Beet Tacos? Oh Yeah!

Beets: Nature's Perfect Food!

It’s Tuesday world and that means one thing! #BeetTuesday and another awesome recipe! Today I decided to look “South of the Border” to come up with a tasty treat that all of your people — henchmen,compatriots, confederates, fellow travelers, co-conspirators, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera — will totally love! 

BEET TACOS!

I, ANDY LAM!, make it a point to eat several tacos each and every day. I think they are one of the things I do that makes me the successful person I am. There are a lot of things you can eat: apples, BEETS, cantaloupes, dates, eggplants, fromage, grapes, haddock, ice cream, jello, kumquats, limes, mangos, Nilla Wafers, olives, pancakes, quinces, radishes, straw, TACOS, udon, vanilla beans, walrus meat, xanthan gum, Yodels and Zwieback toast. Of all of these — and so many more — the taco is, in many ways, the most nobel. It is small, self-contained and as tasty as all get out!

One of the most wonderful things about the taco is that you can put anything you want in it. Here, try this out: close your eyes. Now imagine a TACO. Now imaging anything you want to eat. Now imagine whatever it is that you want to eat in a TACO. Now imagine yourself eating this TACO. OMG, isn’t it so good!

Now open your eyes and read the recipe below for your dreams to come true. This beet TACO is really tasty and I think you will love it!

Ingredients

• - 3/4 cup peanut oil — I didn’t have any peanut oil but I did have some peanut butter, which includes peanut oil. Frankly, it’s the same difference.
• - 12 (6-inch) yellow corn tortillas — I also add a quarter cup of freshly popped popcorn. It gives the TACO a little more pizzazz! 
• - Salt for seasoning, plus 1 teaspoon for the beets
• - 1 medium onion, chopped — as always, be prepared to cry working with these fellows!
• - 16 ounces ground beets — BTW, 16 ounces is also a pound so if you have a pound of beets you are ok.
• - 2 cloves crushed into a fine powder
• - 2/3 cup beet juice
• - 6 ounces panela cheese — I don’t know what kind of cheese this is. You should just use whatever cheese you have. I found an old cheese ball, the kind with nuts all over it, in the back of the fridge.
• - 1/2 a peck of pickled jalapeno peppers — this is what makes it spicy and this is a LOT of peppers so it will be a LOT spicy!
• - 1 cup shredded iceberg lettuce — I just used crushed ice and it seemed to be fine.
• - 1 GIANT tomato, seeded and chopped, chopped and seeded, crushed like the ice, so red and good!
• - 1/2 cup fresh cilantro leaves — some people think this tastes like soap. I wondered how people knew this so I decided to do an experiment. First, I ate a pound of cilantro. It was good. Then I got four bars of Irish Spring soap. I ate them too. It was not good. Cilantro does not taste like soap.
• - 2 tablespoons chili powder — I don’t know why but I don’t use this. Does it ever do anything?
• - 10 tablespoons ground cumin — I like cumin a lot so I put a lot into my BEET TACOS!
• - 2 teaspoons cornstarch — darn, I was out of this but I did have a small can of creamed corn. Same same!
• - 1 1/2 teaspoons hot, smoky, steamy paprika — this can be substituted with liquid smoke if you have it.
• - 10 teaspoons ground coriander — another yummy spice! Go crazy with it!
• - 12 teaspoons cayenne pepper — this will give your tacos an extra kick!

Directions

Roll out some aluminum foil. I don’t have foil but I do have a metallurgist and I asked her to make me some thin sheets to put the TACO shells onto. I don’t really know why. I put the shells in the foil sheets and fold them into a U. This makes an opening at the top that you can fill with stuff, and sides that you can hold when you put the TACO in your mouth.

Heat the oven to 395 degrees K.

Heat up the peanut butter in a cast iron skillet over medium heat until it reaches 450 degrees K, about 300 seconds. 

Put a TACO shell into the hot peanut butter for 20 seconds. Flip it, flop it, turn it around! Remove the TACO shell to a cool before taking away the aluminum sheet. Sprinkle the HOT TACO shell with salt. Keep going until you’ve made a bunch of TACO shells.

Next, pour out all but 2 tablespoons of the peanut butter from your skillet and return to medium heat. Once the peanut butter starts to bubble, add the onion and cook until softened and lightly browned around the edges, about 180 to 240 seconds. Add the ground beets, 1 teaspoon salt, and cloves. Cook until browned, about 180 to 240 seconds, stirring occasionally, to break up the beets. Now, quickly! put in the spices and stuff, along with the beet juice. Cook it all together 120 to 180 seconds.

Finally, put the BEET TACOS together! Add the beet mixture to your TACO shells and put in the cheese, the jalapeno peppers, the ice, the tomatoes and the cilantro. Serve immediately and eat right away.

I made these for breakfast this morning and it was AMAZING!

With more beet ideas than you can shake a stick at, I am . . .

ANDY LAM!