Spicy Plantain Black Bean Tacos

This was very, very good. I cooked the black beans from dried, with no soaking. I threw in onion, garlic, ground cumin, smoked salt, bay leaves, Mexican oregano, and red pepper flakes as it cooked. Pureed in the processor.

I chopped the plantains to about a 1/2″, and subbed brown sugar for the coconut, and used avocado oil. The touch of cumin and cinnamon here is brilliant! Smoked paprika would have been nice, too. The flavors sing together. My husband, a devote carnivore, said I should put this in our monthly rotation – very high praise!

To clarify, I tripled the recipe for plantains because I was cooking for a crowd, and I didn’t add precisely triple the amount of oil and sugar (more like double), but I did add triple the spices. I arranged them all on two baking sheets lined with parchment paper in a single layer to bake!

This is SO fire. I have no idea how you guys always hit the mark on flavor so well when your recipes are so easy. I tripled the recipe for the plantains, added a little less sugar and oil, and baked them at 400F in the oven for like 10 mins, but they still came out so delicious. I also found that adding some smoked paprika to the beans really helped tie in all the flavors in the final, constructed taco: beans, plantain, fresh guacamole, and salsa roja. HIGHLY recommend.

This was delicious and soooo easy and quick. Thanks for the recipe! I’ve made it twice already. For the first time, I made a quick salsa with tomatoes and serrano peppers and the second time I made a sauce with sour cream, mayo, and sriracha. Sooo yummy!

I made a half recipe since I’m only cooking for myself, and it was just as advertised–fast, easy and super delicious! I also love plantains and so my toppings were minimal to let the caramelized plantains shine. I just added cilantro, lime, and pickled serranos. Very, very good. I’ll be making this again!

Can only speak to the plantains as I did the beans a different way…but the plantains were very, very good. The spice mixture and amount was perfect. At first I thought it seemed like too much cinnamon but I went with the 1/2 tsp and it was perfect. My 2 boys enjoyed them so definitely kid friendly even with the pinch of cayenne pepper. Made an (vegan) avacado lime sauce and dipped half the plantains in that before the tacos were even complete.

One of the best tacos I’ve ever had. Used the suggested toppings, avocado and fresh corn kernels.

Yum! This was delicious! And it was quick and easy to make! I had store bought taco shells on hand; maybe next time I will try it with the corn Tortillas. Thank you for a recipe which I will add to my favorites!

You know what I never leave comments on recipes but feel compelled to w/ this one. I made these tonight, followed the recipe exactly as written and they were SPECTACULAR. Very easy too! I will absolutely be repeating. Thank you for sharing this!!!

I really loved this! My only modification is to the beans. I drained but didn’t rinse them and mashed about half gently to help them stay in the taco better. The crispiness of the plantains is divine!

This is so good I can’t even express how delicious it is. At first, when I came upon the recipe I felt underwhelmed because it was just black beans and plantains, not much more to it. But the caramelized crust on the plantains and the flavourful black beans make it so unbelievably good, it just shows you how simple recipes can be just as good as those complex. I used my leftovers to make a buddha bowl with cilantro lime brown rice, just made it even better. I fricking love this website.

What a fantastic meal this was. We played with the spices a little bit (added some blackening seasoning to the plantains, especially); I only had a couple of tomatoes for salsa but I did have a mango and a lime, so our salsa was very mango-forward, which made a nice addition to the flavor party. The whole thing came together pretty quickly and everyone loved it! Adults ate 4 small corn tortillas’ worth apiece; toddler ate fillings, especially the black beans (!!). No leftovers! We will DEFINITELY MAKE THIS AGAIN and if you are on the fence, you really should give it a try.

I was slightly confused by the directions for the beans, since in the photo they appear to be rinsed and drained, but the recipe instructs bringing them to a low boil. So I rinsed and drained them, and added some butter and just a little bit of water to the pan so they didn’t dry, and mostly just gently heated them with the spices and kept them warm.

This are some of the best tacos that I have ever eaten. My husband who is super picky love these also. We eat these every week. Love love love this recipe

I’ve been carnivorous most of my life, but have been trying to move towards a mainly plant based diet and your recipes are what get me by!! I’m not the best cook and it doesn’t come naturally to me at all, but this still came out so good (prob took me a little bit longer than most to put together but that’s ok!). I followed some of the other reviewers and added vegan sour cream, your cilantro/lime chutney, spicy salsa, red onions, jalapeños, and avocado and it was out of control good and filling!! The plantains are the perfect balance of spicy and sweet. Thank you!!!

This was so quick and sooooo yummy! It is an instant staple! I immediately copied it onto a recipe card as soon as we ate it because I want to make it over and over! My partner helped with the prep and chopped the plantains into 1/2 inch cubes instead and that worked just fine! We topped ours with greek yogurt along with the suggested toppings! Ah-mazing! Thanks for the much needed quick dinner!

Oh my god, Dana. You’ve done it again.
I made this last night – We made the corn tortillas ourselves, and I garnished the tacos with homemade vegan sour cream, fresh jalapeño, diced onion, and your green chutney sauce. Also had your vegan queso as an appetizer. HOLY SMOKES. FLAVOR TOWN, USA!
My carnivorous partner couldn’t stop raving about how good it was. He took pictures of it to send to his friends and boast, and claimed it was his favorite meal ever.
It was easy to make, inexpensive, and the most delicious and flavorful meal I’ve ever made.
We eat eggs in our household (from our friends’ very happy chickens), so this morning I used all of the leftovers to make power bowls with an egg on top.
Thank you for yet another genius recipe!

This recipe is perfect, no need for modification other than a little extra heat for preference. This recipe is a staple in my house and I’ve been making it for a year! Love it!

These are absolutely delicious tacos. My husband and I recently changed our diets to a plant based diet and these definitely fit the bill. They are sweet, spicy and savory. They are also very filling. We have these at least once a week. Thanks so much for the recipe.

Made these tacos for the second time, and they’re just as good as I remember from my first time a year ago. I love how simple the spices are. I like to mash up a third of the beans to give them more of a “refried” texture. And I add in whatever veggies I’m trying to use up from the fridge. In this case, it was banana pepper. :)

This is also my favorite way to prepare plantains. Even when I’m not making these tacos, I’ll season my plantains with this blend. So perfect.

I decided to make these because I like taco’s and I like plantains, just never think of making them! Yummy! Your recipes are such an inspiration and I use quite a few actually! ;)

5 stars!
I made this recipe multiple times! Plantains are a staple in my kitchen.I grew up eating plantains so this was a definite for me! Great combination of spices that bring put the sweetness of the ripe plantains.Thank you!

These were the best tacos I’ve ever had. I added a little more cayenne and then made your Green Chutney and used it as a topper, along with Sriracha. So delish!

I made these last night and all I can think about today is making them again! I used all of the recommended condiments + guac. and it was a party in my mouth. The mix of spicy & sweet was just beyond amazing.

Dana, I made these for my family (including my brother-in-law’s family who are visiting from Algeria) and they were crazy about them. The flavors are just exquisite! You helping to give vegan cuisine a GREAT name. THANK YOU!!!

I’ve made this 3 times this week. It was SO easy, tasty and filling. Husband ate more of it than I did. I topped with cilantro, red onion, avocado and a little queso fresco. So so so good and honestly one of the easiest dinner to throw together.

Hi Dana, I have made this recipe and was really very happy with it. I never used plaintains (had to look it up because I dit not know what is was (I’m Dutch) so nice to have this first encounter. I took the liberty of translating your recipe into Dutch and have put it on my blog, for Dutch readers more easy to make. Of course I have put the original source (your website0 in there too! Many thanks, I will definitly make this more often! <3

These were amazing! I didn’t have any of the yummy toppings to put on top but they were still absolutely fantastic! I topped it off with some cooling watermelon for dessert and frankly I’m so full I don’t know if I’ll ever eat again!

Ridiculously good. Healthy and fast plant-based recipe…a true winner! Going on the rotation. ?

These were amazing!– my husband and I are new to the vegan diet and these were amazing! Thank you for sharing!

These were really, really delicious and a very simple weeknight recipe. Thank you for that. I simplified the method a bit by just stirring the black beans in at the end to warm and adding the extra cumin from the black bean mixture into the plantains and it worked out perfectly. Next time I might add a bit less sugar (my plantains were so sweet as to not need much caramelization) and a bit more heat (I used chipotle chili powder in place of the cayenne. These were so lovely. Thank you for the recipe.