Roasted Beet Tostadas with Avocado Crema, Goat Cheese & Pepitas

photos by Hannah Haston

It’s hard to describe life in Austin without mentioning tacos. The two are basically inseparable, and since it’s not out-of-the-question that I might start a day with breakfast tacos and end it with fajitas, you could say that I’ve gotten pretty good at putting fresh twists on the classics so that my taco habit never feels repetitive. I think of a tortilla the way that an Italian probably thinks of pasta: the perfect carrier for in-season veggies, delicious cheeses, and flavor-packed toppings like herb-inflected sauces and crunchy nuts and seeds. So when we teamed up with Flatout to create an inventive new recipe using their healthy flatbreads, I knew I wanted to toast them up for a healthier spring-inspired take on tostadas. Read on to see how they came together – just in time for our annual pre-Cinco de Mayo party!

Since this year’s fiesta was inspired by the beautiful gardens of San Miguel, I let farmers market produce and fresh herbs take center stage on these vegetarian tostadas. Mexican food often gets a bad rap as being heavy or greasy, but it can really be just the opposite: cilantro, jalapeños, avocado, cabbage, and tomatillos are all traditional ingredients in Mexican cuisine and are bursting with good health.

Speaking of which, we were all blown away when we checked out the nutrition facts on the back of the Flatout Light Flatbread: each one has only 90 calories, but packs 9 grams of protein and 8 grams of fiber (how is that even possible?) I love that these are way more nutritious than the fried tortilla base typically used for tostadas, and with the addition of all our toppings, it makes these a satisfying lunch.

First things first: I crisped up the wraps in a 350-degree oven for about 10 minutes. This step gives you the perfect foundation for tostada toppings. (Or pizza ‘cause you guys know I’ve always got pizza on the brain.) I also had the idea that if you were packing up this concept for a picnic or lunch on the go, you could skip the toasting step and roll up all the ingredients for the most delish wrap! (You just can’t stop this brainstorm, people. So many options.)

Everyone was raving about my avocado crema, so I couldn’t keep it on the downlow that it was just avocado mashed into light sour cream with a squeeze of lime. Yum!

Oooh and these beets! The farmers market was brimming with red and golden beets last weekend, so I scooped up a bunch of both, and then roasted them all on Sunday so they’d be ready to peel and chop during the week. It’s one of my favorite time-saving ways to always have salad ingredients ready to go for my work lunches, and they added such beautiful color to these.

Evidence that inspiration is everywhere: these ingredients were actually inspired by one of my favorite salads that combines beets, avocado, and citrus – so it wasn’t a huge surprise that the flavors came together so beautifully in tostada form. You could also use queso fresco here in place of the goat cheese, and lime and pepitas gave these the perfect south-of-the-border twist for Cinco de Mayo.

Just add Mexican street corn and a big radish and cabbage slaw, and you’ve got yourself the prettiest, garden-inspired Cinco menu that comes together so fast, you could whip this up for a weeknight dinner, too.  If you can’t find Flatout Flatbreads in the deli/bakery section of your grocery store, visit FlatoutFinder.com to find a store near you.

Salud!