Recipes You Can Use in Spanish Class
Cooking with students brings culture, practical skills, and enthusiasm to your classroom!
In Part 1 & Part 2 of this blog post, we investigated the benefits of cooking with students and tips to help cooking go smoothly. Now let’s jump into the fun part: what recipes can I actually cook with my students?
Ideas for Spanish Teachers:
Recipe #1: Homemade tortillas
There’s nothing more delicious than a fresh, hot tortilla! Handmade tortillas are a staple in many Spanish-speaking countries; trying them in class is a wonderful cultural activity for your students.
There are many variations of tortilla recipes and both English and Spanish language video tutorials available. Here’s a Spanish-language video with a tortilla recipe using heavy cream which could work well in class.
The recipe below is modified for use with students from the Inspired Taste website.
Time per student:
full class (mixing the tortilla dough) - 10 minutes
time to rest - 15 minutes
cook time - around 3 minutes per student
Click to access Food vocabulary and conversation lessons on our Teachers Pay Teachers store!
Supplies:
Electric griddle
Spatula
Bowls to mix the tortilla dough
a small cup or bowl to hold the warm water
Plates for each student
Tortilla press or rolling pin (optional)
Ingredients (for each pair of students)
1 cup of flour
1/2 t. salt
1/3 c. warm water
2.5 Tablespoons canola oil
Directions (for each pair of students)
dissolve the salt in the warm water
mix the flour and oil with a fork.
add the water and stir until dough forms. If the dough is dry, add a little more water.
knead the dough in the bowl for 2-3 minutes. Let rest for at least 15 minutes if possible. (If your class is too short you can omit this step, but the dough will roll out better if you let the dough rest. You can also make the dough in one class, cover it and refrigerate overnight, bring to room temperature before your next class, and roll out and cook the next day.)
Divide the dough into 4 equal-sized balls. Each student can take 2 balls to make 2 tortillas.
Roll out the dough with a rolling pin, use a tortilla press, or flatten the tortillas with your hands. Get them as thin as possible. They don’t have to be perfectly round!
Fry tortillas on the electric griddle in a small amount of oil. After about 1 minute (when it begins to brown), flip the tortilla.
When the second side is done, plate and eat! Or use your tortilla to make quesadillas or cinnamon tortillas (below).
This experience will ruin grocery-store tortillas for your kids forever!
Quesadillas:
These are the only ingredients you need for making quesadillas!
Another staple in many Spanish-speaking countries, quesadillas are an easy recipe to cook in class.
Time
4 minutes per student
Supplies:
Electric griddle
Spatula
Bowls to hold cheese
Plates for each student
Ingredients (for each pair of students)
store bought tortillas (1 per quesadilla)
shredded cheddar and/or mozzarella cheese (1/3 c. per quesadilla)
butter
Directions
spread 1/3 c. of cheese over a tortilla.
fold the tortilla in half.
add butter to the electric griddle.
fry the quesadilla until it’s toasty, about 2 minutes per side.
Of course, you can always add other toppings to your quesadillas, including pinto beans, salsa, chopped onion, bell peppers, chicken, bacon, etc. I typically leave these out to simplify the dish, but once students know how to make a quesadilla there’s no stopping them!
The homework after this lesson: Make quesadillas at home for your family! ¡Buen Provecho!
Students cook quesadillas and cinnamon-honey dessert tortillas in class
Cinnamon-Honey Tortillas
This recipe is inspired by sopapillas, the delicious deep-fried Mexican dessert topped with cinnamon and honey. I don’t have the equipment nor the inclination to deep fry anything in class, so I made up the following recipe to imitate these traditional flavors. My Colombian friend tried it and said they have a similar dessert in her culture. I made this recipe on the same day we did the quesadillas and it worked well.
Supplies for cinnamon-honey tortillas
Time
4 minutes per student
Supplies:
cutting board
butter knife
electric griddle
spatula
plates for each student
a cinnamon sugar shaker is helpful, but you can also use a bowl and spoon
Ingredients (for each pair of students)
store bought tortillas (1 per student)
cinnamon sugar (add a small amount of cinnamon to a bowl of sugar and mix. Add cinnamon until the mixture is light brown in color.
honey
butter
Directions
cut the tortilla into quarters
add butter to the hot griddle. Fry the tortilla quarters on both sides until crispy (about 2 minutes)
plate the tortillas. immediately top with cinnamon sugar and a drizzle of honey. (I warn students to use just a small amount of honey; less is more).
I was pleased with how these turned out, and students liked them!
Quesadillas and cinnamon tortillas on the griddle
Add cinnamon-sugar to your fried tortillas
Plated quesadilla and cinnamon-honey tortillas
Fresh Guacamole and / or Pico de Gallo (chunky) salsa
These recipes don’t require any actual cooking; the trade-off is you must trust your students with knives! I’ve used knives with both middle and high school students without incident; when introducing the project I explain the knife can touch the cutting board and the vegetables, and if used for any other purpose students will immediately be banned from cooking and referred for discipline. I’ve never had to discipline a student for misusing a knife. On the contrary, students understand the importance of safety, and they love cooking enough to follow this important expectation.
Time
10-15 minutes
Supplies:
cutting boards
paring knives (or dull steak knives!)
spoons & forks
bowls
Ingredients
avocado
tomato
garlic
onion
cilantro
salt
lemon juice
tortilla chips
Directions (guacamole)
cut the avocado in half, remove the pit, and scoop out the fruit with a spoon
mash with a fork
add crushed garlic, diced onion, tomato and cilantro to taste
add a splash of lemon juice
Directions (pico de gallo)
finely dice onion, tomato, cilantro, jalapeno, and garlic
mix together. Add a splash of lemon juice.
Kids will love the sense of accomplishment of making their own dips. Bring tortilla chips so everyone can sample their creations!
Setting up a cooking lesson takes time, thought and organization, but the results are worth the effort! What recipes have you done with students? Share in the comments. And be sure to check out my next blog post on how to make tapas (with no heat elements) with your students!
iBuen Provecho!
