Ingredients:

refried pinto beans garlic salt dried minced onion chili powder (opt.) tostada shells cabbage tomatoes avocados cheddar cheese salsa salt and pepper

Singh’s (Famous) Bean Tostada

As seen on the Sonoran Living program.

What can you quickly make with little fuss, with things that you can easily find most probably already in your kitchen and it packs a BIG nutritional boost?

The Singh Bean Tostada!

This has been a stable of ours since BC (before children). In fact this was a joint creation that my husband and I made together. My husband is a vegetarian, and when we were first dating, I had to learn a lot about what it meant to be a vegetarian. One night we decided to cook at home and this is what we came up with. Not only was it a winner in taste, as you’ll see, it is also a winner in wholesome goodness.

Check these stats out:

Pinto Beans – the mighty legume is high, high, high in fiber. Just 1/2 cup gives you almost 1/5th of your daily requirement of 25 grams of fiber per day. Of course, beans are high in protein, and when joined with the corn tortilla, it will make a complete protein with calcium too.

Cabbage – I learned this from the bakers in a commercial kitchen I once worked in – Cabbage is much better than lettuce in many Mexican foods. It is full of crunch and sweetness. It is also packed with health-giving qualities. One health care practitioner put it like this: One’s intestinal health is directly related to how much cabbage one eats. The more cabbage, the better the health. This cruciferous vegetable inhibits the growth of breast, colon and stomach cancers due to phytochemicals called indoles. In a medical study at Stanford University, fresh raw cabbage juice proved to heal peptic ulcers. Raw cabbage delivers iron, calcium, potassium and B vitamins.

Avocado – brings good fats and a rich and filling flavor. It is one of the most nutritious fruits per cup that mother nature has to offer. Rich in B vitamins, especially niacin and folic acid.

Tomatoes – if you have not heard it enough from me by now, I will say it again that tomatoes have Lycopene – the antioxidant that is being recognized for it’s cancer fighting abilities.

Ingredients:

1 can (14 oz)	refried pinto beans
1/2 t.	garlic salt
2 t.	dried minced onion
1 t.	chili powder (optional)
	packaged tostada shells (organic if possible)
1/4-1/2 head	cabbage, cut in long strips
3-4 medium	tomatoes, diced
1-2	avocados, ripe, sliced into thin wedges
to taste	cheddar cheese, grated
	salsa
	salt and pepper

Method:

This is VERY SIMPLE, but follow me.....!

First, get your beans warming in a skillet. Add a little olive oil if needed. To the beans, add the garlic salt, dried minced onion, and chili powder if using. Cook over medium heat until bubbly for about 4-5 minutes. Turn off heat.

While the beans are warming, fire roast your tostada shells over your gas burners (put the tostada straight over the fire and move around with tongs until toasted and sizzling). If you do not have gas, put on baking sheet and broil in oven – watching carefully!

Have all of your "fixin’s" ready and lined up - the salsa, cheese, cabbage, tomatoes, avocado and salt and pepper - ready for assembly. Our favorite way to assemble is spread beans on tostada shell first (about 3-4 TBL per tostada), then put salsa, cheese, tomatoes, avocado, salt and pepper and top with lots of cabbage.

This is VERY messy – but oh, so good. Serve with big napkins and do not interupt anyone eating a tostada! Once it is in your hands, it is too hard to put down and then pick it back up intact!
NOTE: If you are missing meat, you can always add taco meat to this as well. (It would go on just after the beans and before the salsa.

Enjoy!