Poppy O’Toole (aka Poppy Cooks) is a star of social media and television cookery shows whose 15-hour potato recipe went viral in lockdown, earning her the nickname “Potato Queen”. She is cheeky and brash – a chef who works in glorious technicolour and who has 1.5m followers on Instagram (4.7m on TikTok). Poppy’s practical new book – her sixth, The Actually Delicious Batch Cookbook – is geared to busy people with a capital B. She says that, since having a baby, "I live for anything that can be batch-cooked and reheated but still tastes actually delicious because, let’s be honest, life is busy and we still want good food”.
With chapter titles such as “Grab and go”, “Potatoes” (of course) and “Slow cooker dump bags”, it is certain to be another bestseller. The recipe she shares here is from the “fakeaways” section. “A whole bloomin’ chapter so you’ll always have an incredible alternative to a takeaway only minutes away.” For all those who are just leaving home to continue their studies, note that these smash burger tacos have been called “the ultimate university survival hack”. And as Poppy describes them as “the lovechild of a crispy-edged smash burger and a maximum efficiency taco – two takeaway icons coming together to make something arguably even better.”
Words by Jane Ferguson
Photographs by Haarala Hamilton
Poppy’s smash burger tacos
Makes 8
Ingredients
400g beef mince (15% fat)
2 tsp garlic granules
2 tsp onion granules
2 tsp Italian seasoning
2 tsp salt
2 tbsp American mustard
2 tbsp tomato ketchup
8 small flour tortillas
Olive oil
8 slices of American cheese
Burger sauce, to taste
Sliced red onion
Small handful of torn lettuce
Method
In a bowl, mix together the mince, garlic granules, onion granules, Italian seasoning, salt, mustard and ketchup until evenly distributed and well combined.
Separate the mixture into 8 equal-sized balls and smash each one down on to a tortilla. Using lightly oiled hands, flatten out the mixture each time so that it covers the surface of the wrap.
To eat now
Heat a frying pan with a drizzle of olive oil over a medium-high heat. A few at a time, fry the tacos, meat side down, for 4-5 mins until golden brown, then flip so that the meat is uppermost. Place a slice of American cheese on top of each smashed burger and pop a lid on the pan for 1 min to melt the cheese. Finish topped with burger sauce, sliced onion and shredded lettuce. Repeat as necessary.
To eat later
Freeze the meat-topped uncooked tacos flat on a baking sheet until solid, then transfer them to a freezer bag, layering them between sheets of parchment paper, for up to 3 months.
Cook from frozen following the instructions given in “Eat Now”, but cooking for 6-7 mins on the first side and 2 mins on the second side. Finish with the sauce, onion and lettuce.
Poppy Cooks: The Actually Delicious Batch Cookbook is published by Bloomsbury, £22; to order at a discount go to the Nerve Bookshop