Weekend Tostadas

I was inspired to make tostadas this weekend after seeing a photo of "mexican pizzas" that someone had posted at the ppk message board. They used flour tortillas baked with refried beans and all kinds of wonderful toppings like tomatoes, olives, vegan cheddar cheese etc. But I didn't have flour tortillas! Or canned refried beans! One thing I wasn't going to do was go to the store. That was off limits. To save money, I was to use only what I have in my fridge and pantry. So with a little internet research on bean recipes (no I've never cooked my own before), I decided to make refried beans from scratch using dry salvadorean red beans that I bought on a whim one day. I also had in my fridge: corn tortillas, tomatoes, onions, olives, cilantro, cabbage, red peppers and corn.

I looked online and found a recipe here for Salvadorean Refried Beans. (It's the 4th recipe on the page.) I wanted to only make a half recipe so I soaked 1 cup of beans last night and proceeded with the recipe this morning. The only problem was, some of the beans doubled in size and some did not! That was really annoying. So I put them in a pot with cold water, brought it to a boil for a few minutes then turned the heat off, put the top on and let it soak for an hour. Then I proceeded with the recipe. It took quite a while; about an hour to cook the beans, then blend them and then slow cook again for another hour with some onions. They came out great. I wished I would have made more. 1 cup of beans is really not enough! I remedied my bean shortage with a pot of canned chickpeas that I cooked with some chili powder, onions and red peppers. I used the cabbage, red peppers and corn to make a slaw and the tomatoes, cilantro and onions to make pico de gallo.


Refried beans on top of a baked corn tortilla along with fresh pico de gallo, black olives and hot sauce. (Bake corn tortillas brushed with olive oil in a 400 degree F oven until crisp and browned.)


Cooked and mashed chickpeas with cabbage, corn and red pepper slaw, black olives and hot sauce.

Recipe for slaw:

1 bag shredded cabbage (about 6 cups)
1 medium red bell pepper, diced
1 14 oz. can sweet corn, drained
3 TB Vegenaise
1-2 tsp chili powder
1/2 lemon, juiced
1/2 tsp agave syrup or sugar
salt and pepper to taste

Combine Vegenaise, chili powder, lemon juice, sugar, salt and pepper. Toss with vegetables and let chill for a while to let flavors blend.