Taco cream cheese roll ups are a hit with children. It just seems like if you have a room of 10 kids, at least eight of them love tacos. With these cream cheese appetizers, you or your kids get those Mexican flavors along with a cream cheese that complements it well. These could work as party snacks or a special surprise to put in your little ones lunch box.
Overall, these tortilla pinwheels are easy to make and don’t take much time. You’ll love that they’re not horribly expensive to make either.
While these ones have specific ingredients, you can easily customize them to include items you and your kids like. In fact, you can make a variety of different kinds. Not to mention, these are finger foods, which makes them great to place on a plate and let your family have at them.
Even though they aren’t horribly nutrient-dense on their own, you can enhance them with vegetables like tomatoes or a protein like chicken or ground beef to make them healthier. You can even switch the type of tortilla shells you use for these taco roll ups.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Has taco flavoring — need I say more
- Are easily customizable
- Has the perfect blend of cream and spice
- Are finger foods that don’t take long to make
- Can be made in advanced
Ingredient Notes & Substitutions
Fortunately, these taco roll ups are easily customizable. You can easily make several different varieties to accommodate diet restrictions and personal preferences.
For instance, black olives aren’t always a hit with everyone. You can easily exclude them.
If you’d like, you can put lettuce and tomato in them, but you’ll want to shred the lettuce and cut it into small pieces. Other than vegetables, you might want to put a protein in them, such as steak, ground beef, chicken, or turkey ground meat. By doing that, you could easily make these for lunch rather than a party snack.
You could use low-fat cream cheese and sour cream to reduce the amount of calories in these. Although the chiles are what gives these that Mexican flavoring, adding taco seasoning or your own blend of taco spices could enhance the flavor of this taco roll up even more.
The tortilla shell you use is also another area you can alter. For a healthier version of these, use whole wheat or spinach shells instead of flour ones. There’s also the option of high-protein tortillas. They help to reduce your carb intake with this snack. Those are also ideal if you follow a keto diet.
How to Make It
Before you begin making this snack, take out your cream cheese. It needs to sit out for a bit to soften so it combines better with the rest of the ingredients.
The next step to making these taco pinwheels is to mix together your cream cheese, sour cream, and other ingredients to make your filling. You want to combine these ingredients completely, but you don’t want to mix it too much because you may change the texture of the cream cheese.
When you go to roll them up, try to make to make them as even as possible. Strive to roll them tightly. That way, you get a nice contrast between the tortilla shell and the filling.
Once you’re done rolling them, you’ll want to put them in the refrigerator. This helps them to setup because the cream cheese will be rather soft after letting it sit out. Two hours is enough time, and then you can take them out and cut them. They’ll be a lot easier and messy to cut.
Tips for Success
If you’re using any fresh vegetables, you’ll want to dry them thoroughly before you add them to the mix or you could make your filling runny. This will also affect the flavor of it. You’ll also want to drain your olives and chilies.
When you go to spread your filling on the tortillas, make sure you spread it from end to end. This ensures you, your family, or guests get flavor with each bite.
Storage & Reheating
You can make these in advance a day ahead of time. Before you put them in the fridge, you’ll want to cover them in plastic wrap to prevent them from drying out or taking on other flavors from your fridge.
If you don’t eat all of them or want to store them for a little longer, they’ll stay good in the fridge for four days if they’re in an airtight container or zip-close bag.
Anytime you have extras or want to make them in advance, you can freeze them for two months. Just make sure to freeze them on a cookie sheet with wax paper laid down first, and then transfer them into a zip-close bag.
Serving Suggestions
If you’re giving these to your child for their school lunch, you could include these along with other lunch box ideas, such as fruit salad or a Big Mac Salad.
No matter whether you’re packing these pinwheels for a school lunch, making them as a party snack, or whipping them up for you and your family to enjoy, you’ll want to serve them with salsa. You could make your own or choose to purchase store-bought.
If you’re making them for a party, you could make other Mexican-themed food, such as taco salad or pasta or loaded nachos.
Notes
Let me start by saying my son loves anything taco seasoned so when I make these, I add either prepacked seasoning or my own blend. And let me also say my son loves these for a snack on the weekends. We tend to make them one day during the week and cut them up as a treat.
I’ve made them with ground beef, ground turkey, and grilled chicken. And every single time, they were a crowd pleaser at parties. I’ve had to share my not-so secret recipe more times than I can count.
Taco Cream Cheese Roll-ups
Ingredients
- 4-6 Large Flour Tortillas Burrito size
- 8 oz. Cream Cheese softened
- ½ cup Sour Cream
- 1 cup Shredded Mexican Blend Cheese
- 1 can Chopped Green Chiles 4 oz, drained very well
- ½ cup Black Beans rinsed, dried, and slightly mashed (helps them stay inside the roll)
- ¼ cup Green Onions finely sliced
- ¼ cup Fresh Cilantro minced
- 1 tsp Taco Seasoning
- The Brightener: 1 tsp Fresh Lime Juice and ½ tsp Lime Zest
- The Garnish: Sliced Black Olives or extra Cilantro
Instructions
- The secret to a non-soggy pinwheel is drainage. Ensure your green chiles and black beans are patted completely dry with a paper towel before adding them to the mix.
- In a medium bowl, beat the softened cream cheese, sour cream, lime juice, lime zest, and taco seasoning until smooth. The lime juice acts as an emulsifier, making the filling easier to spread while adding a fresh “pop.”
- Stir in the shredded cheese, drained chiles, mashed black beans, green onions, and cilantro.
- Lay a tortilla flat. Spread a thin, even layer of the mixture over the entire surface, leaving only a tiny ¼-inch border at the very top edge. This border acts as the “glue” when you reach the end of the roll.
- Roll the tortilla as tightly as possible, starting from the bottom. If the roll is loose, the pinwheels will have gaps in the center.
- Wrap each individual log tightly in plastic wrap, twisting the ends like a candy wrapper to maintain pressure. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours. This allows the cream cheese to firm back up, making the logs much easier to slice.
- Use a sharp serrated knife to trim the uneven ends (the “chef’s snack”), then slice the log into 1-inch rounds. Wipe the knife blade between cuts for the cleanest look.
