Mark and I normally cook together; however, I never complain when he offers to cook for me. I mean, a man who cooks well and respects your dietary decisions, who doesn’t want one of those around?
And I’m not exaggerating when I say that Mark has a penchant for cooking me the simplest and most delicious dishes. A few weeks ago when I was busy juggling studying for an exam and grading essays, he came over and whipped up the tastiest potato cotija tacos of all time. They were like cheese quesadillas but better! Yeah, I guess I keep him around for a reason.
This weekend Mark and I decided to make the potato tacos with sweet potatoes, and I was pleased to find that they tasted better than regular potato tacos! I’ve been eating them everyday for breakfast (Yay for my daily dose of vitamin A.)
I mean, come on, a crispy soft shelled taco with a warm cheesy potato inside, topped with a spicy salsa of your choice…don’t judge me if I eat 10 of them in one sitting.
With this recipe, you can use sweet potatoes or russet potatoes. You can also use corn or flour tortillas. I prefer flour tortillas for the russet potatoes and corn tortillas for the sweet potatoes. I also prefer eating the russet potato tacos with salsa, and the sweet potato one plain.
- 2 Tbsp olive oil
- About 20 soft shelled taco tortillas (corn or flour -your preference)
- 2 large sweet potatoes
- About 5 oz. of cotija cheese
- Boil the sweet potatoes for approximately 20-30 minutes (until the potatoes are soft)
- Peel the potatoes and place them in a large bowl. With your hands, mix the potatoes with the cotija cheese, breaking the cheese apart with your fingers. Continue to massage the potatoes and cheese until everything has been evenly mixed and there are no large chunks of cheese or potatoes. Mixture should be quite smooth.
- Microwave some of the taco tortillas for a minute so that they soften (you can just microwave as many you're planning to eat, what isn't used can be stored in the fridge for later).
- Heat up a large pan with about a tablespoon or 2 of olive oil. Spread the potato mixture on half of the tortilla (about one large spoonful). Fold the tortilla over so that the potato mixture is in between the tortilla. Place the taco on the pan. Repeat this until the pan cannot hold anymore tacos.
- Pan 'fry' the tacos until one side is browned, then flip it to the other side to brown it. This will make your taco shell crispy. Once both sides are browned, transfer the tacos to a plate to be eaten. You can continue to make more tacos or save the rest of the ingredients for later.
- You don't need to use all of the potato mixture at once. You can keep the potato mixture in the fridge for a few days and make the tacos right when you're planning to eat them. If you refrigerate your mixture for later, make sure to microwave them for a few seconds to make them easier to spread over the tortillas.
For those of you who are wondering what Cotija cheese is, it’s a salty, crumbly Mexican cheese that tastes quite similar to Parmesan cheese in my opinion. You can always pick some up at your local grocery store.
That’s it for my Tuesday post! It’s right on time for Taco Tuesday! Well, maybe for next week’s taco Tuesday.
Have a wonderful evening and stay happy and healthy y’all!
These look like the perfect customizable snack / meal! And really, can you ever go wrong with sweet potato and cheese? Mark’s a keeper 🙂
It totally is, and I agree that he definitely is keeper! 🙂