Gardening 2024

[M1k3]

Please tell me, what Mexican food are you making that is light? I like it, but I have a hard time finding food light enough to eat consistently. I generally cook for the week, so it's nice to have something that is not heavy. I picked up a book recommended here, Oaxaca: Cooking from the Heart of Mexico, and while the food is great, it tends to be fairly heavy.

Soups, ceviche, birria, fajitas, nopales salad, etc. Look at side dishes and just do beans, not refried ones.

 

[M1k3]

Soups, ceviche, birria, fajitas, nopales salad, etc. Look at side dishes and just do beans, not refried ones.

And tacos! Onion, cilantro, some radish and salsa. You know, like @Lars makes.

 

[NameAlreadyTaken]

Please tell me, what Mexican food are you making that is light? I like it, but I have a hard time finding food light enough to eat consistently. I generally cook for the week, so it's nice to have something that is not heavy. I picked up a book recommended here, Oaxaca: Cooking from the Heart of Mexico, and while the food is great, it tends to be fairly heavy.

Point taken, there’s lots of recipes that are very heavy.
I do a similar thing, cook for the week on the weekends, but what that ends up being is a central protein around which we vary stuff day by day. Which is probably not remotely traditional, so maybe I should describe it more as Mexican “inspired” recipes.
My first Mexican cookbook was Pati’s Mexican Table, which was the first time I had learnt about some of the different techniques / methods that were used (compared to my experience with more European recipes).
So we would do something like a Carnitas / Chicken Tinga / mole / slow cooked beef / etc, and around that we’d have a salad, always some black beans of some variety, a couple of salsas, a pico, and some tortillas, always a guacamole, maybe some cheese on the side, and the family can choose what they want of that each night. My wife likes the spice but not the heat, so the meals typically don’t have too much chilli (I add mine through sauces or a mango pico later). A lot of the (bad) heavy Mexican food I’ve had out here in Australia (which I strongly doubt is traditional) has been heavy on cheese / chilli and low on fresh vegetables. We’ve found a balance that works for us by just changing the balance to more fresh vegetables (just a quick chop up each night), and letting the spices complement the ingredients (like proteins or beans, etc) rather than just be about the spice / chilli.
Things I can’t live without now: Mexican dried oregano, dried chillis of different varieties for different applications, fresh cilantro / coriander, a pinch of cumin, smoked paprika (or smoked salt).

I will confess though that my one indulgence is occasionally making this heavy mashed potato recipe (alarmingly addictive): https://patijinich.com/chunky-chipotle-mashed-potatoes/

 

[Michi]

A lot of the (bad) heavy Mexican food I’ve had out here in Australia (which I strongly doubt is traditional) has been heavy on cheese / chilli and low on fresh vegetables.

I haven't been able to find a good Mexican restaurant in Brisbane in, like, forever. There used to be a really good one in Toowoomba, which I used to go to regularly. Sadly, that's 120 km away, and the restaurant closed almost 40 years ago…

 

[NameAlreadyTaken]

I haven't been able to find a good Mexican restaurant in Brisbane in, like, forever. There used to be a really good one in Toowoomba, which I used to go to regularly. Sadly, that's 120 km away, and the restaurant closed almost 40 years ago…

Mate, next time you’re in Melbourne I’ll shoot you some recommendations.
Mamasita and Bodega Underground are my staples. There’s other decent Mexican in the inner northern Suburbs too if you’re in the neighbourhood.

 

[jjlotti]

You know it's on when you walk out to the herbs and 89 dishes pop into your gourd!