Happy Sunday.

Our goal is to get your cooking juices flowing and inspire you to try new regional dishes and techniques:

This week we have a deep dive and framework for making breakfast tacos at home (especially if you don’t live in Texas), plus how to think like a restaurant when cooking vegetables at home.

As always, a grocery shopping list for the recipes is linked in Notion at the end of this email.

In This Week’s Edition:

Try Something New 🤯 — Breakfast Taco Framework

Throwback Time 🍳 — Restaurant Vegetable Hacks

The Leftover Shelf 🥡 — Ramen w/ Crispy Brussel Sprouts

Extra Helpings 🤤 — Sourdough Struggles, Shaved Carrot Salads, & More!

Shopping List ✅ — Ingredients sorted into categories for easy shopping!

Try Something New 🤯

The breakfast taco is an essential American regional dish that originates out of central & south Texas. Making a good breakfast taco is a bit of an art — and distinct from making a standard taco or breakfast burrito.

Breakfast Taco Framework

If you want to make an Austin, Texas worthy breakfast taco at home, here’s what you need to know:

Pillar 1: The Tortilla

Breakfast tacos are almost always served on a flour tortilla (if you’re gluten-free, you can break tradition and opt for corn).

Every spot does its tortillas differently — some serve thick and pillowy tortillas, while others offer thin and flexible ones, almost like burrito wrappers.

Some places even double stack the flour tortilla and go heavy on the filling. We think it’s acceptable to split the filling between the two. You can even find spots that will serve you a mound of filling on a plate with a stack of flour tortillas on the side. This is a great tactic for hosting or serving the family.

Unfortunately, most store-bought flour tortillas simply won’t do the breakfast taco justice: you want something that is soft, pliable, chewy, and able to withstand a bit of steam and moisture without tearing. Make your own, or use the best you can find (try a local tortilleria!) — your breakfast taco is only as good as your tortilla.

Pillar 2: The Filling

Other than the tortilla, the main requirement of a breakfast taco is the eggs, which should be scrambled. For a complete taco, you need other ingredients to mix into the eggs. As exemplified by the illustration above, here are some layers to consider:

1. Creamy or Starchy Base: Refried beans & diced potatoes are the most common option, although avocado or even a queso sauce would work in this category. This layer can either be scrambled into the eggs, or slathered onto the tortilla as a base for the fillings.

2. Crispy or Salty Protein: Bacon, chorizo, ham, sausage & brisket are the classics (any breakfast protein works). You can opt out of meat altogether, but this layer brings great texture and seasoning. Traditional taco meat fillings like carnitas or barbacoa are usually reserved for lunch tacos.

3. Cheese: This is almost a requirement (many taco trucks mix it right in unless you ask otherwise). Grated, mild melting cheeses such as jack, white cheddar, or mozzarella are fitting candidates. Crumbled cheeses like queso fresco also work, but no need to get too fancy at 8 am in Texas.

Any combination of fillings is welcome, and most breakfast taco joints work by custom-building your tacos anyways.

Pillar 3: The Toppings

A breakfast taco is not complete without its salsa, if not 2 or 3 different ones. Most spots generously include an array of colors, textures, and heat levels for you to cover your taco to your heart’s desire. Pico de gallo, extra cilantro, or crema are acceptable. At home, use what you have around.

Here are classic combos to recreate at home (or order on your next visit):

Common Breakfast Tacos Orders

1. Egg, chorizo, bean, & cheese (as in the illustration above)

2. Egg, bacon, potato, & cheese

3. Migas scramble (eggs with diced tomato, peppers, tortilla strips, cilantro), avocado, & cheese

4. Egg, BBQ (brisket or chopped sausage), & cheese

All to be served with an assortment of salsas, of course.

Throwback Time 🍳

Why are restaurant vegetables so much more flavorful and satisfying than the ones we try to recreate at home? From seasoning tricks to embracing high heat, there’s a handful of easy principles most people just overlook at home, but restaurants take advantage of every time.

Check out the video or Twitter thread summary here for the 7 techniques you can do at home to level up your vegetable recipes.

By the way, make sure to follow Ethan’s newly active Twitter for great threads on home cooking tactics, ingredient discussions, video summaries, and more!

These techniques will make you want to cook way more vegetables at home moving forward. Save any trimmings for vegetable stock, and then make an extra large batch of crispy brussel sprouts for this week’s Leftover Shelf recipe….

The Leftover Shelf 🥡

Leftovers are back in style…if you know how to use them.

This week’s move:

Leftover Crispy Brussel Sprouts (or any other roasted vegetable) → Ramen w/ Roasted Veg Toppings

Using vegetable stock will make this recipe vegetarian! To make, simmer any veg trimmings with extra onions, garlic, carrots, celery, and dried mushrooms for an extra flavorful broth.

Ramen Components

• Roasted vegetables of choice for toppings (brussel sprouts, mushrooms, bok choy, etc)

• Scallions for freshness (also try chopped raw onions, corn kernels, and other herbs)

• Soft-boiled eggs, peeled and cut in half

• Ramen noodles of choice

• Broth of choice, homemade or store-bought

• Tare (broth seasoning) of choice: try a spoonful of soy sauce, Maggi seasoning, or a sprinkle of MSG.

• Additional toppings to preference: chili or sesame oil, nori, toasted sesame seeds, etc.

To assemble: Cook the ramen noodles to the package directions. Ladle hot broth over the noodles and season the bowl to taste with your tare of choice. Top the noodles with reheated roasted vegetables (use the oven or broiler to crisp them up), fresh toppings, soft-boiled eggs, and any other toppings or aromatic oils.

Extra Helpings 🤤

🚀 Viral Eats

Cooking trends explained.

Q: What’s up with this shaved carrot salad? Does it even count as a real salad?

A: Everybody loves a healthy food trend — especially one that is quick and easy to make. The latest? #rawcarrotsalad has amassed millions of views and endless videos on TikTok.

Sure it counts as a real salad: it’s a cold, raw vegetable mixture dressed with oil and vinegar.

But why did this barebones recipe sore in popularity, if not for its simplicity?

1) Supposedly, raw carrots contain specific forms of indigestible fibers that help to optimize the body’s natural detoxification processes. Many videos claim that the salad promotes gut health and hormone balance.

2) The novelty of using a vegetable peeler to make carrot shavings adds to the viral nature of the recipe: every video is shareable not just for the recipe but for the embedded peeler hack as well.

3) From a cooking perspective, the flavor of the carrot is highlighted by the salt (which amplifies ingredients), the oil (which both enhances and causes flavors to linger), and the vinegar (acidity brightens flavors and makes the mouth salivate for more).

Plus, the texturally interesting shavings are forkable, crunchy, and floppy all at the same time.

TLDR: It’s a light, refreshing snack or side that’s also compelling to eat from a health, flavor, and texture standpoint.

🧠 Reader Q&A

Q: “I’m all for labor-intensive baking and have always wanted to try sourdough, but I haven’t done it yet for this reason: it seems like once you have a starter going, you just have to keep baking endless bread all the time, forever. Is there a way to make the sourdough schedule a little more chill?” - Meredith S

A: You can keep a sourdough starter in the fridge and you’ll only need to feed it every few weeks. Some people claim it can even go untouched for months without dying. Here’s a method for no-waste, no-fuss starter upkeep (video).

In general, sourdough is going to require extensive time and steps. Because it’s naturally leavened without commercial yeast, the dough takes a lot of time to fully rise and come to life. And if you want those signature air pockets and open, lacy crumb, you’re going to have to go through significant folding/strengthening to achieve a proper gluten network.

A couple of options to speed up the process a little bit (but not much):

1) Use unfed starter straight from the fridge and don’t bother making a leaven.

2) Make an easier, everyday sourdough sandwich-style bread. Perhaps less sexy than a classic sourdough boule, but much faster.

3) If you just want that sourdough flavor with less hassle, you can try a recipe that combines starter with commercial yeast for a dependable loaf.

🏆 Dinner Winner! Reader Photo Submission of the Week

This week’s winner is Tyler C, who made a traditional fettuccini alfredo and grilled chicken with pesto. Looks amazing!

For a chance to be featured in a future email, reply with a picture of the best meal you made this week.

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Ready to shop? 🛒

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