Calabacitas Tacos – a tasty idea for Taco Tuesday!
It’s green chile time!!!! You know what that means. It’s time to bring on this year’s green chile recipes. Let start with one of my favorite summer dishes – calabacitas. In previous years, you’ve been served calabacitas enchiladas, cornbread, and chowder (all of the links are at the end of this post). Now let’s put them in tacos! Here is a simple and quite healthy recipe for Calabacitas Tacos – summer squash, sweet corn, and roasted green chile wrapped in soft corn tortillas with complementary toppings.
Perfect choice for Taco Tuesdays!
Calabacitas Tacos
*See Kitchen Notes for substitutions, links to special ingredients and vegetarian option.
- 6 corn tortillas, warm
- 1 Tbsp. olive oil
- 1 large yellow squash*, thick slices cut into 4 pieces each
- ¼ tsp. salt
- 1 cup corn*
- 3 large cloves garlic, minced
- ½ cup chopped roasted green chile (if using canned, don’t drain)
- ¼ tsp. toasted coriander seed, ground
- 2 Tbsp. cilantro*, chopped
- ½ cup red onion, diced
- 1 cup grated cheddar cheese*
- ½ cup crispy bacon crumbles OR sweet and spicy pepitas* (pumpkin seeds)
- Your favorite hot sauce/salsa/pico de gallo*
- 6 lime wedges
- Add the oil to a large skillet and heat over medium heat.
When the oil is hot, add the squash. Spread the squash out to cook and brown on one side for about 2-3 minutes.
Add the toasted coriander, salt, corn and garlic. Stir into the squash and continue to cook and stir until the squash and corn are done, about 2 more minutes.
- Remove the skillet from the heat and stir in the green chile and cilantro.
Taste, add salt is needed.
- Warm the tortillas by wrapping in a slightly damp papertowel and placing in a plastic bag. Do not seal! Heat in microwave on high for 30 seconds. Keep in bag until ready to serve.
Have toppings chopped and prepared and in separate bowls.
Place some of the cheese on a warm tortilla*. Top with the calabacitas, then the onion, bacon or pepitas.
Shake a few dashes of hot sauce on the tacos and then a squeeze of lime. Enjoy!
Corn Tortillas – Homemade tortillas are the best and the lighter soft ones works best for these tacos. For the ones shown in the pictures I used Torti Masa (a white corn flour).
Squash – Use any summer squash you want. We love the flavor of yellow squash so I use it pretty exclusively.
Corn – Fresh (1 ear of corn), frozen or canned all work.
Roasted Green Chile – We’ve been working on the last of our 2017 chile. For this batch of tacos, we used Joe Parker Hatch chile from The Hatch Chile Store. A very tasty chile and not too spicy, so you can use a lot. You could also use roasted red chile or a mix of red and green. The chile can be fresh roasted, canned, or frozen.
Toasted Coriander – To toast coriander, place the seeds in a hot skillet and shake until the seeds become aromatic. Transfer to a spice grinder or mortar and pestle and grind to a powder.
Cilantro – Parsley, fresh oregano (1 Tbsp), lovage leaves, or chives are good substitutes
Cheddar Cheese – Use a medium or sharp cheddar or for different taste, substitute with cotija or queso fresco. You can place the cheese on the top or bottom of the taco. I like to put it on the bottom so that the hot ingredients melt it a bit. But your choice.
Bacon or Pepitas – These ingredients are for crunch as well as flavor. The bacon adds a crispy smokiness to the tacos. If you don’t eat bacon, then these Sweet and spicy pepitas are a great substitute.
Hot Sauce – We use a Chile de Arbol Hot Sauce, but you can use any hot sauce you like.
Other toppings suggestions – Fresh tomato, queso fresco cheese instead of cheddar, avocado.
Vegetarian and Vegan Options – Replace the bacon with the pepitas. Vegan can omit the cheese or use a non-dairy cheese.
When I have guests over for tacos, I like to set the ingredients and variety of toppings in bowls on the table so people can assemble their own tacos. It’s very interesting sometimes to see the ingredients that people select and how they assemble their tacos. Of course there is always the person that tries to stuff everything into a corn tortilla. That person ends up eating the taco with a fork.
Did you enjoy the tacos? If so, here are some more calabacitas recipes for you to enjoy:
If you can’t get green chile locally order it online! You can have New Mexico green chile from throughout the state shipped directly to your front door. Suppliers like our friends at The Hatch Chile Store are taking orders now. Click Sources of New Mexico Chile for a variety of options and products.
A veggie taco with the crunch of pepitas and or bacon sound like a great summer meal.
Thanks Karen! It is a great summer meal!
Great idea to have vegetable version tacos while the heat is on ! So lighter and so refreshing ! Thank you MJ ! 🙂
Thanks Darlin! I’m with you, I like the lighter versions of tacos when it’s hot.
These tacos look delicious — a really terrific way to enjoy all this seasonal summer produce right now!
Thanks Amy! More ideas coming soon.
I love how tacos are a complete meal in themselves depending on what toppings you choose. Yours look so amazing and appetizing.
Oh my, these tacos look amazing, I am really hungry.
Thanks Adina!
Tacos make such a fabulous dinner! With so much flavor the meat will not be missed! I am also waiting for Hatch chiles at my local grocery store, soon very soon!
So true!! We could have tacos every night if I was willing to always be making tortillas. 🙂 Chiles should be coming soon. They’ve started picking. Thanks for your comments!
MJ, your tacos look so delicious, I think once more that if I were your neighbour I’d do everything to be invited for any of your meals from time to time! I haven’t started making my own tacos, but I think I could do something similar with my chappati! I put into them lots of different ingredients and sauces and they are so loaded I can no longer call the dish “wraps” because they can no longer be wrapped around the filling, haha! Anyway, I’ve never thought of adding summer squash to the lot. It sounds like a fantastic idea! On Saturday I go to my farmers’ market and I’ll make sure I bring some to make a copy of your beautiful tacos (unless I die of heat…. we’ve had above 30°C/86°F for the past three weeks, but the forecast for Saturday is 35°C/95°F, so I will have to motivate myself!).
Well if you were my neighbor, I know we would be eating at each others’ house A LOT! My current neighbors keep the local pizza places in business. 🙂 I think I’ve mentioned it before, but your chiappati make great substitutes for tortillas. I would not hesitate to use them and I would even call them tacos, not wraps. 🙂 Oh my goodness, isn’t that unusually hot for where you are? Normal for us but even though we’re somewhat use to it, I still don’t go outside if I don’t have to. Hang in there! Thanks for your comments Darlin and hope you have a wonderful week!
I love how gorgeously succulent these tacos are MJ! Against all black thumb odds, I’ve managed to successfully grow zucchini this year and corn on the cob is hitting its primo phase here (so good!) I usually end up with an extra cooked cob in the pot so I just slice off the niblets and store in fridge for next recipe; perfect. These green chile lovelies are calling my name! ps: Nadalyn’s photos are gorgeous… caught my eye on your right tab, glad I looked.
Congratulations on your garden! It’s so much fun walking out in the yard and picking supper. We planted squash late and hope to be picking soon. I do the same thing with corn. Sprouts had it for 6 for $1 the other day and even though I only needed 4, I bought 6 and stripped 2 of them. It works. 🙂 Thanks for your comments as always Kelly and yes, Nadalyn does have some gorgeous photos! It’s hard traveling with her because she wants to stop at every abandoned building and ghost town. 🙂
Woo Hoo for chili season!!! You have outdone yourself MJ. Love these simple but yet complex flavors and textures and even BACON! Everything is better with bacon for sure. Pinning this recipe for later…
Ha ha – Yes, chile season is an exciting time of the year. 🙂 thanks for commenting and pinning. Have a great week!
Now guess what I am craving for lunch: yep Calabacitas Tacos! Love everything about them!
thanks so much Evelyne! Enjoy!
Looks delicious! What a great time of year with so many great fresh veggies like local corn and squash. Plus I have enough chilies to last for years thanks to my great sister!!! It’s perfect for a light summer dinner and doesn’t heat up the kitchen. I’m putting a pork butt in the slow cooker today so I might make it with pulled pork instead of bacon. And, as I heard someone say recently, we live in Texas so if you wrap anything in a tortilla and we’re happy campers.
Thanks Nadalyn!!! Bobby and I feel the same way about wrapping stuff in tortillas. Pulled pork tacos with a calabacitas topping sounds wonderful to me! What time is supper? I’ve just about used up all my chile from last year which was A LOT more than I sent you as you can imagine. 🙂 Enjoy Darlin!
I love your Calabacitas Tacos! You have captured one of the best ways to use calabacitas. It’s wonderful being back in New Mexico and I can’t wait for chile season to begin. It’s been a long time!!
MJ those look soooooo delicious! A taco full of summer flavor! 🙂
It is a definitely a taco filled with summer. 🙂 Thanks Anne!
MJ, this is just the sort of dinner that makes garden harvest so rewarding. We are always looking for ways to use the squash and this dish looks wonderful! Of course, we’re always a fan of green chile time … yum!
Totally agree! Last year was the year of the squash for us and I made A LOT of calabacitas dishes. This year we planted few and late, so we cherish what we get. 🙂
Love easy vegetarian while the heat is on ! Thank you !
Thanks Darlin!
This looks so appetizing and yummy and more topping for me, please :-))
thanks Angie! I’ve always felt that toppings can make the meal. 🙂
Green chile time is the happiest time of the year! 🙂 I’m out of frozen Hatch chilies, so I’m eagerly waiting for this year’s crop. Will probably have to wait a couple of more weeks before my local grocery stores start to see them. But that’s OK, there are always canned chilies. Or Anaheim chilies work in a pinch. Super dish — thanks.
Thanks John! It’s amazing that you can get fresh Hatch chile in the grocers where you are. We do grow a lot of chile :). They have started picking, so it should be there soon. YAY!
These looks so good and I love that you add crumbled bacon as a garnish. Yum!
Thanks Vicki! Doesn’t bacon make everything better? 🙂
Those tacos look delicious.
Thanks A-B! They are quite tasty. 🙂
Great food and photography as always!
Hey Stranger! How are you? Hope your are doing well. Thanks for dropping by and for your kind comments.