Last Updated on July 14, 2024 by Catrina
Step aside taco night…let’s shake things up with tostada night instead! If you are getting bored with taco Tuesday, why not start a new tradition with tostadas? Tostadas are equally customizable (just like tacos), you can layer them with all of your favorite toppings, plus they are a blast to eat! Tostadas are fun and casual, and a bit messy. Keep reading to learn how you can enjoy this traditional Mexican food at home!
This article will cover:
- What is a tostada?
- A brief history of the tostada
- Regional variations you can expect to find in Mexico
- Recipes for tostada toppings so you can make these at home
- Tips for eating tostadas step-by-step
- What to eat with tostadas
- Are tostadas healthy?
Let’s get started!
What is a tostada anyway?
A tostada is simply a crispy, toasted tortilla, like a giant, whole corn tortilla chip. Besides just the plain shell, the word tostada also refers to a crispy corn tortilla loaded with your favorite toppings like refried beans, meat, cheese, salsa, sour cream, and lettuce. A tostada is kind of like a flat taco. It can have all your favorite taco toppings, but on a crispy tostada shell instead.
There are a couple of things tostadas are not. Tostadas are not made with flour tortillas. And tostadas are never soft!
Now that you know what a tostada is, let’s explore where tostadas are from!
A brief history of the tostada
Where do tostadas come from? Although their exact origin is unknown, there is evidence that tostadas have been eaten since pre-Hispanic times. Native people would leave tortillas on a comal or hot griddle until they were toasted and crunchy. They topped these toasted tortillas with beans and chiles.
After the arrival of the Spaniards, beef, chicken, pork, cream, and cheese were added as toppings. And today, tostadas have evolved to include other toppings, like lettuce, cabbage, radishes, and tomatoes. Now, there are unique regional varieties of tostadas all throughout Mexico.
Regional variations of tostadas
If you travel throughout Mexico, you will find regional variations of the tostadas, some unique to specific states. Some notable examples are tostadas made with pickled pigs feet in the Mexico City area.
Puebla boasts delicious tostadas made with shredded and seasoned chicken, called tinga. This particular type of tostada has become a popular dish throughout Mexico, so even if you aren’t in Puebla, you can find chicken tinga tostadas in restaurants and homes.
Oaxaca is famous for tostadas topped with refried beans, chorizo, and potatoes.
Lots of other regions have specific types of tostadas, like different seafood tostada varieties along the Mexican coast.
The great thing about tostadas is that whatever you are in the mood for, there is likely a tostada that you can buy or make to satisfy your craving.
Are you ready to learn how easy it is to make tostadas at home? Here are some of our family favorite tostada topping recipes.
Tostada recipe ideas and toppings
Tostadas are an easy dish that can be thrown together in just a few minutes! This tasty Mexican meal is a simple way to use up any leftover beans, shredded or rotisserie chicken, taco meat, salsa or other ingredients that you might have hanging out in your fridge. Below I will give you some of my family’s favorite tostada toppings so that you can make authentic Mexican tostadas at home!
But if you want homemade tostadas completely from scratch, you first have to learn how to make tostada shells.
Making homemade tostada shells
Tostada shells can be made in just a few simple steps! To bake tostada shells, simply lightly spray a baking sheet with cooking oil. Place corn tortillas on the baking sheet in a single layer and lightly spray the tops of the tortillas with oil. Bake in the oven for a few minutes until crispy.
Another method for making tostada shells is to fry the corn tortillas in hot oil. Heat enough oil to cover the bottom of a small frying pan. Gently fry the tortilla for a few seconds on each side, or until golden brown and crispy. Remove from the hot oil with tongs and allow any excess oil to drip back into the skillet. Repeat for each remaining tortilla.
Check out my article for all of the details of making homemade tostada shells!
And of course, you can make delicious tostadas at home with shells bought from your local grocery store! There are so many options available, that purchasing your own shells is a great way to get dinner on the table even faster!
Tostada toppings
There are so many different tostada varieties that sometimes it is best to let your imagination run wild! If you are looking for inspiration, however, we have a few of our family favorite tostada topping recipes here.
These include homemade refried beans, picadillo (a seasoned ground beef dish), and shredded chicken tostadas. If you are looking for vegetarian tostadas, you can make roasted chile poblano strips in a creamy sauce, oyster mushrooms, or a simple guacamole. And sometimes black beans spread onto crispy tostada shells and topped with queso fresco and pico de gallo just hits the spot!
Seafood tostadas with ceviche or salpicon would be a great option for a refreshing summer dish. Or if you are looking for a breakfast tostada, huevos rancheros is a delicious way to eat tostadas for breakfast.
And what is a tostada without a delicious homemade salsa! Here are some fast and easy homemade salsas to try!
Tips on eating tostadas
What’s the best way to eat a tostada? Eating tostadas can be messy, but here are a couple of tips I have learned that will help keep the mess to a minimum.
Limit your topping ingredients
I have a tendency to want to pile EVERYTHING on the top of my tostada shell. I love to get just a bit of every flavor of my tostada toppings in every bite! There is something so satisfying about biting into a crispy tortilla, topped with creamy beans, seasoned chicken, cool Mexican crema and salty queso fresco.
Oh, and we can’t forget the spicy salsa and the crunchy lettuce, and the avocado…If you are like me, then fitting everything onto that one tostada shell is going to be a challenge. And eating it will be even more difficult.
I would suggest limiting the tostada ingredients (gasp!) to just a few critical ones…like beans, meat, salsa, cheese, lettuce and sour cream or Mexican crema. Instead of trying to fit everything on one tostada, you can make a variety of tostadas, mixing and matching all of your favorite ingredients.
Try a vegetarian version with refried beans, avocado slices, salsa, sour cream, and shredded cheese. Or switch out the sour cream and cheese for pico de gallo and shredded lettuce for a vegan version. Or go for something more traditional like refried beans topped with cactus and chorizo and a crumbled queso fresco.
Low-layer your ingredients
Have you seen those gorgeous images of a beautiful golden tostada shell with a delicious looking pile of shredded chicken, lettuce, and cheese heaped into the middle of the shell? That tostada might look good to eat, but getting that beautiful volcano of ingredients in your mouth is going to be a disaster.
Let’s go for practicality instead.
I suggest low-layering your ingredients, by spreading them out over the tostada shell, avoiding a heaping mountain of ingredient toppings in the center. This helps keep the weight of the ingredients spread evenly over the shell, leading to less breakage.
Plus if you keep the ingredients flat, then the tostada is so much easier to eat! You won’t have to take awkward bites to avoid getting tostada ingredients up your nose or all over the sides of your mouth, which makes for a much more pleasant eating experience, don’t you think?
Layer the spreadable ingredients first
Another tip is layering the spreadable or more liquid toppings on the tostada first and leaving the looser ingredients on top.
I see lots of people layering their tostada with refried beans, meat, lettuce, cheese, sour cream, and salsa, in that order. The problem is if your loose ingredients fall off, then you also lose the more liquid ingredients, like the salsa as well.
I find it easier to layer with refried beans or guacamole first. This provides a nice base for the other ingredients to stick to. I spread on my sour cream and salsa on top of the beans or guacamole. Meat, cheese, and shredded lettuce are last. That way if some of my lettuce falls off, I still have the other spreadable ingredients stuck to the tostada shell. I can simply use the intact tostada shell to scoop up any dropped ingredients.
Prepare your tostadas as you eat them
As tempting as it might be to load your plate with all your tostadas right from the start, if you prepare your tostadas as you’re about to eat them, it helps to keep the tostadas from becoming soggy and breaking. The solution: set up a tostada buffet or bar with all of the ingredients so you can make your tostadas as you go!
Balance the tostada on your finger tips
There isn’t a right way to eat a tostada, but I think that tostadas are easiest to eat when they are balanced on your finger tips, instead of being held by two hands. This helps to better support the bottom of the tostada to avoid breakage.
Prepare for messes
Even with a practiced and proper tostada-eating technique, tostadas can still be messy! So, have lots of napkins handy! The good thing is that tostadas are a casual food, meant to be eaten with your hands, so have fun. Don’t worry about dropped toppings. You can use an empty tostada shells to scoop up any toppings that are left on your plate. And taking small bites will help to keep your shell from breaking!
What to eat with tostadas
Tostadas are kind of an all in one meal, so we hardly ever make side dishes with them. But if you are looking to round out your tostada meal, here are a couple of side dish options.
Mexican rice makes a great side to any Mexican dish. Another option would be a light soup, like sopa de fideo or Mexican squash blossom soup. Lastly, I think pairing your tostada with a vegetable side dish like cactus salad or calabacitas is another great option.
Are tostadas healthy?
Depending on the ingredients that you use, tostadas can be a great healthy meal option! They include protein, from meat, beans and cheese.
Healthy fats from avocado slices or guacamole, and of course fresh vegetables from the salsa, pico de gallo, and shredded lettuce also help to make tostadas healthy.
Corn tortillas are whole grain foods and using baked tostada shells instead of a fried version will make this meal even healthier!
I would love to hear how your homemade tostadas turned out! Let me know your favorite tostada topping in the comments!
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