Put your Mexican meal kits at the back of your cupboard and have a go at making Espresso Black Bean Tacos at home. Invite all your espresso crazy friends for a Taco Tuesday night and impress them with these vegetarian tacos, which are packed with smoky rich flavours, seasoned with a homemade taco seasoning and a hint of coffee. The coffee lends an earthy flavour to the taco sauce taking your feast to new flavourful heights. 

Sometimes my family crave dishes other than traditional curries for dinner, so I am always on the lookout for nutritious recipes from different cuisines. Over the past few years, we have grown very fond of Mexican food and have tried many recipes at home. These tacos are packed with protein and you can make them even healthier by topping or eating aside with plenty of salad. I have not used wholemeal wraps here but that would be another way of adding extra fibre to the meal.

WHAT ARE TACOS?

Tacos are a traditional Mexican recipe whereby tortillas made from wheat or corn are either folded or wrapped around a filling. The filling is usually then topped with cheese, guacamole, coriander and salsa. The toppings can be made from various vegetables, pulses, seafood and meat.

HOW TO MAKE TACO SEASONING AT HOME?

Rather than buying a small sachet of taco seasoning at a high price, I just whip up fresh taco seasoning at home, which can be made in less than a couple of minutes. I believe that homemade spices, masalas and mix are far better than shop bought. For taco seasoning, you will need these ingredients.

Red Chilli powder
Cumin powder
Dried chilli flakes
Cayenne powder
Smoked paprika
Black pepper powder
Garlic powder
Onion powder
Dried oregano

Mix it and store in an airtight jar.

INGREDIENTS FOR ESPRESSO BLACK BEAN TACO

The secret ingredient in this recipe is coffee. Usually, we always use some cocoa powder in our sauces but saw a recipe that uses coffee and thought we would try this instead!

Roasted red peppers from a jar - to blend into the black bean and pepper sauce

Black beans - we soaked black beans overnight and then cooked in the pressure cooker. But you can also use tinned black beans

Homemade taco/Mexican seasoning - a blend of various Mexican spices and herbs.

TO TOP

Grated cheese - we used a medium cheddar but you can use other cheeses too

Pickled onions - we added some pomegranate and pinch of sugar to the pickling vinegar for better colour and to add flavour

Fresh Coriander leaves -

HOW TO MAKE ESPRESSO BLACK BEAN TACO

To get the right taco recipe, you need flavourful chilli. For this particular recipe the espresso black bean filling sauce is the highlight, so we are going to give all the attention to the sauce, which will take most of our time in making flavourful and tasty tacos.

In a blender make a fine puree of roasted red peppers, tomato puree, vinegar, half of the black beans and water.

In a pan heat olive oil and add the chopped onion, cook for 5-7 minutes then add taco seasoning and cook further for a minute or so.
.
Stir the pepper sauce, sugar and coffee into the onion mixture, add the vegetable stock and simmer gently for 18-20 minutes.

Once the sauce starts getting thicker add remainder of the black beans and diced peppers. Cook further for 10 minutes and stir in some freshly ground black pepper.

Once ready to serve, warm up the tortilla wrap. Spoon the aromatic chilli into the warm tortilla, sprinkle coriander leaves, some cheese and pomegranate pickled onion slices.

Other Mexican Recipes

Low-fat Sweet Potato and Black bean Quesadilla

Fresas Con Crema

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taco nights, taco Tuesday, tacos, mexican food, espresso, black bean, vegetarian tacos, under an hour

Dinner, lunch,

Mexican

Yield: 4 servingsAuthor: Jagruti DhanechaPrint Recipe

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Espresso Black Bean Tacos

Put your Mexican meal kits at the back of your cupboard and have a go at making Espresso Black Bean Tacos at home! I guarantee you will not regret to make this, and once you do, you want to make them again and again.

prep time: 10 minscook time: 40 minstotal time: 50 mins

ingredients

Espresso Chilli

• 1 tablespoon coffee powder
• 600g boiled black beans
• 1 big red onion roughly chopped
• 2 tablespoon olive oil
• 3 -4 tablespoon taco seasoning
• 2 tablespoon sugar
• 400g roasted red peppers
• 3 tablespoon tomato puree
• 400 ml vegetable stock
• 2 tablespoon red wine vinegar

Tacos

• 1 packet tortilla wrap packet

Toppings

• Pickled onion with pomegranate
• Coriander leaves
• Grated cheese

instructions

Espresso Black Bean Chilli

1. Place half of the black beans, ⅔ of roasted red peppers, vinegar and tomato puree with 200ml water in a blender and blend until you have a fine puree.
2. Finely chop the leftover roasted red peppers and leave it aside.
3. In a saucepan heat olive oil, add chopped onion and saute for a few minutes, add taco seasoning and saute for a minute or so.
4. Add pureed black bean paste, sugar and coffee powder.
5. Then add vegetable stock and let it simmer for 20 minutes on a gentle heat.
6. Once the sauce starts to thicken add remaining black beans and chopped red pepper.
7. Cook further for 10 minutes.
8. Turn off the heat and transfer it into the serving bowl.

Assembling the tacos

1. Once ready to serve, warm up the tortilla wrap, spoon the chilli into the wrap and top it up with the pickled onion, cheese and coriander.
2. Buen Provecho!

NOTES:

I have used bottled roasted red peppers.
Don't have red wine vinegar? use normal vinegar. 
You can use shop bought stock cube, just add one cube in 400 ml hot water and stir well and use it. 
The bean chilli can be freeze for up to 3 months.

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