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- Makes 8 pies
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Savory Southwest flavors are abundant in these delectable (and freezer-friendly) tamale pies. Each individual-size casserole is packed full of fresh veggies and hearty black beans that get deliciously tender as they bake in a tomato sauce infused with taco seasoning. The crispy crust is formed with traditional masa harina and almond flour to deliver the perfect fusion of a tamale taste and potpie texture. Top each mini pie with salsa or a dash of hot sauce if you like extra heat, and dig in!
Tip: To store after baking, let tamale pies cool to room temperature; cover tightly with foil. Store in the refrigerator up to 3 days or freeze up to 1 month. Thaw overnight in refrigerator. To reheat, bake in a 350°F oven about 20 minutes or until heated through.
For more mexican recipes, check out these tasty ideas:
- Vegan Pozole
- Mushroom Chorizo Tacos con Papas
- Jackfruit Tamales
- Or take a look at our full roundup of vegan Mexican recipes.
Ingredients
- 1⅓ cups masa harina
- ½ cup almond flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon sea salt, plus more to taste
- 1 cup + 2 tablespoons vegetable broth
- 2 cups finely chopped yellow onions
- 6 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 cups finely chopped red bell peppers
- 2 cups finely chopped zucchini
- 2 cups fresh or frozen corn
- 1 15-oz. can black beans, rinsed and drained (1½ cups)
- 1 6-oz. can tomato paste
- 1 tablespoon taco seasoning
- Purchased oil-free salsa, for serving
Instructions
- For crust, in a bowl stir together masa harina, almond flour, baking powder, and ½ teaspoon salt. Add broth; mix until a dough comes together. Knead dough until smooth, light, and airy. Set aside while making filling.
- For filling, in an extra-large nonstick skillet combine onions, garlic, and ¼ cup water. Cook over medium about 10 minutes or until onions are tender, stirring occasionally and adding more water, 1 to 2 tablespoons at a time, as needed to prevent sticking. Add bell peppers, zucchini, corn, beans, tomato paste, and 1 cup water; cook 5 minutes or until water is absorbed and vegetables are heated through, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat. Stir in taco seasoning and season with salt. Spoon filling equally into eight 16-oz. ramekins.
- Preheat oven to 375°F. Transfer dough to a work surface and divide into eight equal portions. Roll one portion into a ball. Flatten ball and pat between your palms to form a disk the same diameter as the inside edge of ramekins. Place dough disk over filling in one ramekin. Cover ramekin tightly with foil and place it on a baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining dough and ramekins.
- Bake 60 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes before removing foil. Serve hot with salsa.
Comments (24)
(5 from 6 votes)Very delicious recipe, especially the masa and almond flour crust. I made this into a large casserole sized tamale pie which was very well received at a company luncheon. This recipe is a keeper! Thank you for making possible such delicious healthy food. Del Salyer, Anchorage Alaska
I just put these into the oven, so I can't comment on the final product; however, I do have some things to share. Overall, fair or not, this strikes me as a recipe that was put together by someone who never made it as written. 1. 1.5 cups of liquid to about the same amount of flour is way, way too much. The instructions say to knead the result, but it's flour soup. Fortunately, I follow a YouTube channel called Rachel Cooks with Love. Yes, she cooks with meat, but she also gives very good instructions on different facets of Mexican food, including working with masa. So following her instructions, I was able to salvage the pie topping. 2. 1.5 tsp of seasoning for almost ten cups of vegetables makes no sense. I used an entire packet of taco seasoning, and it tasted great. Of course, everyone's tastes vary, but 1.5 tsp would just disappear into that much veg. Someone suggested using individual foil baking pans, which is genius. The ones I got are six inches in diameter, so I got four nice pies, not eight, as the recipe says. No big deal. So fingers crossed for the final product. If/when I make this again, I will definitely make changes to the amounts cited in the recipe.
Following up on my previous post: these pies are yummy. I am definitely making them again. I will use a whole package of taco seasoning, like I did before. It was just the right amount. And now that I'm aware of the masa to liquid ratio problem in the recipe, I'll do what I should have done before, and add the liquid slowly to make a good dough for the topping. This recipe is a winner, though it does need some revision.
Hi Patricia, We're sorry for the inconvenience. We relayed your comments to the recipe author, Chef Darshana Thacker Wendel, and after testing the recipe again, she's revised it to call for 1 cup + 2 tablespoons of broth for the dough, rather than 1½ cups. She also dialed up the taco seasoning to 1 tablespoon. Our recipes are professionally tested, so we're not quite sure how this error occurred. We appreciate your helpful feedback and your understanding! Thank you, Courtney Editor, Forks Over Knives
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I had a hard time with the recipe for the topping. It was a soupy texture with 1 1/4 cup of stock. Is there a way to find out how much liquid should be used? I'd like to have these on had for Christmas. I remade the topping with less liquid, but it was dry. The filling is excellent, except I did triple the amount of taco seasoning as it didn't seem like enough. I used 8 oz ramekins and the filling used six of the ramekins nicely. The topping was barely enough to cover the six servings of filling. Overall a delicious recipe with the tweaks, but still could use guidance with the topping.
Hi Kate, We’re sorry for the inconvenience. We relayed this feedback to the recipe author, Chef Darshana Thacker Wendel. After testing the recipe again, Darshana recommends using 1 cup + 2 tablespoons of broth for the dough, rather than 1½ cups, and we've updated the recipe accordingly. We appreciate your helpful feedback! Thank you, Courtney Editor, Forks Over Knives
I just made this, and here is my experience. I didn't have 16-oz ramekins, so I bought 6" foil pans from Amazon, which hold about 18 ounces. They worked great. You fill them just about halfway or a little more, then put the masa top on. The masa dough was not firm enough to knead. Nowhere near. So I just stirred it, and it became airy. Nor is it firm enough to pat between my hands into a disk for the top. I patted the dough as much as I could, but then had to put the disk on top of the filling and smooth it out from there. The spice level is way low. I tripled the taco seasoning. Plus I added some smoked paprika and green chile powder (maybe 1/2-1 tsp each) and half a bunch of cilantro, chopped. You could alternately add a can of green chiles instead of the powder. You'll need to add at least 1/2 tsp of salt. I added 3/4 tsp. The recipe filled six of the foil pans, not eight. There wasn't enough masa for eight pans, either. They cooked up nicely and were delicious, with my adjustments.
Can you use corn meal instead of masa harina?
I would not. Masa harina is finer, and corn meal would be too gritty.
What could you substitute for almond flour? What vegetable could you use instead of zucchini? My son is allergic to wheat, gluten, oats, nuts, peanuts, soy, squash, palm/ coconut, flax, egg, citrus and sunflower seed
Crust question. It says, add broth. How much broth? The recipe calls for 1 1/2 cups of broth, it looks like the filling uses at least 1 1/4 cups. TIA
I think you mean 6ounce ramekins... NOT 16ounce!!
6-oz ramekins would not work. That would fit a 1/2 cup of pudding. There is over a cup of filling per ramekin when you divide the recipe by 8 and then there needs to be space for the topping. Standard cereal bowls are usually in the 18-24 ounces range.
I'm not seeing the Add to Plan button?
Could I use polenta as the crust ?
I do not have ramekins . What size baking dish would best convert? Do I roll out the dough with rolling pin? Thanks!
Same. I’m just going to pretend I’ve got the ramekins, stick to the recipe, and just place the individual doughs on top as one layer
Why are there no nutritional panels for these receipes? Am I just missing them? Bring vegan can be both healthy or unhealthy, depending on the nutritional value of the foods you are eating.
All the recipes here are healthy, try reading the beginners guide link.
FOK is not vegan. They are WFPB. None of their recipes have nutritional values. All the recipes are healthy, and they don’t want people counting calories. With WFPB you eat until you are satiated, and don’t count calories. If you want to track nutrition, they suggest Cronometer.
The directions say 16-oz ramekins. That’s huge. Should it be 6-oz ramekins, for 8 individual pies?
I think you're right-- when I looked it up, ramekins don't even come in that size. If you add all the ounces up just converting like 2 cups to 16 ounces the total is ninety something and divided by eight is like 12 or something, and that isn't taking into account the food cooking down and taking up less volume. I think they must mean 6 ounces, but it would be nice to know for sure..
6 ounces is tiny! Most coffee mugs, even small ones, are 8 - 12 oz containers. Perhaps ramekin is the wrong term--what an individual bowl would be, in the 10 to 20-ounce range--might be better termed a soup bowl, or an individual soufflé dish. Look up, for instance, "French onion soup bowls." It look like you'd be putting about 1 to 1.25 cups of food into each container, and then topping it with the dough. 16 ounces is about right.