Black Bean & Sweet Potato Burritos

After the insanity of the holidays, I'm struggling to get back to my routine. Back to the kitchen. Back to blogging. Back to doing laundry before I run out of clean socks...again.

When I'm struggling to get cooking, I always turn to the HDHH archives. It feels like a reading a journal. I remember when the investment dudes gave me the recipe for Baked Oatmeal, when I used to eat Peanut Butter & Stuff Sandwiches on my business trips to San Francisco, making Spring on Toast with Amy, when Therese introduced me to her Corn & Tomato Salad, my childhood babysitter who inspired Bacon Cheeseburger Rice, making Salmon with Dill Cream Sauce with Kelly and Jill, watching my mom bake Butterscotch Cashew Bars. These are good memories. And certainly inspiration enough to get hot dinner on the table.

It had been too long since I made Black Bean & Sweet Potato Burritos, a recipe I first tested for dinner co-op with Therese back in 2011. These vegetarian burritos were so stinking good, a perfect way to usher in the New Year and a return to culinary pursuits.

Do you guys have any cooking inspiration for 2017? We'd love to hear it!

Let's get cooking!
Erin

Black Bean & Sweet Potato Burritos
Adapted from An Occasion to Gather
Originally posted September 23, 2011
Serves: 4-6

1 very large (or two small) sweet potato(s), peeled and cut into small pieces*
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 large onion, peeled and diced
2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
2-4 ounces diced green chiles (Depending on how spicy you like things!)
2 teaspoons cumin
2 teaspoons coriander
2 (15 ounce) cans black beans, drained and rinsed
4 ounces Monterey Jack cheese, shredded
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
8 flour tortillas
Salsa and sour cream, for serving

Preheat oven to 350 or 425 degrees. (See Baking Note below for details on baking temperature.)

Place sweet potato in a saucepan with enough water to cover and a hearty pinch of salt. Bring water to boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and allow sweet potatoes to cook, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes or until   they're easily pierced with a fork. Drain sweet potatoes and set aside.

Meanwhile, heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onion, garlic, and chiles and saute, stirring often, for 7 minutes. Stir in cumin and coriander and cook for another minute, until the spices are fragrant. Remove onion mixture from heat and set aside.

Combine sweet potatoes and black beans and mash them together with a potato masher or whatever mashing implement you prefer. (I like my burrito filling to have some texture, so I didn't mash it too much. Just use your best judgement.) Stir in cooked onion mixture, cheese, and cilantro.

Evenly divide the filling between the tortillas. Roll burritos up tightly and place seam-side-down in a 9 x 13 baking dish.

Baking Note: I've experimented with a couple different ways to bake these burritos, so I'll give you options. If you like crisp burritos and/or you want to get dinner on the table fast, crank up the oven to 425. Brush a little melted butter on top of the prepped burritos in the pan and bake for 10-15 minutes, until burritos are heated through and the tops are golden brown and crisp. If you like your tortillas to remain soft and/or you have more time to kill before dinner, cover the pan with aluminum foil and bake for 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake for another 5 minutes if you'd like to crisp up the tops a little bit.

Serve with salsa and sour cream.

*If you have leftover cooked sweet potatoes, this is a great way to use them up! I made extra roasted sweet potatoes, and they were delicious in this recipe. And with leftovers, you're one step closer to dinner.

Black Bean and Cheese Chimichangas

The husband was watching the Packers game last Sunday, and I decided to make him some hot dinner. Sunday night meals often consists of PB&J or cereal, but the husband had a hard day working in the garage, and I thought he deserved something special.

I would fry him something.

I should mention that the husband loves fried food. I should also mention that I'm afraid of frying food. Shortly after we got hitched, I tried to make taquitos. My first attempt at frying went, shall we say, poorly. It tasted like we were eating little, round sponges of oil. Bleck. Also, with dubious ventilation in our kitchen, it smelled like the state fair in our house for far too long. Not classy.

But despite my fear, I was determined to fry up some grub for the husband. I tweaked a taquito filling recipe I found in Real Simple last month, and went to town. The first two chimichangas didn't turn out quite right. They were...burnt.

Take two, however, was much better. When I presented the chimichangas to the husband, I was a bit nervous. Would they meet the same fate as my taquitos? To my utter delight, the husband had a big smile on his face after tasting my creation. "These are GOOD!" he exclaimed.

From now on I will be known as Erin, the happy housewife who's not afraid to fry.

Black Bean and Cheese Chimichangas
Serves 2-4

15 ounce can black beans, rinsed and drained
3/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon lime juice (juice of 1/2 lime)
Salt and pepper
4 flour tortillas
Vegetable oil for frying

In a medium-sized bowl, mash together beans, cheese, chili powder, garlic powder, and lime juice.

Season to taste with salt and pepper. Evenly divide bean mixture among tortillas. Roll tortillas up tightly.

Heat 1/2" of oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. (Err on the medium side of medium-high.) Test to make sure the oil is hot enough for frying by dropping a small piece of tortilla into the oil. If the oil bubbles immediately and the tortilla rises up to the top, the oil is the right temperature. (If the oil is too cold, you'll end up with a soggy, greasy mess. A la my tacquito situation.)

Gently place the rolled-up tortillas into the oil, seam-side down. Fry for about 2 minutes on each side until the tortillas are crisp and golden.

Set tortillas on a paper-towel lined plate to sop up any extra oil. Serve with salsa and sour cream.

Black Bean and Sweet Potato Burritos

After a summer hiatus, this week marked the return of dinner co-op with my friend and co-worker, Therese. She made her world-famous chili, and I made Black Bean and Sweet Potato Burritos. I've mentioned dinner co-op before, but I'll explain it again for those of you who may be new to HDHH.

Therese and I both have households of two. On Mondays, we cook dinner for four people, and we bring the leftovers to work on Tuesdays and switch them. I take home Therese's leftovers and she takes home mine. That means on Tuesday nights, both of our families get new-to-us dinners, but we only have to cook once! It's really a genius situation.

When I was whipping up these make-ahead-friendly Black Bean and Sweet Potato Burritos, I noticed something: They are not photogenic. In fact, when the husband came nosing around the kitchen to see what the delicious smells were all about, I shielded my culinary endeavors from him and hollered, "Don't look! Don't look!" See, the husband has been known to turn up his nose at foods that look funny, even if it's just during the prep stages.

If I wasn't going to let the husband watch me cook the burritos, I certainly wasn't going to take pictures for this post. I figured I'd just take photos when they were on the plate and finished. I had high hopes of a salsa and sour cream garnish that would knock your socks off. Maybe even a sprinkling of cilantro.

Yeah, so I forgot about all that. I was too hungry, and we just dug in. But trust me that these burritos are delicious. Even the husband said, "These are really good. Especially for vegetarian food!"

Now I know you're all going to make them tonight.

Oh, and because I couldn't stand to leave you without one of my photographic masterpieces (I sense a note of sarcasm...), here's a picture of the leftover burritos in my fridge. They're gonna be good again tonight!

P.S. Don't forget to enter our contest for a fantastic prize. Read more about it on Monday's post. Anyone who comments on a post from this week will be entered to win a Hot Dinner Happy Home apron in celebration of our first birthday! Comment away, folks!

Black Bean and Sweet Potato Burritos
Adapted from An Occasion to Gather
Serves: 4-6

1 very large (or two small) sweet potato(s), peeled and cut into small pieces
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 large onion, peeled and diced
2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
2 ounces diced green chiles (1/2 of a small can)
2 teaspoons cumin
2 teaspoons coriander
2 (15 ounce) cans black beans, drained and rinsed
4 ounces Monterey Jack cheese, shredded
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
2 (15 ounce) cans black beans, drained and rinsed
8 flour tortillas
Salsa and sour cream, for serving

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place sweet potato in a saucepan with enough water to cover and a hearty pinch of salt. Bring water to boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and allow sweet potatoes to cook, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes or until   they're easily pierced with a fork. Drain sweet potatoes and set aside.

Meanwhile, heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onion, garlic, and chiles and saute, stirring often, for 7 minutes. Stir in cumin and coriander and cook for another minute, until the spices are fragrant. Remove onion mixture from heat and set aside.

Combine sweet potatoes and black beans and mash them together with a potato masher or whatever mashing implement you prefer. (I like my burrito filling to have some texture, so I didn't mash it too much. Just use your best judgement.) Stir in onion mixture, cheese, and cilantro.

Evenly divide the filling between the tortillas. Roll burritos up tightly and place seam-side-down in a 9 x 13 baking dish. Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake for another 5 minutes if you'd like to crisp up the tops a little bit.

Serve with salsa and sour cream.