Best Tacos Ever: Black Bean Tacos with Feta and Cabbage Slaw

Seriously. I'm not being dramatic, I'm not being biased. These tacos are the best ever.

I found the recipe on my FAVORITE food blog, Smitten Kitchen. Normally, this is a vegetarian dish, but we decided to add ground beef this time. The recipe says to mash the black beans (we just use a fork) so it thickens into a bit of a paste. Once the ground beef is cooked and the fat drained, we add the black beans. The heat softens the mashed beans and makes the ground beef and bean mixture thick without adding one of those taco seasoning packets. The recipe calls for cumin and we also added cayenne, garlic powder, and taco seasoning (which is just a mixture of paprika, onions, more cumin, oregano, and allspice). In the past I have also substituted the taco seasoning for chili powder, or Hungarian hot paprika.
The star of the tacos is the feta and cabbage slaw. I could seriously eat this for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It's fresh and crunchy with a little bite from the lime and hot sauce. And, it's one of those things that just gets better the more it sits in your refrigerator. I recommend buying a large cabbage and making a big batch because you'll want more after the tacos are gone. Smitten Kitchen's adaptation of the recipe calls for about 2 tablespoons (or more) of lime juice. I'm on the "or more" team. I use the juice of about 2 whole limes..or more. I really like a ton of lime juice. I think it enhances all of the flavors and also provides a nice contrast to the feta cheese.

As you can see in the photos, we did not make our tacos crispy. The first time I made them, I pan fried each tortilla in a little olive oil and man was it good. I definitely recommend it. But, if you are feeling lazy or just short on time, regular soft tortillas are fine, or you could use the store bought hard tacos. This recipe is so user-friendly, you can do whatever you want.
Oh black bean tacos, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways:

1. You are so easy and fast.
2. The recipe is very simple and wide open for being creative and adding your own twist!
3. Wallet friendly- black beans, tortillas, cabbage, lime, feta, cilantro, a bit of olive oil. These are the main ingredients..trust me, they don't add up to very much $$.
4. You go so well with a tasty adult beverage...especially of the Mexican variety.
5. You are even better the next day! (If there are leftovers)

Salsa! Salsa!

I found my camera cord!!  I searched EVERYWHERE and I finally found it.  What a relief, I was almost out the door to buy a new one when I looked once more and there it was.  Thank goodness!  Ok, so few weeks ago my Mom's friend Sharon gave us a huge bag filled with beautiful hot peppers.  Her and her husband have a backyard garden of peppers and tomatoes and they can there own salsa and tomato sauce.  They picked one of there last crops and gave some to us knowing how much Ryan likes spicy things. 

What a variety! I still am not sure of all the types of peppers, but I know for sure there are jalapenos,  hot cherry peppers, and habaneros. 

Here is the base recipe we used for the salsa, we made three batches so as we got more comfortable with the process we added a few things here and there.  

Fresh Vegetable Salsa

8 Jalapeno peppers

7 cups prepared tomatoes (7-8 Med-large or 2 lbs.) *We used canned tomatoes

2 cups coarsely chopped onions

1 cups coarsely chopped green peppers

3 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 can tomato paste *12 oz. size

3/4 cup white vinegar

1/2 cup loosely packed cilantro

1/2 tsp. cumin

Combine all the ingredients in a large saucepan and bring to a boil gently about 30 minutes or until salsa reaches desired consistency. 

Our first batch we kept the the ingredients and instructions of the recipe.  I did all of the chopping but I made sure I wore gloves when chopping the hot peppers.  The first batch was super spicy, so spicy I didn't even taste it (I know I'm a wimp) but Ryan and his parents (our tasters for the evening) said it was spicy even for them so I know I probably wouldn't enjoy it. 

 

The second batch was my batch (non-spicy) and we added black beans to the recipe.  I love salsa with black beans and corn but I accidentally bought creamed corn instead of regular corn.  Boooo.. so that was a bummer, but we soldiered on and just used the black beans.  To make a non-spicy version I didn't' use any of the hot, hot peppers, I just used the green bell peppers and one jalapeno just for flavor.  

The third batch was another spicy version but we toned down the spice and a bit and added black beans.  Ryan added paprika to this batch for a bit more heat and we also added the black beans. 

The salsa turned out great and it was a great to use fresh peppers from a local garden. In fact, all of the ingredients were from local farms in Sandusky.  Yay for buying local!