Ricotta-Spinach Tacos - A Taco of a Different Color

Marathon Meatless Monday was upon us, and since I unfortunately do not get the day off, Nick was willing to step in and find a new recipe, shop and cook all on his day off - I am a lucky girl!  Meatless Mondays can be tough just because it really does force you to look outside your comfort zone for meals.  Not really having a go-to meat or fish protein to serve as the base of your meal makes it difficult to narrow down where to even start!  Luckily, Nick keeps a giant binder of recipes that he's either printed out online or found in old magazines.  Inside, he found a recipe for Ricotta Spinach Tacos from an old Food Network Magazine, so we were good to go.

The Necessities...

• 8 ounces of ricotta
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
• 3 cloves of garlic, chopped
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 white onion sliced into 1/2 inch thick rings
• 2 4-ounce cans sliced green chile peppers, drained
• 2 bunches of fresh spinach (about 1 pound) stemmed
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 8-12 corn tortillas
• Kosher Salt
• Salsa Verde for serving

First step (as always in the In and Around Town household), the ingredients were prepped.

Sliced onion

Next, Nick heated the vegetable oil in a large skillet over high heat and added the sliced onion.

The idea here was to not go crazy stirring the onions at first, but to allow them to sit in the pan and brown up and a bit.  Once this had happened, Nick stirred them a bit and allowed them to start to soften.  While the onions were browning, in a small bowl Nick combined the ricotta, cilantro and 1 clove of the fresh garlic, seasoning with salt.

Ricotta Mixture

Once the onions were soft, Nick added the chiles and cumin and continued to cook.

Cooking the filling

Nick loves corn in his tacos (and most Mexican themed food) so he went ahead and added some that we had in the freezer as well - agree that this was a nice addition in both color and flavor.  He continued cooking while slowly adding the spinach in smaller batches.

First Batch of Spinach!

All of the spinach was added slowly until it was completely wilted (probably about 3 minutes) and then seasoned with salt.

Meanwhile, in the microwave (or in a warm, dry skillet if you're feeling fancy) we heated the tortillas, put them on a plate and top with the spinach mixture, followed by the ricotta mixture and then topped it all off with a spoonful of the salsa verde.

Dinner is served

While this had all the makings of a typical taco, the ricotta really added a fun surprise to each bite full.  This is another great weekday meal.  My only thought would be to increase the spinach to onion ratio.  Not being the biggest onion fan but loving spinach, I would alter that.  Otherwise, it was great!