Give Ham And Cheese Sandwiches A Mexican-Inspired Upgrade With These 3 Ingredients

The ham and cheese sandwich is an undeniable staple. It is simple food, perfect for the brown bag lunch. But, as with many such ubiquitous foods, it can get a bit dull. If you're the sort that packs their own lunch, you know the struggle of eating the same sandwich day after day and week after week. Fortunately, it doesn't take much to add some Mexican flair to your midday meal. Tossing slices of avocado, tomato, and jalapeño into your sandwich in the style of a Mexican torta can pump it up with some south of the border sabor (that's Spanish for flavor).

If you haven't had the pleasure, a torta is simply a Mexican sandwich. They are often served on soft rolls, like teleras or bolillos (also a remedy for anxiety), and feature all sorts of different fillings. Tortas can be stuffed with the same sorts of things you expect of a sandwich in the U.S., such as sliced deli meats and cheeses, but they are also often filled with more exciting ingredients, like refried beans or chorizo.

Given the breadth of tortas, our first suggestions are honestly pretty tame. Sure, tomato, avocado, and jalapeño will spice things up a bit, but why not really lean into the Mexican flavor? Instead of plain jalapeños, toss in some of the pickled variety. In lieu of tomatoes, try pico de gallo. You could even mash pico into the avocados for an easy guacamole to spread on the roll. Or look deeper into the world of tortas for further inspiration.

Now, there is little that beats a ham and cheese sandwich for ease, especially if you're just grabbing a loaf of sliced bread and stopping by the deli for cold cuts. But with a little more effort you can add a lot of exciting new flavors to your sandwich game.

Mexican tortas come in all manner of styles. You can get tortas with carne asada, carnitas, al pastor – just about anything you'd expect to find in a taco, you can also get in a torta. And these meats are a great way to reinvigorate your weekly meal prep. Instead of picking up another boring pack of sliced deli meat, why not whip up a batch of three-ingredient carnitas or homemade al pastor on Sunday night? You can have it for dinner, and then use the leftovers to fill your sandwiches all week in place of ham.

While a sandwich stuffed with ham, cheese, guacamole, and carne asada sounds like a pretty excellent lunch to us, there is still deeper to delve into the world of tortas. It might sound strange if you've not tried it, but refried beans are a common torta condiment, and they're actually really great. Just think of it as another bean spread similar to hummus. Or, if you like the idea of a carb-on-carb sandwich, chilaquiles and tamales are both common torta fillings. You probably didn't realize it when you opened this article, but there's a whole new world of torta-inspired sandwiches out there waiting for you.