Once a month I meet my cousin Sheila for lunch; our haunt for the last year has been the Casa de Oro restaurant, a Mexican eatery near my home. Today we had our April meet, ordering two variety plates which included mini-tortilla bowls filled with Spanish rice and refried beans, along with chicken or beef quesadillas, peppers, onions, sour cream and hot salsa. I love these monthly luncheons – mainly for the company of Sheila, but also because I love the food.

 

I’ve always wanted a recipe for making the little tortilla bowls (or the larger ones used for taco salads); I found the following at Low Sodium Cooking (not because of the salt issue, but because I couldn’t locate another recipe): 

 

Tortilla Bowls

1 T Olive Oil

4 Tortillas

 

Lightly brush both sides of tortilla with oil. Fold the edges up and carefully press into an oven-proof soup bowl. Bake at 325° until crisp and lightly browned, about 8-10 minutes.

 

Other tortilla bowl preparation methods include:

Press flour tortillas into six 10-ounce custard cups or microwave safe soup bowls. Microwave on HIGH for two minutes; rotate and continue cooking on HIGH for 1-2 minutes. Carefully lift tortillas out and place in soup bowls.

 

For each bowl, ease a 10-inch flour tortilla into 2½-quart oven-proof bowl, gently pleating edges. Microwave on HIGH for two minutes. Remove from bowl, invert onto wire rack; cool completely.

The bowls can be filled with a variety of food items (as they were at the restaurant), and the larger tortillas can be used to hold salads or soups. Besides that, the bowls themselves are mighty tasty.