Tex Mex food generally is very easy to make. At perhaps its simplest, put some ground beef, chopped lettuce and cut up tomatoes in a hard or soft tortilla and you have a great hard or soft taco!

If you want something different, it won’t take all that much more effort to make another tpe of Tex Mex dish.

We do recommend that you invest in some chile powder spices, as well as cumin, paprika and cinnamon.

You’ll also need dried or canned beans and these should include black, pinto and kidney beans.

• A super-easy dish to make is carnitas (pulled pork). Sear some pork butt and then let the meat simmer in the oven in a spicy stock of your choice for about four hours. Then add it your tacos, quesadillas, burritos, whatever you choose!
• Chile con carne is just a mix of kidney beans, spices, tomatoes, and ground beef. Cook in one pot. That’s it: done!
• No Tex Mex dish is worthy of the name without a condiment known as pico de gallo. This zesty addition to your Tex Mex meals is just tomatoes that have been marinated in garlic, jalapenos and lime juice. Add pico de gallo to your tacos, fajitas, just about Tex Mex meal for some real added zest.

Pico de gallo is a great condiment or even chip dip. Marinate cut up tomatoes in lime juice, jalapenos and garlic and you’re done!

• For a basic – but absolutely delicious – burrito, mix some spicy black beans, that just-created pico de gallo, and some guacamole in a soft taco. Your friends and family will think you went to a Tex Mex cooking school!
• The recipe above is great for vegetarians and so is the following: mash up some black beans with your favorite salsa and then spread the mixture on a soft tortilla, place some cut up vegetables on the top of the spread, roll it up and enjoy!

If you’d rather have delicious Tex Mex dishes made for you (no clean up required!), visit one of our Mattito’s locations. We look forward to serving you!

By jeffreyw (Mmm... Pico de Gallo Uploaded by Fæ) [CC-BY-2.0], via Wikimedia Commons