I've got some pretty exciting news to share today. It turns out that the folks at Cooking Light Magazine have been a fan of Oui, Chef for a while now and have asked me to join their "Cooking Light Blogger's Connection". See that cool new "Cooking Light" badge on the right of your screen? Click on it and it will deliver you to my Cooking Light Blogger Profile, and from there you're only a short step away from all the great healthy knowledge and recipes that reside on their site.
Part of what I (along with about 80 other, terrific food bloggers) do as members of the Blogger Connection is cook and share our favorite recipes from Cooking Light to help spread the gospel of preparing and eating wholesome, "real" food with an eye to keeping things, light, fresh and nutritious.
I dare say that description sums up these tacos perfectly.
After giving my Weber Grill a thorough going over of a spring cleaning the other day, I was looking for a new dish with which to fire it up and launch a new grilling season. Enter these simple, but vibrant tacos from the March issue of Cooking Light. I had to modify my approach to the recipe a touch because I couldn't find baby peppers OR flank steak in my local market, and proceeded instead with a few large red and yellow bell peppers and a few strips of skirt steak for the grill. Everything else about the recipe I followed to the T, and can I tell you ….. this dish was killer!
For those of you who haven't roasted your own peppers before, you're in for a treat. You can always use jarred roasted peppers if you're in a hurry (or can't be bothered), but I highly recommend you try roasting a few some day (like maybe right now for this recipe?), because when home roasted they are OH SO MUCH BETTER than what you'll buy in a store. Never cooked a flank or skirt steak? Prepare to be amazed, because both of these lean, thin cuts cook in just a few minutes to medium-rare and are so packed with rich, beefy flavor (at a fraction of the price of a sirloin or rib-eye steak) …you're gonna love them.
The lime mayo, queso fresco, and quickly roasted peppers make these a super fresh take on our old friend the steak taco, and a perfect excuse to dust off the grill and kick off another outdoor grilling season.
Cheers – Steve
Ingredients
- 20 baby sweet peppers
- cooking spray
- 1 teaspoon ground chipotle chile pepper
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 pound flank steak, trimmed (skirt steak works nicely too)
- 3 tablespoons canola mayonnaise, such as Hellman's
- 1 teaspoon grated lime zest
- 1 tablespoon lime juice
- 1 teaspoon minced garlic
- 1 teaspoon water
- 8 (6-inch) corn tortillas
- 1/2 cup refrigerated, fresh salsa
- 2 ounces queso fresco, crumbled (about 1/2 cup)
Instructions
- Heat broiler to high.
- Arrange bell peppers in a single layer on a foil-lines jelly roll pan;lightly coat the peppers with cooking spray. Broil peppers 4 minutes on each side or until blackened. Cool slightly; discard stems. Cut peppers into strips.
- Combine chipotle, paprika, and salt; rub spice mixture evenly over steak. Place steak on a broiler pan coated with cooking spray; broil 5 minutes on each side or until desired degree of doneness. (I cooked mine for about 4 minutes per side on medium-high flame on my Weber gas grill to a perfect medium-rare). Let steak stand 10 minutes; thinly slice steak across the grain.
- Combine mayonnaise and next 4 ingredients; stir well.
- Working with 1 tortilla at a time, heat tortillas over medium-high heat, directly on the eye of a burner, for about 15 seconds on each side or until lightly charred. Place 2 tortillas on each of 4 plates. Divide steak evenly among the tortillas; top each taco with 1/4 cup sweet peppers, 1 tablespoon salsa, 1 tablespoon cheese, and 1 1/2 teaspoons mayo mixture.