat–thighs, wings, etc. It all gets shredded in the end anyways and that is about all the work that is required for this recipe. It doesn’t get much better than that!
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Beef Enchilada Soup

February 6, 2015 by The Partial Ingredients

Tex-mex food is awesome in pretty much every form, including soup! A lot of the U.S. has been dealing with some epic winter weather so to all of you fighting the deluge of snow (hey Chicago!), enchiladas are the perfect winter comfort food. This recipe is super easy to make with hardly any prep time involved. You can buy pre-made enchilada sauce at the grocery store but it’s fresher and easy to make at home. In my opinion it’s worth it to whip up a batch before you start cooking the soup. It can be made several days ahead of time as well if you’re short on cooking time. Possible toppings include: tortilla chips/strips, avocado slices, cilantro, lime slices, diced red onion, cheddar cheese, sour cream…I could go on. The end result was delicious with minimal effort. It can be easily converted to the slow cooker, just add everything into the pot on low and cook for 6-8 hours or 3-4 hours on high!
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Classic Beef Tacos with Chipotle Tomato Salsa

November 9, 2014 by The Partial Ingredients

Even though it isn’t summer anymore it doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy a good taco! If you’re craving food truck style tacos this is the recipe you need to make it at home. Seasoned ground beef comes together with smoky chipotle salsa, sharp cheddar and slices of avocado. The beef is seasoned in a simple combination of garlic, jalapenos, paprika and cumin. Finish it off with fresh lime juice and cilantro and you have one flavorful taco (or 10)!
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Chipotle Tomato Salsa

November 9, 2014 by The Partial Ingredients

This salsa is a great last minute recipe and can be a go-to for anything tex-mex. One week day I didn’t have much in the pantry and this salsa was born. If you have diced tomatoes and a can of Chipotle peppers in adobo you are already on your way! Add spices and chopped cilantro and you have a fresh salsa without a lot of chopping and prep work. The spicy and smoky flavor goes great with beef tacos, quesadillas and eggs.
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Roasted Chicken Tacos with Chipotle Salsa and Oaxaca Cheese

April 20, 2014 by The Partial Ingredients

Tacos are one of my favorite foods and I’m always looking for different combinations to try out! This recipe combines tender, shredded chicken with a smokey Chipotle salsa and melty Oaxaca cheese. I roasted the chicken in the oven with fragrant spices, garlic and honey. The nice thing about roasting the chicken is that it produces plenty of juice in the pan to incorporate back into the meat once it has been shredded. This results in the juiciest, most tender meat for the tacos. The Oaxaca cheese melted easily over the tacos and had a mild flavor that complimented the other ingredients. The salsa can be made up to two days beforehand to save time on preparation.

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