Mexican Pizza | Taco Bell Style Vegetarian Mexican Pizza

It was making one of my family's favorite Take-out at home.
This Taco Bell style Mexican Pizza (Vegetarian recipe) is so quick to make and can be enjoyed anytime at home
without having to drive over to Taco Bell.

For this week's theme of 'making Take-outs at home', the next recipe I chose is something we all love. Taco Bell is a favorite place for us to have a quick bite as it is one of the places where we can get a better vegetarian option. One of our very favorite is the Mexican Pizza. It is usually served with beef and beans, but they make it very vegetarian friendly by using just the beans in the Mexican Pizza.

Making these Mexican Pizzas at home is very easy. The only thing we need to perfect is crisping the tortillas. Wish we got the crisped up tortillas in the stores similar to the the Taco shells. After a couple of trials, I was able to get the perfectly crisped up tortilla. I used stove top as well as oven to crisp the tortillas. The tortillas were partly cooked on a griddle and then transferred to the oven to further crisp up.

I used store bought refried beans and enchilada sauce to use in my Mexican Pizzas. These are stuff I usually have in my pantry to make enchiladas,Tortilla Pie, burritos or quesadillas. Lately though, I have not been using refried beans a lot and use black beans instead. I love the flavor of the black beans over the refried beans. But when making the Mexican pizza, my boys wanted it just like Taco Bell and hence I used the refried beans. When buying refried beans, make sure you buy the fat free ones or the ones that specifically say 'vegetarian' on them. the fat that is used in the refried beans is Lard and hence buying fat free is important if you are a vegetarian.

I used the Mexican blend cheese for the Mexican pizza. You could use any cheese of your choice, but not mozzarella as it won't be the right texture for this. I also used jalapenos for heat but that is completely optional. Also, removing the pulp from the tomatoes before chopping would be nice as it would help keep the pizza from getting soggy.

Ingredients to make the Mexican Pizza - Makes 4

• Tortilla - 8 ( I used fajita size flour tortillas)
• Refried Beans (vegetarian) - 1 can ( 14 oz)
• Mexican Cheese Blend - 1 cup
• Enchilada sauce - ½ cup
• Tomatoes (finely chopped) - 2
• Spring onions (thinly sliced) - 2
• Jalapeno pepper (optional) - 1 (deseeded and finely chopped)
• Oil - for spraying the pans

Procedure to make the Mexican Pizza -

To Crisp the tortilla -

• Preheat the oven to 400 F.
• Heat a griddle/pan on stove top. When the pan is hot, drizzle/spray some cooking oil and fry the tortilla, flipping often.
• Once the tortilla starts to brown, place it on a baking sheet and place it in the oven. Flip couple of times and let it further cook until they are crispy. It took couple of minutes for me to completely crisp them.
• You could do this entirely in the oven, but I felt that took longer to crisp. This method of partially cooking it on the stove top and then finishing in the oven was quicker.
• Repeat the same with all the tortillas and keep them ready.

Assembling and Baking the Mexican Pizza -

• Do not turn off the oven yet. We will be using it to bake the pizzas after assembling.
• Remove the refried beans from the can and place it in a heat proof bowl. Heat the beans until it is warm and easily spreadable. I warmed mine for about a minute in the microwave.
• Chop the tomatoes, spring onions and the jalapenos (if using) and keep it ready.
• Place a crisp tortilla on the work surface. Spoon about ¼ of the beans in the center and spread it.
• Cover the beans with an other tortilla.
• Spread about a tablespoon of enchilada sauce over the top tortilla.
• Top with ¼ cup of cheese.
• Layer the tomatoes, spring onions and jalapeno over the cheese.

• Place it in the oven for 6 to 8 minutes or until the cheese is melted and bubbly.
• Remove it from the oven and let it rest for couple of minutes before slicing.

• Repeat the same with the rest of the tortillas and enjoy!