Sweet, tender maduros with tangy pickled onions, earthy black beans, and creamy avocado. These plantain tacos are a flavor explosion!
If you have never stuffed plantains into tacos before, you are totally missing out! And they're super easy to make in about half an hour.
Don't let the length of the recipe below fool you. There are really three main steps happening here. Let's get into it!
Cooking the plantains and beans
What makes this recipe super easy is that you cook the plantains and the black beans together on one sheet pan.
First, slice a large, ripe plantain into ½" thick pieces. (See my baked plantains recipe for details on how to choose a ripe plantain.)
Then, toss it together with black beans in a mixture of olive oil, red wine vinegar, coriander, and salt.
Spread the plantain mixture onto a lined sheet pan, and stick that in the oven.
You'll need to flip the plantains once during baking, but otherwise there's nothing else to do here. That leaves you plenty of time to pickle the onions while the plantains bake.
Pickling the onions
Don't be intimidated: making sweet pickled onions is easy! This recipe makes a bit more of the pickled onions than you'll likely need for these tacos. Use the extra to top basically everything you eat. They'll keep for one to two weeks in the fridge.
To make these, start by slicing your onions into thin pieces. You can use red or white onions in this recipe. Put your onion slices into a pint jar.
Now, make your brine by bringing apple cider vinegar, water, sea salt, and sugar to a boil. You just need to heat the vinegar mixture until the sugar dissolves, then you can remove the pan from the heat.
Pour the hot brine over the onions in the jar, and set them aside to cool.
Boom! Pickled onions.
Putting these tacos together
To assemble the tacos, divide the plantain mixture between eight small flour tortillas. Top each one with pickled onions and sliced avocados, and eat 'em up!
📖 Recipe
Plantain tacos with quick pickled onion
Ingredients
For the plantains and beans
- 1 large ripe plantain - sliced at an angle into ½" thick pieces
- 1 15-ounce can black beans - drained and rinsed
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 teaspoon red wine vinegar
- ½ teaspoon ground coriander
- ⅛ teaspoon salt - or to taste
For the pickled onions
- 1 sliced onion - about 2 cups, see note
- ½ cup apple cider vinegar
- 1 cup water
- 1 ½ teaspoons sea salt
- ¼ cup sugar
For the tacos
- 1 Haas avocado - sliced
- 8 small flour tortillas
Instructions
Start making the plantains and beans first.
- Preheat the oven to 425° F.
- In a large mixing bowl, toss together the plantains and black beans with the oil, vinegar, coriander, and salt. Spread the mixture out onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
- Bake for 16-20 minutes, flipping the plantains after 8 minutes, so they brown evenly. Your plantains are done when they're browned on the outside and tender on the inside. Cooking time will vary depending on how ripe your plantains are. If they don't look done at 16 minutes, check them at 18 minutes. If they still don't look totally done, flip them, and do 2 more minutes.
Make the quick pickled onions while the plantains and beans bake.
- Stuff the onions into a pint-sized mason jar. Combine the remaining ingredients in a small saucepan, and heat them until they boil, stirring until the sugar dissolves. This should only take a few minutes. Turn off the stove, and pour the hot brine into your jar. The heat from the brine will soften the onions.
- Screw the lid onto your jar loosely, and set it on the counter to cool. Once it’s cool enough to handle, you can tighten the lid and stick the jar into the fridge.
Assemble the tacos.
- Divide your tortillas between four plates. Top each one with ¼ of the plantain mixture, ¼ of the sliced avocado, and a tablespoon or two of the pickled onions. Devour!
Video
Notes
- Your plantain should be almost all brown and very soft. If it were a banana, you'd say it was no good, but instead, it's a perfect plantain!
- A red or white onion is fine. You want about 2 cups of sliced onion total.
Lynnwood
Are the beans supposed to come out dry, almost crunchy?
Becky Striepe
Yes, they're a little bit crunchy! A nice contrast to the soft, sweet maduros.