This recipe is excerpted from @thefauxmartha's cookbook The Minimalist Kithchen. For more delicious recipes, order your copy here!

 

This recipe might be one of the theses of the book—how to turn leftovers into an entirely new meal. Leftovers have a bad rap, except when they taste like this. By using up premade refried black beans, pickled veggies, and Ancho-lada Sauce, this tostada takes on a new life of its own. This is the beauty of putting in work earlier in the week—a weekday breakfast that tastes like the weekend. Of course, you could just sleep in on the weekend and wake up to this, too.

 

Hands-on: 8 min. Total: 8 min. Yields: 1 tostada

 

Tostada

1 tablespoon neutral oil

1 large egg

1 corn tortilla

1⁄4 cup leftover Refried Black Beans or canned

 

Garnish

1⁄4 avocado, sliced

2 tablespoons Quick-Pickled Red Onions (recipe below)

1 tablespoon leftover Ancho-lada Sauce or store-bought (recipe below)

Pinch of alfalfa sprouts (optional)

Fresh cilantro leaves

Crumbled cotija 

Lime wedge

 

1. Make the tostada. Heat a 10-inch nonstick skillet over medium-low. Once the pan is warm, add the oil. Crack the egg where the oil pools, using a silicone spatula to pull in the whites of the egg. If the whites of the egg begin to bubble, turn the heat down further or pull the pan off the heat for a second. Cook for 1 minute, and then spoon the oil in the pan over the whites of the egg until cooked through. Carefully remove the egg from the pan. Set aside. 

2. Add the corn tortilla to the leftover oil in the same pan. Turn the heat up to medium, and fry the tortilla for about 2 minutes on each side until toasted. In another corner of the pan, reheat the refried black beans until warm. 

3. To serve, place the pan-fried tortilla on a plate, and top with a shmear of refried black beans. Garnish with the avocado slices, the sunnyside egg, pickled vegetables, Ancho-lada Sauce, alfalfa sprouts, if desired, cilantro, and cotija. Give it a fresh squeeze of lime, and serve immediately.

 

Notes

Optional add-in: Use up leftover cooked bacon in the freezer. Reheat the bacon with the beans, crumble it, and use it on top of the tostada.

 

Ingredient Tip 

You’ll notice cotija cheese used throughout the book. I love it for two reasons—a little goes a long way and it doesn’t require dirtying a grater. 

 

Quick-Pickled Red Onions

3⁄4 cup water

1⁄2 cup white distilled vinegar

2 teaspoons granulated sugar

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1⁄8 teaspoon peppercorns

3⁄4 cup thinly sliced red onion

 

Bring the water to a boil in a small saucepan. In a pint-sized Ball jar with measurements or a glass bowl, add the vinegar, sugar, salt, and peppercorns. Add the boiling water to the vinegar mixture. Stir until the
salt and sugar have dissolved. Submerge the sliced onion in the pickling solution and let sit for at least 30 minutes. This can be done up to 3 weeks in advance and stored covered in the refrigerator.

 

Ancho-lada Sauce

2 cups hot water

4 dried Ancho chiles, stemmed and deseeded

3⁄4 cup roughly chopped sweet onion

1 (15-ounce) can fire-roasted tomatoes

4 cloves garlic, smashed

1 tablespoon honey

21⁄2 teaspoons kosher salt

 

In a high-powered blender, measure the hot water using the ticks on the side of the blender container. Add the chiles and submerge. Let sit for 10 minutes. Once reconstituted, add the remaining sauce ingredients. Blend on high until smooth. This yields 4 cups. It can be made up to a month in advance and stored covered in the fridge.