I love tacos in all shapes, sizes and iterations: bean, squash, classic breakfast, mole, spicy, savory, crunch, dripping, corn, flour. I love them all. I used to make a 'beans and greens' taco that was fantastic, so I was excited when I saw a recipe recently for a spinach taco with ricotta. Amazing! Honestly, I could eat them every day for a week and then probably for a couple of more days after that.I'm trying to stick to 'vegan at home' right now, so I made a vegan ricotta using the recipe from Isa Chandra Moskowitz in the Veganomicon. But, use regular ricotta if that suits you. The creamy, blandness of the ricotta is the perfect foil to the spicy, greens.
Recipe: Spinach Ricotta Tacos
If you are trying to sneak some tofu into your diet, here is a good place to do it. The mashed up and flavored tofu stands in well for the ricotta and is great with the spicy flavors of the filling. You can find a recipe here, just omit the basil as this recipe of course calls for cilantro instead.
For the ricotta:
1 cup of ricotta cheese (or 1 cup of the tofu ricotta with the basil omitted)
3-4 tablespoons of chopped cilantro
1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
Using a fork, mix the cilantro and garlic into the ricotta. Taste and season with salt, depending on the flavor of the cheese you may need a little or a lot. Set in the refrigerator to chill, this can be done the night before.
For the spinach filling:
olive oil
1 large yellow onion, cut into 1-2 inch slices
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
12 oz. of fresh spinach, washed and rinsed. Stemmed if you feel it's important, but not really necessary. Especially if you use baby spinach.
1 4-ounce can of chopped green chiles
1 tsp of ground cumin
corn tortillas for serving
Salsa verde for serving
Heat the oil in large skillet to medium-high. Add the onion and saute for for 5-7 minutes, until it's soft and beginning to brown. Add the garlic and continue to cook until the garlic is fragrant. Add the chiles and cumin and stir for 1-2 minutes, until the spice is nice and toasted and smells delicious. Add the spinach one handful at a time, stirring until it wilts. Continue until all of the spinach is combined and cooked through. Turn to medium-low heat and keep warm until you're ready to assemble the tacos.
Meanwhile, warm the tortillas in a pan, the oven or a microwave. Put two tortillas together, and place a about 1/4 cup of the spinach mixture in the middle. Top with the ricotta or the 'ricotta' and some of the salsa verde. Enjoy!