Every so often my body craves meat-free meals. I can’t necessarily say it’s because I’m a closet vegetarian or anything like that, I think I just enjoying eating meat-free sometimes. It usually happen after a few days of heavy carnivore scarfing. Plus I like making dishes that my Momma (she’s vegetarian) can enjoy too. It’s all about my Momma, really. Anyhow, I was having one of those days yesterday and really craving a sope. Mmmmm sopes!

I looked in my pantry and not only did I find a bag of Maseca front and center, I also saw a plump little onion sitting there waiting to be had. Fast forward thirty minutes later and my bag of Maseca was now a batch of sopes. I had a pan of refried beans on the stove, and a mushroom caramelized onion mixture was underway. I called my Mom up on the phone and said “Get over here!” It was nice, we had an afternoon lunch in a matter of minutes. She was happy, and I was happy too. I have to remind myself more often that it’s good to eat vegetarian, and not to get so caught up in the “meat” race. Simple, and yet so delicious.

This meal could be made as a light lunch served with a little side salad, or as a main dish for dinner served with a side of rice. I would even consider making them in a much smaller version as an appetizer for a party. Doesn’t matter how you make them, once you do you’ll realize how easy they are to make and never look back. You could even make all the ingredients and have a little sope bar. Build your own.

Ingredients for sopes de hongos:

• 4 – cups Maseca
• 1/2- teaspoon salt
• 2 1/2 – cups warm water
• vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 – tablespoons butter
• 1 – onion (sliced)
• 1 – basket of mushrooms (sliced)
• refried beans
• crumbled queso fresco
• salsa
• sour cream or crema

Directions:

1. In a large bowl add maseca, salt and water. Mix with hands until no longer sticky.
2. Divide the dough into 18 to 20 balls, then flatten it between both hands. Make sure the dough is a little on the thick side, and about the size of the palm of your hand.
3. On a hot comal heat each disk for a minute on each side. Remove from comal and place on a clean working surface.
4. Pinch the sides of the sope to form a little edge. Make sure to do this step right when the sope comes off the comal. Careful not to burn your fingers.
5. In a frying pan over a medium high flame add vegetable oil (enough to cover entire sope). Allow to get hot.
6. Drop each sope into the hot oil and fry till lightly golden about a minute.
7. Remove from oil and place on a paper lined plate to drain off oil drippings.
8. In a large frying oil over a medium flame add in butter.
9. Add in onion and sauté for 10 minutes.
10. Add in mushrooms and sauté for 7 minutes.
11. Remove onion mushroom mixture from stove and place in a dish.
12. Fill sopes with a huge dollop of refried beans and smooth to fill center.
13. Top beans with onion mushroom mixture. 
14. Then top with queso fresco, sour cream and salsa.
15. Enjoy!

Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Maseca. However, the recipe and opinions are my own.

This traditional Mexican dish is attached to many fond memories of dinner time with my cousins.  My tia would start her day early making the meat, charring her chiles, chopping onions and tomatoes, and crumbling the cheese.  That was always a sure sign that we were going to have sopes for dinner.  Us kids would run outside all day long and as the day would come to a close we tiredly shuffled inside and formed a line in the bathroom to wash the days’ grime off our hands.  Some of my cousins would start a game of Monopoly, and others would opt for TV.  I always made my way into the kitchen where I would find my tia measuring out her Maseca and mixing it with all the ingredients needed to make sopes.  I stood close by to see if she would let me roll the corn based dough between my hands to form a small ball then pat them into thick fist sized disks, most of the time she would let me.  Then after they had their turn on the comal she would take each disk and pinch the edges to form a mini wall that would keep the ingredients from falling over board, forming the perfect sope.  She would then fill a frying pan with oil and let the oil get piping hot and drop each disk in just until it was perfectly fried on the outside. Then all the fried sopes would sit on a paper lined tray to drain and wait for the rest to be made.  One by one they would be topped with beans and cheese, some with meat and some with chicken.  Everyone had a different request, heck one of my little cousins just wanted Ovaltine on his (yucky).  Then all the cousins would join at the table, some of us sharing chairs and other squishing together to sit on a bench.  None the less we were together, happily eating our sopes as one big family with lots of hungry mouths.

Ingredients for Sopes:

• 4 – cups Maseca
• 1/2- teaspoon salt
• 2 1/2 – cups warm water
• vegetable oil

Disclosure: This post is a collaboration with Latina Bloggers Connect and Maseca. All opinions are 100% my own.