Recipes

Jocelyn Ramirez · NYT Cooking

Torta ahogada, which translates to drowned sandwich, is a staple across Guadalajara, Mexico. Birote salado is the bread typically used for this stuffed, smothered sandwich, partly because its salty sourdough flavor complements the fillings, but mostly because its crunchy exterior stands up well to ladles of hot salsa. If you’re not able to get your hands on birote salado, you can substitute bolillo or a French baguette. The options for fillings are endless, and this version with creamy puréed pinto beans is ideal for a meatless meal. If you happen to have mushrooms, you can sauté them and add them to this torta for an extra-filling dish.

Jocelyn Ramirez · NYT Cooking

In this take on enfrijoladas, chipotle makes the pinto bean sauce slightly smoky and spicy, perfect for dipping pan-fried blistered corn tortillas. If you don’t have pinto beans on hand, use black or mayocoba beans for equally delicious results. Top this dish with quick-pickled red onion, which tastes even better if you make it the day before. For a perfect weeknight meal, garnish with a dollop of sour cream, avocado slices, and a sprinkle of toasted pepitas and cilantro leaves. To get vegetarian recipes like this one delivered to your inbox, sign up for The Veggie newsletter.

Jocelyn Ramirez · NYT Cooking

Several styles of mole — negro, colorado, verde and so many more — span different regions throughout Mexico, and the formulas vary from family to family. Mole is often viewed as intimidating, a sauce that requires toasting each ingredient individually, pounding them down to a paste and then cooking over low heat for hours to achieve layers of flavor. Although this recipe will never stand up to the mole an abuelita has been making for more than half her life, it will satiate the craving for homemade mole on a weeknight. Shortcuts like using roasted peanut butter and tahini help create this satisfying sauce in just 30 minutes. It’s perfect for serving over just about anything: roasted mushrooms or seared cauliflower, jackfruit or tofu. It can even be tossed with cooked rice noodles.

Jocelyn Ramirez · NYT Cooking

Mushrooms and black beans are the perfect pairing for a hearty weeknight chili with a kick of heat from a fresh jalapeño. Seared minced mushrooms add a depth of flavor that balances an easy homemade chili spice mix of mild chile, warm cinnamon and smoky chipotle. If you’d like, you can substitute 1 ½ cups of the broth for 1 ½ cups of Mexican lager.

Jocelyn Ramirez · NYT Cooking

Making this plant-based dish might become a new holiday tradition in your house — and the recipe is fast and easy enough to become part of your weeknight rotation as well. It’s not your average macaroni and cheese as it has no actual cheese, but its creamy cashew sauce, stained green from smoky fire-roasted poblano chiles, is guaranteed to turn heads. The end result is sure to be piled high on everyone’s plates. To get vegetarian recipes like this one delivered to your inbox, sign up for The Veggie newsletter.

Jocelyn Ramirez · NYT Cooking

Rice is a grain enjoyed around the world, and it’s typically eaten in savory forms. In this recipe, sweetened grains are cooked until creamy with almond milk, raisins, star anise, vanilla and flaky Ceylon cinnamon, which is commonly used in Mexican cooking. (Ceylon cinnamon is preferred to the other varieties for it’s sweet, delicate flavor.) This warm and comforting dessert is easily pulled together with ingredients likely already in your pantry.

Jocelyn Ramirez · NYT Cooking

Sopa de fideo is a quick and comforting Mexican staple that is particularly good on a chilly weeknight. The acidity from tomatoes, the bold garlic flavor and the luscious strands of fideo, a thin noodle similar to angel hair that’s typically included in Mexican soups, make for a hearty dish. Toppings for sopa de fideo vary, but common garnishes include avocado slices, sautéed mushrooms, lime juice, queso fresco, cooked potatoes, Mexican cream — the list goes on!

Jocelyn Ramirez · NYT Cooking

Everyone loves crispy potato tacos. Throughout Mexico, there are a variety of recipes with different ingredients, preparation styles and garnishes that make this dish unique in each household. In this version, cooked potatoes are seasoned with tomato, onion and garlic for an extra flavor, then topped with sour cream and cabbage coated in lemon juice for the perfect balance of creaminess and crunch. You could also pair the potatoes with cooked soyrizo for an even more memorable plant-based meal — make these your own with the fillings and garnishes you have on hand. Boil the potatoes ahead of time and store them in the fridge for up to a week until ready to use to make this an even quicker weeknight meal.

Jocelyn Ramirez · NYT Cooking

When tofu is crumbled into small bits, combined with umami-rich mushrooms and coated with big-flavor ingredients like chile guajillo, clove and oregano, it becomes a real showstopper. For this soyrizo recipe, the seasonings are similar to those used in Mexican pork chorizo, so use it in dishes where you would normally use the traditional sausage: Serve it as part of a savory breakfast, add it to veggie hash or tuck it inside tortillas for tacos topped with crunchy onion, cilantro, guacamole and lime.

Jocelyn Ramirez · NYT Cooking

Atole is a traditional Mexican drink served hot, thickened with fresh corn masa and sweetened with piloncillo, raw cane sugar often sold in a cone shape. Dry masa harina, which is easier to find than fresh, is used here to thicken and flavor the drink, so be sure to use a good-quality variety. This recipe is finished off with strawberries for an even sweeter version with a pink hue. Freeze-dried strawberries blended to a powder or ripe in-season strawberries will give just the right amount of sweet fruity flavor.

Jocelyn Ramirez · NYT Cooking

Capirotada is a seasonal dish eaten for Lent or Cuaresma, a time of the year when many Mexican households whip up meatless meals on Fridays. This cinnamon-scented bread pudding is a balance of textures, and sweet and slightly savory flavors. Its array of garnishes vary, and families debate which ingredients should make the cut and which should be forgotten. In Zacatecas, Mexico, onion is an unexpected ingredient that ties together the piloncillo and cheese. This dish can be made traditional or plant-based by selecting dairy-based or vegan butter and cheese. The key ingredient is a stale or lightly toasted baguette, birote or bolillo, which absorbs sweet piloncillo syrup melded with melted cheese, and holds up your chosen ingredients.

Jocelyn Ramirez · NYT Cooking

Picadillo is a dish that spans Latin American and Filipino food cultures with ingredients that vary from country to region. It’s a simple dish that highlights ground meat with bold flavors from tomato, onion, garlic, olives and capers, and is often paired with starches like potatoes and rice for a filling main dish, or even a taco filling. In this plant-based version, ground walnuts take on a meaty texture that absorbs all the bold flavors of a picadillo. Using a food processor is the best — and fastest — way to make sure the walnuts are evenly minced.

Jocelyn Ramirez · NYT Cooking

Among the seven most well-known mole varieties, tomatillo-based mole verde is one of the easiest to prepare because of its use of fresh chiles and herbs rather than dried chiles and spices. Romaine, cilantro and epazote get blended into the mole of seared chiles, garlic, onion and toasted nuts and seeds to make an earthy sauce. Fresh epazote and hoja santa add depth of flavor, with unique notes of pungency and anise, but they can be tough to find, so dried options can be used. This mole can be stored in the freezer for up to 3 months, ready for weeknights when all you want to do is warm up some tortillas and mushrooms for a perfect taco, or you could serve it over Mexican rice with roasted cauliflower.

Joanna Pruess · NYT Cooking

Joanna Pruess · NYT Cooking

Joanna Pruess · NYT Cooking

Joanna Pruess · NYT Cooking

Joanna Pruess · NYT Cooking

Joanna Pruess · NYT Cooking

Joanna Pruess · NYT Cooking

Joanna Pruess · NYT Cooking

Joanna Pruess · NYT Cooking

Joanna Pruess · NYT Cooking

Joanna Pruess · NYT Cooking