Poblano Sopes with Avocado Salad

8 Reviews
ADD YOUR REVIEW
Photo: Becky Luigart-Stayner; Styling: Lindsey Lower
Hands-on Time
20 Mins
Total Time
25 Mins
Yield
Serves 4 (serving size: 1 sope and 3/4 cup salad)
By Tiffany Vickers Davis
August 2013
RECIPE BY Cooking Light

We lighten up these traditionally deep-fried Spanish tortilla cakes with a quick pan-sear to ensure a good, crispy edge, then finish them off in the oven for even cooking. They're fresh, simple, filling, and fast.

Ingredients

  • 1 poblano chile
  • 1/4 cup uncooked quinoa
  • 5 ounces masa harina (about 1 cup)
  • 1 cup warm water
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt, divided
  • 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, divided
  • 2 tablespoons canola oil
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons fresh lime juice
  • 1/4 teaspoon sugar
  • 2 cups baby arugula
  • 1 1/2 cups halved cherry tomatoes
  • 2 tablespoons cilantro leaves
  • 2 ounces queso fresco, crumbled (about 1/2 cup)
  • 1 medium avocado, peeled and coarsely chopped (about 1 cup)

Nutritional Information

  • Calories 317
  • Fat 17.3g
  • Satfat 2.4g
  • Monofat 9.9g
  • Polyfat 3.3g
  • Protein 8g
  • Carbohydrate 36.3g
  • Fiber 6.7g
  • Cholesterol 5mg
  • Iron 3mg
  • Sodium 319mg
  • Calcium 116mg

How to Make It

Step 1

Preheat broiler.

Step 2

Cut chile in half lengthwise; discard seeds and membranes. Place chile halves, skin sides up, on a foil-lined baking sheet; flatten with hand. Broil 6 minutes or until blackened. Place in a paper bag; fold to close tightly. Let stand 5 minutes. Peel and chop chile.

Step 3

Preheat oven to 350°.

Step 4

Combine chile, uncooked quinoa, masa harina, 1 cup water, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper in a medium bowl; stir until a soft dough forms. Divide mixture into 4 equal pieces; shape each piece into a 4-inch patty. Heat a large ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat. Add canola oil to pan; swirl to coat. Add sopes to pan; cook 3 minutes or until browned. Turn sopes over; place pan in oven. Bake at 350° for 10 minutes or until browned and heated through.

Step 5

Combine remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt, remaining 1/4 teaspoon pepper, olive oil, juice, and sugar in a medium bowl, stirring with a whisk. Add arugula and remaining ingredients; toss gently to coat. Serve over sopes.

Chef's Notes

MyRecipes is working with Let's Move!, the Partnership for a Healthier America, and USDA's MyPlate to give anyone looking for healthier options access to a trove of recipes that will help them create healthy, tasty plates. For more information about creating a healthy plate, visit www.choosemyplate.gov.

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Ratings & Reviews

bjane1's Review

kayakGirl21
October 17, 2013
Fun, different, easy recipe! I agree that the sopes need a bit more spice but overall really enjoyed this meal...will try adding cumin, smoked salt, and red pepper flakes next time. Hubby raved. Served with a side of steamed broccoli...1 sopa was plenty. Had them again...topping them with refried beans per the suggestion of another reader was delicious!

kayakGirl21's Review

StephanieLark
September 25, 2013
My family, including a 5 year old, thought this was great. I didn't have any Quinoa so I used Couscous instead and I also added 1/4 t. of cumin to the Sopes but other than that I didn't change anything else and we didn't think the meal was dry or bland. Will definitely make again.

lesliefo's Review

mijenn2
September 12, 2013
Added 1/2 a jalapeno and 1/4 teaspoon each cumin and oregano, based on previous reviews. It was still bland and dry.

StephanieLark's Review

alphabetizing
August 23, 2013
This dish is worth trying, but with a few modifications. I agree with the other reviewers that the poblano got lost in this recipe - I'm wondering if upping it to 2-3 even would help with both moisture and give it a bit more spicy/smoky flavor. I LOVED that I could easily make the patties the night before & that I could bake them all at once (so I didn't have to stand at the stove browning them off in batches) which gave me more time to finish up the salad. Served these with refried black beans on top of the patties and then the salad on top of that (more traditional sopes have both refried beans & then usually some kind of meat before they're topped with lettuce/avadado/cheese). Loved the grown-up version with this salad. I agree, 2 sopes was VERY filling, especially with the added beans - served with fresh melon, but most of us were too full to eat any of it.

sprky182's Review

sprky182
August 22, 2013
These were kind of bland and I didn't love the texture. The arugula salad with avocado was tasty but the sopas didn't really add anything.

megdawg517's Review

lesliefo
August 13, 2013
I thought these were great - and great-looking too (I'm a sucker for pretty food!). This was a fun recipe for me, too, because I got to use fresh poblanos, black cherry tomatoes, and yellow pear tomatoes from the garden. The sopes are dry, but using an abundance of tomatoes really helps to juice things up. They are NOT kidding about this being filling - my husband and I each tried to eat 2 sopes and we were incredibly uncomfortably full afterwards! When we served up leftovers, we stuck to 1 each. :o)

alphabetizing's Review

megdawg517
July 31, 2013
Made as-is, it was too dry and lacked flavor depth--I honestly couldn't taste the poblano, so I would guess it was intended to add moisture, but it hardly even did that. It is a good base, though, but would need a lot of tweaks to improve flavor and bump up rating. It was better the next day when I added extra lime juice. This IS filling, so if you really are a vegetarian and have trouble finding vegetarian meals that fill you up, I would recommend making changes: add a seeded/finely chopped jalapeno or serrano and 2 tsp cumin to the sope mix. For the salad, it was better, but as I said, needed more lime juice, so I'd do 2 tbsp and serve with a lime wedge per plate so people can add as needed. I'm not sure that the quinoa cooks properly to digest the full protein (been told by versed veg*ns that it should be translucent and the coil visible to digest all the benefits), so if you're worried about extra protein, throw some black beans in the salad.

mijenn2's Review

bjane1
July 29, 2013
Truly, a "good, solid recipe..." 3.5 stars! Pleasantly surprised by this hearty dish; sometimes, vegetarian entrees feel more like tapas, but I very much enjoyed the balance, substance, and variety of ingredients. Used up the bounty from the farmer's market by pairing it with a fruit salad with queso fresco from CL. Summer on a plate.