Recipe: Corn, Tomato & Black Bean Tostadas with Creamy Cilantro Dressing

I’m lucky enough to live in an area where even modest neighborhood cafes get their produce from local farms and change their menus often to reflect whatever their farmers are harvesting that week. I recently had my first taste of sweet summer corn at one such cafe, in a dish that combined chunks of shaved corn with tangy little cherry tomatoes and a creamy cilantro dressing. Sweet, crunchy, and bursting with pure summer flavor, it was so good I knew I had to recreate it.

In my kitchen somewhere along the way, the combination transformed into a crispy, black bean-speckled tostada — no complaints here.

The tostadas of my youth were massive: giant tortillas fried into bowls that held beans, tomatoes, meat, and a mountain of shredded iceberg. The first time I ordered a tostada from a taco truck, I picked up my paper plate and wondered, What is this small, flat thing, and how do I eat it? A “tostada salad” is not actually a tostada, it turns out.

But pile nearly anything onto a small, fried corn tortilla and it can be a tostada. For this recipe, frying the tortillas is the only real work required, but it’s quick and relatively straightforward as far as deep-frying goes. The first time I tried it, I just winged it, and the tortillas came out beautifully puffed and a little crinkled; later I learned that pressing a metal spatula down on the tortilla as it fries will give you a flat, even tostada shell like the taco trucks serve. I actually prefer my wonky version, since it cups the ingredients a little better, but feel free to churn out perfectly flat ones instead.

Although tostadas are usually picked up and eaten like a slice of pizza, this method has never worked for me. Instead, I usually break the bottom shell into manageable pieces and eat them like you might eat nachos, scooping up whatever falls off with a chunk of the crispy tortilla. If you prefer to pick up and eat your tostadas, replace the black beans with black refried beans, which will help the other topping stick to the shell.

The corn is left raw, as it was in the dish that inspired this recipe, because I like the crunch and freshness it adds. The creamy dressing made with Greek yogurt, and a little lime juice and a big handful of cilantro brings all the toppings together. Quite honestly, this dressing is worth making even if you aren’t interested in the tostada; it’s fresh and zingy and tastes just as good on falafel as it does on a plain green salad.

Or a tostada salad, for that matter.

As soon as the sweet corn and the summer tomatoes show up in markets, this recipe is at the top of my list — every summer without fail, ever since Anjali first posted this recipe back in 2012. It’s just such a good combo of fresh ingredients. It’s surprisingly satisfying, too!

I often skip the frying part and eat these as soft tacos with the corn tortillas just quickly warmed over the flame on my gas stove. I also often round out the toppings with some chopped avocado and cotija cheese. If I’m not in the mood for Anjali’s yogurt dressing, a few dashes of hot sauce and a smear of sour cream does the job just fine.

– Emma, July 2015