Try these muffin tin taco cups for a great game day snack or for a fun and easy dinner! Great to serve to your plant-based friends and family!
Well, it looks like I’m officially on a roll with the fun plant-based comfort food recipes. We’ve done noodles and thai peanut sauce, we’ve done a cowboy casserole, and now here we are with these plant-based muffin tin taco cups! This is another one that would be great to make for plant-eating friends and family for a game day type of situation, but it also makes a fun weekend dinner for kids! This recipe was 100% inspired by the taco cups that one of my neighbours made for another neighbour’s New Year’s Eve party a few weeks ago. They were so well received and so cute that I knew I had to try to make a plant-based version of them.
Making the Cups
A lot of taco cup recipes use wonton wrappers as their base, but as far as I can tell all wonton wrappers have egg in them. This being a plant-based recipe and all, that just wouldn’t do. I decided to see if the whole wheat tortillas that I usually use for tacos would work since I know that they crisp up nicely when I make homemade tortilla chips with them. And they did! 🙂
To make the cups, just cut out circles about 3.5″ in diameter. You can use a round cookie cutter or just trace around a cup with a knife like I did. I used the large size tortillas and I was able to get four circles from each.
Press each circle down into the cups of a mini muffin tin and allow it to fold in on itself, making little ruffly edges.
No need to pre-bake the cups! Just add your filling and bake everything together!
Fillings for Muffin Tin Taco Cups
You can definitely keep things as classic as you like when it comes to your fillings, or you can get a little more adventurous, just like with regular tacos! Plant-based “ground beef” bought from the store works really in this recipe if you’ll be sharing these with a meat loving crowd. I recommend getting the regular flavour “meat” and adding in your own homemade taco seasoning rather than getting the pre-seasoned “Mexican” flavoured fake ground beef. The flavour of the pre-seasoned stuff just seems a little off to me and maybe a little too spicy for some people. Black beans mixed with a little taco seasoning also work really well if you’d like to skip the fake meat.
You’ll also need some kind of plant-based cheese and some salsa. If you like, you can top your taco cups with a little green onion or some cubed avocado after they’re done baking. And maybe even some shredded lettuce and just a tiny dollop of plant-based cream cheese? OK, maybe I’m getting a little carried away. My taco cups would probably be a little too full if I added all those extra toppings.
Printable Recipe for the Plant-Based Taco Cups
Here’s the full recipe! Print it out if you’d like to by clicking on the little printer icon!
Try these muffin tin taco cups for a great game day snack or for a fun and easy dinner! Great to serve to your plant-based friends and family!
- 6 Large tortillas (I used whole wheat)
- 1 Package plant-based ground beef
- 1 tbsp Homemade taco seasoning
- 1 cup Plant-based cheddar cheese
- 3/4 cup Salsa
- Green onions and other toppings (optional)
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Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Cut out 24 circles from your tortillas that are about 3.5" in diameter. You should get four circles out of each large tortilla.
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Press the tortilla circles into the cups of a mini muffin tin, allow the sides to fold in on themselves to fit, creating ruffles around the edges of your tortilla cups.
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In a medium sauce pan, break up your plant-based ground beef mixture and cook on medium heat for about five minutes, sprinkling on your taco seasoning about halfway through the cooking time.
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Spoon about a tablespoon of "meat" into each taco cup, then top each with a teaspoon of salsa and a generous pinch of plant-based cheese.
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Bake for 15 minutes. Allow to cool for about two minutes, then add any extra toppings you'd like!
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Courtenay Hartford is the author of creeklinehouse.com, a blog based on her adventures renovating a 120-year-old farmhouse in rural Ontario, Canada. On her blog, Courtenay shares interior design tips based on her own farmhouse and her work as founder and stylist of the interior photography firm Art & Spaces. She also writes about her farmhouse garden, plant-based recipes, family travel, and homekeeping best practices. Courtenay is the author of the book The Cleaning Ninja and has been featured in numerous magazines including Country Sampler Farmhouse Style, Better Homes and Gardens, Parents Magazine, Real Simple, and Our Homes.