Smoky Black Bean and Cheddar Burritos with Baby Spinach

By: Matt Frazier

We made this one for lunch yesterday, another winner from Fine Cooking.  It seems that vegetarians eat a lot of beans, and for good reason because in addition to being the musical fruit, they are a quality source of both protein and carbohydrates.

There are plenty of other good ingredients in this recipe.  Lime juice (very alkaline), spinach (see Popeye again), tomatoes, chipotle in adobo, pepitas, and more.  Wait… chipotle in adobo, pepitas?  Yes, believe it or not, there’s more to Mexican food than the 7-Layer Crunch Wrap Supreme.  Chipotle in adobo is smoked jalapeno with a smoky red sauce, sold in a small can.  It has a really distinct flavor and it’s not that uncommon; only a few times have I not been able to find it in a grocery store.  You won’t use the whole can, but it keeps in the refrigerator for months in an airtight container.  You can even puree the peppers with the adobo to create a really good sauce, which you could smuggle into Taco Bell to make an 8-Layer Crunch Wrap Supreme.  That other crazy foreign word I used was “pepita,” which is just the Spanish name for a shelled pumpkin seed.  I got these in the bulk section of a natural foods store (David’s Natural Market); I don’t think a lot of regular grocery stores have them.  But they’re an optional ingredient, so if you can’t get them don’t worry.  Here’s what ours looked like after they were toasted:

We used a fake version of cheddar made from rice shreds, since we’re still not eating dairy.  I know this sounds like the world’s worst food, but apart from being a little drier than regular cheese it is almost indistinguishable.  We didn’t do the sour cream, and as usual we used the canola/olive oil blend instead of just olive oil, for more omega-3’s  (the link this time takes you to a blog by a nutrition expert rather than the wikipedia page I normally link to).  The last thing of note is that we actually used the white-flour tortillas, something we almost never do, because we couldn’t find whole-wheat burrito-size tortillas in the store.

Here’s how it looked for about 30 seconds before we ravaged it:

We ravaged it because this meal was delicious.  And nutritious.  And filling.  It tasted like it does when you eat at Chipotle, only without the accompanying food-coma that usually follows.  I can’t wait to eat the leftovers.  This is a great example of a vegetarian meal where it doesn’t seem like meat would add anything at all to the flavor.  You won’t miss it.  The only thing I will change next time is to use more chipotle for a little extra kick.  Erin actually suggested this, and she definitely doesn’t like stuff too spicy.  We give this 4 cows out of 5.  And it was so inexpensive, as I’m finding that a lot of vegetarian meals are.  Highly recommended.

If you didn’t read this blog over the weekend, you might notice that the right side of the main page looks different.  I’m still experimenting with different widgets, so if you have any suggestions or feedback please leave a comment.  In the “Links” section I put a link to a Insomniac Chef, a friend’s blog about vegan cooking.  His food looks really good, professional even.  Another interesting blog I found is Almost Vegetarian, which has a nice format and lots of recipes that I think readers of this blog who aren’t total vegetarians will like.