This is a tasty dish that is sure to please anyone who loves southwestern style cooking. Or, actually, for anyone that loves to eat! This recipe came about because I was trying to find more uses for masa harina. I can only get the 5 pound bag of Maseca, so I have bunches to use up. I use the corn flour in my cornbread recipe, but I don’t make nearly enough corn bread! I know, shame on me.
Other uses for masa harina are tamales and corn tortillias. However, I don’t make enough of those either. After I was served sopes at a little Mexican restaurant, I knew what I would use that Maseca for! Sopes!
I was never fond of the plain, masa dough sopes. They needed lots more flavor. I worked on that until I achieved a taste that my family liked. Using broth instead of water and jazzing it up with some spices was an easy fix. Give this dish a try. Maybe with a nice cerveza or margarita.
The ingredient list –
You’ll need instant corn masa flour – Maseca is a readily available brand, 2 cans of black beans, vegetable broth, onion, tomato, avocado, garlic, cilantro, cumin, and, salt & pepper.
First, make the sopes. Combine the masa with the cumin, salt,
water and vegetable broth. Fold until it’s mixed well. It’s a light and fluffy dough.
It’s ready when you can shape it into a large ball and it stays like that.
Add more broth if it doesn’t hold together. Pinch off chunks and roll them into golf ball sized, dough balls. You should get 12.
Cover a flat, sturdy surface with a piece of parchment paper.
Place a masa ball in the center, cover with another sheet of parchment paper
and mash down with a heavy pot or cast iron skillet.
You don’t want to mash it paper thin. You want about a 1/4 inch thick.
After you flatten it, it should be about 4 inches around.
Now, you’re ready to fry them. Add a small amount of oil to a large skillet. Using medium heat, fry the sopes in batches of 4.
Turn after 3 or 4 minutes, or when golden brown.
Repeat the process, adding more oil as needed, until they’re all done. Drain on a paper towel lined sheet pan and keep warm in a 200º oven.
Now, onto the black beans. Add a tablespoon of olive oil to a large saucepan. Drop in 1 cup of diced onions. Saute them over low heat until they’re clear, about 3 minutes.
While the onions are doing their thing, drain and rinse off the black beans.
Back to the onions, add in the diced garlic and cook another minute.
Add in the drained and rinsed black beans, the cumin, salt and pepper.
Pour in the vegetable broth and stir it all up.
Take a masher and mash the black bean mix slightly, leaving some whole beans.
Simmer the mashed beans over low, until needed to assemble the sopes. Add small amounts of broth to keep the beans from drying out, if necessary.
Finally, we make the guac pico. Regular pico or salsa would be fine here, too, but adding an avocado just makes it extra special. Dice a half cup of sweet onions.
Chop up a tomato.
And the cilantro, too.
Dump them all into a bowl with the garlic – I use jarred garlic, but, please use fresh if you want. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
Remove the pit and peel from an avocado. Chop it up and add it to the pico bowl.
Cut a lime in half and squeeze the juice from one half, over the guac pico.
Stir the guac pico with a fork, mashing it slightly as you do.
Time for assembly. Place on or two sope patties on a plate. Top with a half cup of mashed black beans, then finish up with a healthy dollop of guac pico. Serve with additional lime slices, if desired. Chow down. I served this with zoodles. Zucchini noodles made with a handy vegetable spiralizer.
- For the sopes:
- 2 ½ cups instant corn masa flour, such as Maseca
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup vegetable broth
- 1 cup water
- oil for frying
- For the black beans:
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 cup diced sweet onion
- 2 teaspoons diced garlic
- 2 cans -15.5 oz black beans, drained and rinsed
- ½ cup vegetable broth
- ½ teaspoon cumin
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
- For the guac pico:
- ½ cup diced sweet onion
- 1 diced tomato
- ¼ cup chopped cilantro
- ½ teaspoon diced garlic
- 1 diced avocado
- ½ lime, juiced
- salt & pepper to taste
- Combine the masa, cumin, and salt in a large bowl. Mix in the vegetable broth and water. Fold over until well combined. The mix will be light and airy, but will hold together when gathered into a ball. Pull off chunks of the masa mix, and roll into about 12 golf ball sized, dough balls. Cover a flat surface with a piece of parchment paper. Place a ball of masa on the paper, cover with another sheet of parchment paper and flatted with a heavy pot or skillet. You want them to be about ¼ thick and a 3 to 4 inch circle. Repeat with the other masa balls, keeping both covered to prevent drying out. Heat a tablespoon of oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Fry sopes in batches of four, turning after 3-4 minutes, or when golden brown. Drain on paper towel and keep warm in a 200º oven, while cooking the remaining sopes.
- While sopes are frying, make the black beans. In a saucepan, over a medium heat, add in the tablespoon of olive oil and the diced onions. Saute about 2 to 3 minutes, until onions are clear. Add in the diced garlic and saute for another minute. Then, add in the black beans, the broth, cumin, salt and pepper. Mix well. Mash the bean mix until mostly mashed, with some whole beans remaining. Simmer bean mix over low, until needed for sopes assembly. Add more vegetable broth, if the bean mix dries out.
- For the guac pico, mix the diced onion, tomato, cilantro, and garlic together. Add in the diced avocado and lime juice. Mash mixture lightly. Add salt and pepper to taste.
- To assemble the sopes – place one or two, hot sopes on a plate. Top with a half cup of the black bean mixture. Finish with a generous spoon of the guac pico. Serve with additional lime slices, if desired.