Pápalo Taco

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This recipe is adapted from a recent amazing dining experience in Guadalajara, Mexico. Xokol is a restaurant in the Santa Teresita neighborhood that I highly recommend.

This taco presented here was the least complex of all the stunning plates we enjoyed but it intrigued me because of it’s use of Quelites, which are wild Mexican edible greens. So I asked the server at the restaurant which quelite ingredient was in the taco and he said, “whatever was delivered that day”.

As I’ve written in prior pages, Quilitl is the Nauhtl word for edible plant and there are hundreds of them botanically identified and known to be part of the pre-hispanic diet and medicine. Visit any open market in Mexico City and you will find quelites named chaya, quintonil, romeritos, pápalo, huazontle, berros and many others. In indigenous communities and villages from the Sierra Nevadas of Chihuahua to the jungles of Chiapas, hundreds of species are original to Mexico; they add another dimension to Mexican cuisine.

I’m using Pápalo in this recipe; it’s Nahuatl name is papalotl and it means butterfly because the leaf of the plant resembles a butterfly. Pápalo is native to Mexico, Central and South America and is consumed in most of the country normally to season various dishes such as sauces, beans, salads and various Mexican appetizers. Only a handful of quelites are sold in U.S. Mexican supermarkets but I found pápalo for the first time. You can substitute spinach for this recipe.

Let’s get started.

Ingredients

1 15oz can whole black beans

1 tablespoon cooking oil

½ cup onion cut in slices

1 clove garlic miniced

1 bunch Pápalo quelite (about 2 cups leaves) Substitute spinach

1 cup cotija cheese graded

8 corn tortillas (preferably hand made)

Preparation

Beans

Set aside one third of the can of beans and puree the remaining beans with a hand-held immersion blender or food processor. Place the purée mixture in a sauté pan and cook at low medium heat until it thickens to a consistency that will easily spread on a tortilla.

In another sauté pan add the cooking oil and at medium heat sauté the onion and garlic for about 4 minutes. Add the pápalo (or spinach) and cook it until it’s wilted. Season very lightly with salt because you’ll be adding salty cotija cheese to the taco.

Assembly

Lay one or two warm tortillas on a plate, spread the tortilla with bean purée, add a generous spoonful of whole beans, add the sautéd quelite mixture and sprinkle generously with cotija cheese. Fold in half and accompany the tacos with a salsa of your choice.