Tortilla Pie

Hello lovely readers! I know I haven't been posting very much this past week but I have an excellent reason for my absence: I've been on holiday in gorgeous Cornwall! We had an amazing time filled with beautiful scenery, tasty food and good friends. It was pretty hard to leave yesterday (both figuratively and literally since it took us over ten hours to get home!) but I'm glad I've got the weekend now to prepare for a pretty busy upcoming week. This was a recipe I made while trying to use up leftovers in order to try not to waste too much on our last night at the house. We had made tacos earlier in the week (perfect dish for a big group!) and therefore we had a lot of the seasoned beef leftover. After searching "how to use leftover taco meat" on the internet I came across recipes for tortilla pie. I'd never even heard of this dish before but it seemed like a tasty option!

Stunning cliffs near our house!

Finished tortilla pie

SInce I was relying on leftovers I ended up taking quite a few liberties with the different recipe versions I found online. However, the end result confirmed my suspicion that Tex-Mex is incredibly forgiving. Basically, if you have cheese, you're good to go. I paired this with a quick and simple olive salsa (again, trying to use up bits and bobs in the fridge). If you aren't an olive fan, feel free to ditch them! Also, you will note that the recipe below calls for 8 slices of packaged cheese... and yes, I'm referring to the awful/delicious versions that you top hamburgers with if you're feeling lazy. Obviously, feel free to skip them! I normally don't buy that cheese but again, I was using what we had on hand. Don't judge me! Finally, I'm guessing with the ingredient amounts here based on the size of our dish but this could easily be whipped up with whatever leftovers you had and a smaller pan!

Simple olive salsa

Final dish!

Prep TIme: 15 min

Cook Time: 15 min

Serves: 8

Ingredients: 

6 flour tortillas

800g seasoned taco meat

250g cheddar cheese

300ml sour cream

8 packets of pre-sliced hamburger cheese

2 onions, chopped

4 garlic cloves, minced

1 red bell pepper, chopped

250g cherry tomatoes, chopped

1 bunch of coriander, chopped

5 spring onions, chopped

1 handful of olives, chopped

1 -2 limes, juiced 

1/4 cup of jalopenos, chopped

Method: 

Preheat oven to 400F/200C.

In a large pot on the stove, heat a splash of oil over medium heat and begin to saute the chopped onion. When the onion is starting to soften, add the red bell pepper and saute for a minute. Next add the garlic and saute gently for two minutes or until it becomes fragrant. Finally, add in the leftover taco meat and leave until it is reheated, stirring frequently. It should be a bit juicy so if it's a bit dry, add a splash of water. Leave over a low heat while you prepare the rest of the dish.

Mix the sour cream and 3/4ths of the cheddar cheese in a bowl and set aside. 

Prepare a baking dish by spraying or buttering the bottom and sides. Lay two tortillas on the bottom, overlapping slightly to fit. Next add half the taco meat mixture, spreading evenly around the dish. Top this layer with 4 slices of the pre-packaged hamburger cheese, tearing them to evenly distribute around the dish. Next add another layer of tortillas by laying another two tortillas onto the cheese. Spread the sour cream and cheddar cheese mix on top of these tortillas. Add the remaining taco meat onto the sour cream and top with the remaining four slices of pre-packaged cheese. Finally, layer the two remaining tortillas onto the cheese and top with the remaining grated cheddar cheese. 

Bake for 15 minutes or until the cheese on top has melted and is beginning to crisp. 

For the salsa: mix the cherry tomatoes, spring onions, olives, jalopenos and coriander in a bowl and drizzle with the juiced limes. Set aside to let the flavors mingle. Enjoy!