One day my fridge and pantry supplies were rather sparse…though I had some cooked black beans and sweet potatos sitting in my onion basket and I thought they would pair well together. I did a quick google search and found a base recipe for what my mind’s mouth had been imagining. I reinvented the recipe to my taste and since then I’ve had cravings for the warm, earthy, spicy flavor combination. One of the last times I made this recipe I was in charge of a camp kitchen. The 35 hiking-hungry campers, including lots of kids seemed very satisfied with these burritoes even though we had forgotten to bring the cumin and chili powder. To amp up the beans we threw in green onions and various hot peppers minus the seeds.  This is definitely one of those flexible recipes you can add salsa, peppers, cilantro, a squirt of lime…  For me, the cheese is what keeps me coming back, it’s the bit of decadence oozing out of the colorful interior and the bit of chew to the burrito. My husband would still choose a meat and cheese burrito but he eats these eagerly. This makes 12, but you can easily freeze half or simply halve the recipe.

Thanks to Allrecipes for the inspiration recipe.

Recipe:

1-2 Tbs. olive oil

1 onion

5+ cloves of garlic

1 jalepeno

2 cans of canned green chilis

1 Tbs. ground cumin

3 Tbs. chili powder or a fryer/Hungarian pepper for a “fresher” taste

4 Tsp. brown mustard (or just use extra salt and a splash of vinegar or lime juice)

6 cups soaked and cooked black beans

12 organic whole wheat flour tortillas (Maria and Ricardo’s is the best I’ve had)

1 lb. of cheddar cheese, preferably raw

Salt and Pepper

1/4 Cup butter

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Wash and pierce sweet potatoes and place them directly on the oven rack. Bake for 45-60 minutes until soft all through.

2. Dice onion while heating oil in a pan. Saute onion in oil. Mince garlic and add to pan and cook until onion is tender.

3. Add cumin, mustard, green chilis, jalepeno and chili powder. Cook on med-high for another minute or so.

4. Add cooked black beans to onion/spice mixture.  Add  salt and pepper to taste and cook until heated through. pour in water as neccesary to keep things moist.

5.  Peel sweet potatoes. Add salt and pepper to taste, and butter. (Just a note, just because a two-year old can help with the mashing doesn’t mean she should be allowed anywhere near the salt!) Mash well.

6. Grate cheddar cheese.

7. Smear about a 1/4-1/3 cup of sweet potatoes onto a tortilla. Layer on 1/4 cup of the black beans.

8. Fold up burrito-style and bake on a cookie sheet for about 15 minutes or until brown and the cheese begins to melt.

These are amazing with salsa and sour cream for dipping.

28 Sep This entry was published on September 28, 2011 at 7:09 pm and is filed under Autumn, Main Dishes. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.