Yesterday was National Taco Day--did you get to enjoy one? If not, maybe you should think about making these easy and truly delicious roasted veggie tacos tonight. Better late than never, right?

I have to admit that I'm not a huge fan of the traditional ground meat tacos, but these I love--they're so flavorful and light and you feel so good after you eat one. They're also easy to make and a great way to get more veggies into your diet. You start by chopping up all your veggies (and of course, you could sub in or omit any you don't like).

Then you mix them all together, tossing them with some oil and spices and roast them for about 20 minutes, until they're tender but not mushy.

Once they're done, you mix them together with some black beans and season with lime juice and salt and pepper.

Then you can either serve them on top of soft tortillas or crisp up the tortillas in a warm frying pan. Either way they're fabulous and a fitting way to belatedly celebrate the holiday! Adios!

And on a totally unrelated topic, I updated some of the not-so-stellar photos for the Glazed Lemon Cake I posted when I first started the blog about a year ago. Same cake, much prettier looking!!

Roasted Vegetable Tacos

Makes enough for about 9-10 tacos--if you have any of the veggie mixture leftover, it's great on its own too!

Prep Time: 15-20 minutes; Cook Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients 

• 3 tomatoes, (I used beefsteak), cored, seeded and chopped into 1/2 inch pieces

• 2 cups fresh or frozen corn (if fresh, it's about 3 ears of corn kernels)

• 1 medium-large zucchini, cut into 1/2 inch chunks

• 1 medium-large yellow squash, cut into 1/2 inch chunks

• 1 medium yellow onion, chopped

• 1 red bell pepper, seeded, cored and chopped into 1/2 inch chunks

• 3 tablespoons olive oil

• 1/2-1 teaspoon chili powder

• Salt and black pepper

• 1-15ounce can black beans, rinsed and drained

• 1 1/2 tablespoons fresh lime juice

• Flour tortillas

• Sour cream, hot sauce, shredded cheese (optional)

The Recipe

1.  Preheat oven to 400ºF.  Onto a large baking sheet, place the tomatoes, corn, zucchini, summer squash, onion and pepper. Drizzle oil over vegetables and toss them well to coat. Sprinkle with chili powder and salt and pepper to taste and toss again. Spread the mixture into an even layer and bake for 10 minutes. Stir, and flatten out into an even layer again and bake for another 10 minutes, or until veggies are tender sand slightly charred. Remove from oven. Transfer to a large bowl.

2  While vegetables are roasting, heat the beans in a small pot just to warm them. Once veggies have been transferred to the bowl, add the beans and lime juice and toss well. Taste and season with more salt and pepper if necessary.

3.  You can either use tortillas as is, heat them in the oven or warm them in a non-stick pan. If warming in the oven, take several tortillas and wrap them in a stack in silver foil. Place into a 350ºF oven for 5-7 minutes. If heating in a pan, place just enough oil to barely cover bottom of pan and heat over medium heat. When oil is hot, add tortilla and cook for about 1-2 minutes till golden brown spots appear and then use tongs to flip over and cook on other side until golden brown spots appear too. Remove and drain on paper towels. Repeat with rest of tortillas.

4.  Whatever way you use tortillas, top each with a generous mound of the vegetable mixture and serve as is or add a dollop of sour cream, shredded cheese, hot sauce or whatever you like. Serve immediately.

5.  Leftover vegetable mixture can be stored in an airtight container for several days in the refrigerator and tastes great cold or warmed up.

Enjoy!

Note:  Recipe adapted from Cooking Classy. I toyed around a lot with the original proportions and spices used.