Fill my tortilla

January 25, 2021 6:07 PM

What simple roast veggies could I fill a tortilla with and have it be delicious?

Tonight for dinner, I tossed some chopped sweet potatoes and broccoli in olive oil, roasted them at high heat for 30 minutes until lightly charred, squeezed some lemon juice and sprinkled some cheese on them, and ate them wrapped in a tortilla. Delicious, fairly healthy, fast, and easy! What other vegetables or vegetable combinations would taste good roasted and wrapped in a tortilla? Open to recommendations for other (vegetarian) ingredients and (simple) sauces. The key is it must be fast, easy, and semi-healthy.

posted by southern_sky to Food & Drink (23 answers total)

Mushrooms, bell peppers, onions or shallots, asparagus. You will have to adjust or stagger cooking times somewhat if you try all of them (e.g., asparagus and mushrooms are more delicate).
posted by axiom at 6:13 PM on January 25, 2021 [1 favorite]

zucchini & yellow squash!
posted by augustimagination at 6:14 PM on January 25, 2021 [6 favorites]

cauliflower or chick peas with tons of cumin
posted by brilliantine at 6:15 PM on January 25, 2021 [6 favorites]

Butternut squash with shallots, thyme, and gruyere. This combination works in lasagna. In turnovers. On pizza. It's amazing.
posted by cyndigo at 6:16 PM on January 25, 2021 [3 favorites]

For awhile my standard breakfast was eggs, mushrooms, onions, squash (if I had it), cheese, and avocado in tortillas. Very tasty, really not that hard. (while the vegetables cooked, I mashed the avocado)

But honestly, I don't think there are any roasted/sauteed vegetables that don't taste good in a tortilla.
posted by coffeecat at 6:28 PM on January 25, 2021 [4 favorites]

Black beans with almost any kind of roasted veggie is good eatin'.

Maybe not beets. But sweet potatoes? Sure. Oniony or garlicky things? Absolutely. Winter squash? The best.
posted by humbug at 6:31 PM on January 25, 2021 [3 favorites]

Roasted poblano peppers if you like a little heat.
posted by gryphonlover at 6:34 PM on January 25, 2021 [4 favorites]

Seconding poblanos, and if you don't mind an extra step or two, adding sauteed onions and sour cream gives you rajas con crema, which is a very good traditional taco filling.
posted by nebulawindphone at 6:37 PM on January 25, 2021 [3 favorites]

I really like the combination of spinach, potato, onion, and hominy.
posted by mezzanayne at 6:39 PM on January 25, 2021 [2 favorites]

I would eat this every day if I could:

https://www.rickbayless.com/recipe/soft-taco-filling-potatoes-and-green-chiles/
posted by Space Kitty at 6:42 PM on January 25, 2021 [4 favorites]

Best answer: The reason why sweet potato and broccoli was such a banger combo is that it hits all the different kinds of flavor at once, as well as a variety of textures. So when making up future combos, think about what flavors and textures the ingredient you want to use has, what it lacks, and what other ingredient can fill that gap.

Sweet potato is: sweet, obviously, and the texture is starchy and creamy. Broccoli is: bitter, like most green things, and the texture is crispy and chewy. By roasting them you added savory umami flavors and saltiness, as well as diversifying the textures, by adding lime you contributed sour, and the cheese probably added additional sour, salt, and savory. To make it even better next time I recommend adding an element of spice, maybe by tossing your roasted things in a chili powder blend.

So let’s take another commonly roasted veggie and see what we can figure out from that.

Roasted peppers are a fabulous tortilla topping. Depending on the pepper they can be primarily sweet or bitter or both. When roasted they are soft and chewy. So you’d need to add umami, salt, sour, and additional sweet or bitter depending on the pepper, plus some crunchy crispy and creamy textures. Poblanos are bitter in that vegetal way I love, then add roasted onions and garlic for sweet and umami, mushrooms for umami and chewy, plenty of salt for seasoning, a squeeze of lime for sour and some fresh herbs or greens for crispy like a little cilantro or cabbage.

Roasted beets could make a perfectly delicious tortilla filling, if a bit non-traditional. When roasted they get sweet as well as savory and have a slightly bitter tone. So balance this out with sour via, say, sour cream, and more savory with roasted potatoes, and add some bitter with crispy roasted kale, salt liberally.
posted by Mizu at 6:58 PM on January 25, 2021 [13 favorites]

Maybe not beets.

Maybe beets! You can roast them with olive oil and then mix them in a tortilla with some really nice gorgonzola or bleu cheese (and also good with sweet potatoes!) and add some brown rice for fiber and to fill it out since you might not want ALL beets.
posted by jessamyn at 7:22 PM on January 25, 2021 [5 favorites]

Hippie restaurants have done me many a good wrap of roast beets with a garlicky creamy sauce (sometimes dairy, sometimes tahini). Making crispy kale to balance the textures is yummy, but fresh lettuce or shredded cabbage is easier.

(defending the honor of the beet! )

What veg do you like and find easy to get?

Oh and, there’s a whole cookbook Flatbreads and Flavors that is this question to the nth with light anthropology.
posted by clew at 8:44 PM on January 25, 2021 [1 favorite]

Another Rick Bayless recipe recommendation. It’s a pretty simple recipe, so only the poblanos are roasted for peeling, but you could certainly roast the zucchini and corn if you like. This is one of our favorite veggie recipes: double it and you’ll get 8 meals and it reheats easy and keeps well.
posted by queseyo at 9:03 PM on January 25, 2021 [1 favorite]

I've been doing samosa-inspired wraps. Potato, cauliflower, and peas with Indian spices. Yogurt sauce and chutneys are great additions.
posted by ktkt at 9:09 PM on January 25, 2021 [4 favorites]

Tonight I did just this with leeks, black beans, sweet potatoes, bleu cheese and this brown butter sage vinaigrette. Endorse!!!
posted by Charity Garfein at 9:21 PM on January 25, 2021 [1 favorite]

I enjoy the combo of: black beans, corn, sweet potatoes, mushrooms, red onion (not too much) and bell peppers. The sweet potatoes I roast with just salt, pepper, cumin, and maybe oregano for the spices. The others I roast with taco seasoning. Everything but the black beans can be roasted, though you can use canned or frozen corn as well. If you want to get slightly ambitious re construction, and add some salsa and guac, this all adds up to a very tasty vegan or vegetarian crunchwrap too.
posted by yasaman at 10:02 PM on January 25, 2021 [2 favorites]

Seconding Indian inspired spices and sauces and chutneys. Mexican/Indian is a match made in heaven in my opinion.

Also, this is not technically a vegetable, but huitlacoche! My friend used to put it in a quesadilla with goat cheese and it was delicious.
posted by en forme de poire at 10:56 PM on January 25, 2021 [1 favorite]

Cauliflower with tahini and lemon sauce
posted by quacks like a duck at 11:30 PM on January 25, 2021 [1 favorite]

We do Brussels sprouts tacos fairly often at our house. The sprouts are halved and roasted in the oven for 20 minutes with a dab of oil and a sprinkling of cumin, paprika, garlic powder and salt, then quartered and served on a lightly charred corn tortilla with guacamole and/or pico. I also like to dollop on some crème fraîche or sour cream if I'm not serving it with guac. Very delicious!
posted by merriment at 7:11 AM on January 26, 2021 [1 favorite]

We made and ate this a couple of days ago. Roasted and spiced sweet potatoes and cauliflower, a simple black bean paste, and a salsa in a tortilla wrap. Delicious, straightforward, and punched well above its weight in the effort/reward stakes.
posted by multivalent at 11:31 AM on January 26, 2021 [2 favorites]

Roasted potatoes and refried beans is another good simple combo.
posted by nebulawindphone at 11:47 AM on January 26, 2021 [1 favorite]

I'm getting some great ideas here.

Last night I felt lazy so I heated some Trader Joe's Soy Chorizo with a can of TJ's corn and a can of TJ's green chiles. Also some toum I had on hand but simple garlic would do instead. Served it with small corn and larger quinoa tortillas. For toppings, I chopped up some vegetables and opened a bag of shredded cheese. The ratio of popularity to effort was excellent.
posted by kingless at 2:08 AM on January 28, 2021