Recipe
🥙 LUNCH
Tostadas Guatemaltecas
Crisp fried tortillas topped three ways, with guacamole, tomato salsa, or black beans, a light Guatemalan street lunch.
Guatemalan · easy · serves 4
prep 25 min · cook 15 min
~698 cal · 30g protein · 88g carbs · 26g fat · 20g fiber · 9g sugars · 9g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Tostadas are the quintessential Guatemalan street snack and light lunch, sold from stalls and comedores across the country, especially in the old colonial capital of Antigua. A tostada is simply a corn tortilla fried flat until crisp, then given a topping.
The trio is classic: one with guacamol (a looser, tomatoey Guatemalan guacamole), one with salsa de tomate, a cooked tomato sauce, and one with frijoles volteados, thick refried black beans. Each is finished with crumbled dry cheese, parsley, and a scatter of pickled onion or curtido.
Light, fresh, and endlessly snackable, they are ordered by the plateful and eaten in a few crunchy bites, the sort of thing you graze on in a market or plaza while the day goes by.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian and gluten-, egg-, nut- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 4
12 corn tortillas
2 avocados
4 tomatoes
1 1/2 cups refried black beans
1 onion, finely chopped
1/2 cup dry crumbling cheese (queso seco)
Hard to find? cotija, or rinsed feta - cotija crumbles the same way; feta is wetter and tangier, so rinse and dry it first
1 handful fresh parsley, chopped
for frying oil, for frying
Instructions
1
Fry the tortillas flat in shallow oil until crisp and golden, then drain.
✎ Chef’s note
Press each tortilla down with a spatula as it fries so it stays flat and crisps evenly instead of curling.
2
Mash the avocado into a loose guacamol with a little chopped tomato and onion.
3
Cook the rest of the tomato with onion into a simple salsa, and warm the refried beans.
4
Top the tostadas, some with guacamol, some with salsa, some with beans, then finish all with crumbled cheese, parsley, and onion.
Antigua street-food tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Sacatepéquez (Antigua). The dish that belongs to this valley specifically is pulique, from the Kaqchikel country around Antigua, while pepian's heartland is the K'iche' highlands further north. Both are cooked for a saint's day rather than for a Tuesday, in quantities meant for a courtyard full of people.
🗺️
Guatemala. Corn is still worked by hand in a great many kitchens. The piedra de moler, a sloped grinding stone worked with a stone roller, sits in the corner and does what a machine does elsewhere, and tortillas are patted out and cooked on a comal to order rather than bought in packets. Black beans go with almost everything, whole or fried down to a paste.
🌍
North America. The most consequential technique on this continent is nixtamalisation, cooking maize with lime or wood ash. It loosens the skins, makes the dough that becomes tortillas and tamales, and frees up niacin the body cannot otherwise absorb, which is why maize spread around the world without the technique and took pellagra with it.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Guatemala
Pepián de PolloChicken in a deep, toasty sauce of charred tomatoes, chiles, and ground seeds, Guatemala’s Mayan-rooted national stew.
Desayuno ChapínThe full Guatemalan breakfast plate: eggs, soupy black beans, fried sweet plantain, fresh cream, and warm corn tortillas.
Rellenitos de PlátanoSweet fried plantain dumplings stuffed with spiced black bean paste, a Guatemalan treat.
Browse all Guatemala recipes →
Good to know
Storing it: Fried food is best eaten fresh while crisp. Re-crisp leftovers in a hot oven or air fryer; the microwave makes them soft.
Make it a Guatemala meal
Atol de EloteDrink
Rellenitos de PlátanoDessert
Kak'ik (Q'eqchi' Turkey Soup)Dinner
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Frequently asked questions
What is Tostadas Guatemaltecas?
Crisp fried tortillas topped three ways, with guacamole, tomato salsa, or black beans, a light Guatemalan street lunch.
Where does Tostadas Guatemaltecas come from?
Tostadas Guatemaltecas is a Guatemalan dish from Sacatepéquez (Antigua), Guatemala.
Can Tostadas Guatemaltecas be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Tostadas Guatemaltecas recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Tostadas Guatemaltecas safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Tostadas Guatemaltecas take to make?
About 40 minutes total (25 minutes prep, 15 minutes cooking), serving 4.
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