What to do with leftover tortillas.

Do you have leftover tortillas at home? Or do you have some tortillas that are not that fresh anymore? If that’s the case, you might think there’s not much you can do with those tortillas. The good news is that there are some ways you can take advantage of your leftover tortillas.

Tortillas usually have a long shelf life if they are kept in a dry and fresh place. Specifically, Casa Bonita Tortillas come with a re-sealable package that helps maintain your tortillas fresh for quite some time after they are open. Still, we recommend you consume them within a week or two after opening the bag. Just remember to keep them in a fresh pantry area, especially during the summer months, to ensure the tortillas last a bit longer. That said, we encourage you always to check the suggested expiry date printed on the bag. Regardless of the brand, checking the expiry date and following the suggested guidelines, it’s always a good idea.

Now, let’s assume you had a great Taco Tuesday dinner last week and only a handful of tortillas left in the bag. A week has passed, and you don’t know what to do with the tortillas. You might think throwing them out to your compost bin would be a good idea. However, instead of going to waste, you can cook delicious Mexican dishes that are not tacos and add variety to your dinner rotation.

Option 1 – Chop the tortillas to cook some delicious Chilaquiles.

Want a different take on dinner other than taco night?

You can go with another truly traditional Mexican dish. The basis of the chilaquiles is corn tortillas cut in quarters and fried. These are usually prepared with green or red salsa and sometimes even mole. The salsa is poured over the crispy tortilla triangles, called “totopos.” You can easily use corn chips, but if you want to prepare it from scratch, you can use your leftover tortillas, cut them and fry them (optional). Once you have the fried tortilla triangles, you can incorporate them into your Chilauqiles. You can visit our recipes page to get one of the most traditional chilaquiles recipes.

Also, do you know that Chilaquiles are actually more of a breakfast or brunch dish? Now, if you want to go this route, we have a traditional “breakfast chilaquiles” recipe for you.

Option 2 – Cook a delicious tortilla soup.

Perfect for the cold winter days in Canada. This recipe can easily take advantage of your leftover tortillas.

Ingredients:

Half on an onion
One clove of fresh garlic
Four tomatoes
Half an avocado cut into slices
Five guajillo chiles – remove seeds
Half a cup of cream
One cup of panela cheese
Leftover Casa Bonita Tortillas – You could use half of a fresh package.
Canola oil to fry the ingredients.
Salt

Instructions:

Prepare a pot with hot water and the chiles, the onion, the garlic and the tomatoes. Boil the water with all ingredients, and wait until the tomatoes are soft.
Use a blender to turn the broth with all of the ingredients into a thick soup base.
Heat a pot and add the canola oil. Once the oil is hot, proceed to add the soup base to fry it. Keep an eye and season it with salt to your liking.
Cut both the tortillas and the avocado into slices. If the panel cheese is not cut into cubes already, you can also proceed to cut the cheese into small cubes.
Serve the soup in bowls. Add a plate with the tortilla slices, the avocado and the cheese to add to your soup.

Option 3 - Toast the tortillas to make your own Nachos at home.

Are you ready for game night? Are you expecting guests during the weekend? Surprise them with your take on homemade Nachos.

This dish consists mainly of heated tortilla chips covered with melted cheese and is regularly served as a snack or appetizer. You can get one of our favourite nachos recipes right here. You could easily make nachos with corn chips, but if the point is to try to use the rest of the tortillas you have left at home, then you can cook your Nachos at home. All you have to do is cut the tortillas into triangles and toast them to your liking in the oven at low heat or fry them in a pan with some oil.

We really love this recipe because it includes cheese, chicken, bacon, and one of our Mexican spices, Tajin!

Alternatively, you could leave the cheese out (or use vegan cheese) if you want to go vegan. Looking for inspiration for more Vegan Mexican recipes? We got you covered with some of our favourites in this post with 5 vegetarian-friendly options.

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