These taco cups make the perfect appetizer or even dinner! They’re filled with Mexican spiced rice, black beans, peppers, and avocado. As all recipes on my blog, they’re 100 % vegan. Plus, this recipe is also gluten-free!
Do you love Mexican food as much as I do? I can never get enough of burritos and tacos. It’s just the perfect comfort food, isn’t it? We usually make burritos with black beans and lots of avocado. And sometimes I even add some kind of copycat Chipotle sofritas, which is so good! Oh, and I absolutely love tacos with lentil walnut meat. This version is sooo much healthier than ground meat and it’s incredibly delicious!
But today’s post is about taco cups. They’re super easy to make and so yummy! I mainly used spiced rice, black beans, and salsa to fill them this time, but you can actually get pretty creative. They would also be great with lentil walnut meat or corn and kidney beans. Just remember, they’re pretty small, so don’t overfill them. Otherwise they will be pretty difficult to eat.
How to Make Taco Cups
The taco cups are actually made of tortillas. You can either use a really wide glass (about 3.5 inches wide) or a large cookie cutter. Then just use a sharp knife to cut out the taco cups. Place each of them in a muffin cup and press them into the cup. You can either use your fingers or a smaller glass to do that. If they’re too hard, you can put them on a plate and place them in the microwave for about 20 seconds to make them softer. But for me it worked without putting them in the microwave.
Once you got 12 little nice taco cups waiting for you in your muffin tin, you can start filling them with the rice, the black beans, and the salsa. I topped them with a little bit of vegan cheese. After baking, I also added some vegan sour cream, green onions, peppers, and avocado. If you want you could also add some lettuce.
I hope you like these vegan taco cups as much as we do around here! They’re so great to bring to parties or you could even make them for the next football game!
As always, I love hearing from you guys whether it’s on the blog, on Facebook, or Instagram. Your comments really make my day!
Sina – xx
Taco Cups with Black Beans and Avocado
Ingredients
For the taco cups:
- 1 cup cooked rice I used parboiled rice
- 1 cup black beans
- 4 flour tortillas
- 2 teaspoons tomato paste
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 1/2 cup vegan cheese to sprinkle on top
For the super quick salsa:
- 1 cup canned diced tomatoes
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 1 teaspoon paprika powder
- salt, to taste
- black pepper, to taste
- red pepper flakes, to taste
For the toppings:
- 1 avocado
- 4 mini sweet peppers
- fresh parsley or cilantro
- 1/4 cup vegan sour cream
- red pepper flakes
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 °F.
- First make the taco cups: They're actually made of tortillas. You can either use a really wide glass (about 3.5 inches wide) or a large cookie cutter. Then just use a sharp knife to cut out the taco cups. Place each of them in a muffin cup and press them into the cup. You can either use your fingers or a smaller glass to do that. If they're too hard, you can put them on a plate and place them in the microwave for about 20 seconds to make them softer. But for me it worked without putting them in the microwave.
- Next make the spiced rice. In a medium-sized pan, heat some oil and add the cooked rice together with the tomato paste and the cumin. Stir well and cook for about 2-3 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.
- For the salsa, combine all ingredients in a small bowl.
- Fill the taco cups with the rice, black beans, the salsa, and top it with some vegan cheese. Bake them for 15 minutes.
- Let them cool off a bit and then add sliced avocado, mini sweet peppers, fresh parsley or cilantro, and vegan sour cream on top. Sprinkle with some red pepper flakes and enjoy!
Carly
Great idea! Husband liked the taste rest, hopefully they’re a hit at the potluck tomorrow. Thanks!
Suzie Friedman
These recipes look amazing and I plan to make the taco cups this weekend! However, they are not gluten free if you use a flour tortilla – I will adjust by using corn. Thanks for the idea!
B
Curious, how well the corn tortilla worked for this recipe?
Sandra
Made these taco cups for a party on Friday and they turned out great! I didn’t have black beans at home (I forgot to buy them when I was out shopping for the rest of the ingredients for this recipe), so I used kidney beans instead. They made a great appetizer and some people even asked me for the recipe! Thanks for the recipe!