Wheatless Wednesday: Huevos Rancheros
Go full throttle with this meal and make your own salsa at home. It requires chopping and roasting, but you can make it ahead of time ... and it's so delicious. As this America's Test Kitchen recipe points out, you can add back in some of those discarded jalapeno seeds if you'd like it spicier. Enjoy!
Huevos Rancheros
Serves 4
Salsa:
10 roma tomatoes, cored and halved
4 jalapeno peppers, seeded and halved
1/2 onion, peeled and cut into wedges
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon tomato paste
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons fresh cilantro
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
salt and pepper
Refried beans:
2 (15 ounce) cans black beans
1 tablespoon bacon fat
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 jalapeno peppers, seeded and diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon salt
Tortillas:
4 corn tortillas
olive oil
salt
4 eggs
For the Salsa: Toss the first 8 ingredients together in mixing bowl, then spread out onto a baking pan and roast in preheated 375°F oven for 40 minutes.
For the Beans: Pulse beans 10 times in food processor. Heat bacon fat made from cooking one slice of chopped bacon. (If you want to simplify, just keep the bacon in the recipe.) Add onion, jalepeno peppers, and garlic. Cook until tender (about 5 minutes). Stir in cumin and salt. Add beans and heat through.
Take out the roasting vegetables for the salsa and let cool for 10 minutes.
Raise temperature in oven to 450°F.
For the Tortillas: brush both sides of the tortillas with olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Place on baking pan and cook in oven for 5 minutes or until lightly browned and crisp. Flip over and cook 2-3 minutes more.
Continue the salsa: first pulse onions and peppers in food processor for 10 seconds. Add the tomatoes and pulse an additional 10 seconds. Add cilantro and lime juice.
For the eggs: Heat salsa in frying pan to simmer, then turn off heat. Make 4 wells in the salsa and crack the eggs into them (or first crack each egg into a bowl to be sure not to get any shells into the salsa). Season each egg with salt and pepper and heat on medium low 3-4 minutes for runny eggs, or 5-7 minutes for well-done eggs.
Place tortilla on plate, top with egg and salsa and serve beans on the side. Garnish with fresh cilantro and a lime wedge.