Spider Taco Crescent Ring (Print-Friendly Version)

Crescent dough forms a spider shape with a beefy, cheesy taco filling, lettuce, tomato, and olives for Halloween flair.

# What You'll Need:

→ Taco Filling

01 - 30 ml vegetable oil
02 - 1 yellow onion, chopped
03 - 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
04 - 2.5 teaspoons kosher salt, divided
05 - 340 g ground beef
06 - 1 can (411 g) black beans, rinsed and drained
07 - 120 ml water
08 - 4 teaspoons chili powder
09 - 1 tablespoon ground cumin
10 - 1 teaspoon dried oregano
11 - 170 g shredded cheddar cheese

→ Assembly and Garnish

12 - 3 cans (227 g each) refrigerated crescent rolls
13 - 200 g shredded lettuce, more as desired
14 - 110 g chopped tomatoes, more as desired
15 - 60 ml sour cream, more as desired
16 - 2 black olives, pitted

# How to Make It:

01 - Heat vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add chopped onion, finely chopped garlic, and 0.5 teaspoon kosher salt. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are tender, 4 to 5 minutes. Add ground beef and cook, breaking up with a wooden spoon, until browned and cooked through, 4 to 5 minutes. Drain excess fat.
02 - Add black beans, water, chili powder, ground cumin, dried oregano, and remaining 2 teaspoons kosher salt. Stir to combine and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, stirring occasionally, until mixture thickens and is heated through, approximately 5 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool. Stir in shredded cheddar cheese.
03 - Arrange oven racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven and preheat to 190°C. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
04 - Unroll two cans of crescent rolls and divide dough into triangles. On one prepared baking sheet, arrange triangles with pointed ends facing outward and shortest sides overlapping, forming an empty circle about 15 cm in diameter at the center.
05 - Spoon the cooled taco mixture evenly over the overlapped dough, creating a ring of filling. Fold pointed ends of each triangle over the filling and tuck underneath to enclose, allowing some filling to show between dough strips.
06 - Separate remaining can of crescent rolls into triangles. Fold the tip of each triangle inward by about 2.5 cm, then roll the triangles tightly from the longest side to make thin rods roughly 18 cm long. Shape each rod into a wide 'V' on the second prepared baking sheet. Repeat with remaining triangles.
07 - Bake the spider body on the lower rack until golden brown and baked through, 15 to 20 minutes. Simultaneously, bake the spider legs on the upper rack until golden and set, 10 to 12 minutes. Let both components cool slightly before assembling.
08 - Arrange the baked spider body on a large serving platter. Insert four spider legs into each side of the body between the dough strips so they stand upright. Fill the center of the ring with alternating stripes of shredded lettuce, chopped tomatoes, and sour cream. Add black olives to the sour cream to create 'eyes'. Serve with additional lettuce, tomatoes, and sour cream alongside if desired.

# Additional Tips:

01 - For a vegetarian variation, use an additional can of black beans in place of ground beef for the filling.
02 - Crescent roll dough can be tricky to shape; rolling triangles into rods will create the best effect for spider legs.
03 - Serve with extra sour cream, salsa, guacamole, or queso for dipping.

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