Black Bean Chipotle Nachos

Remember how I mentioned that those quesadillas turned into nachos due to the lack of tortialls? Well it turns out they were pretty awesome as nachos and I thought I would share the recipe here with you! Thanks to my friend Sara for inspiring the original zucchini/black bean combo which I just tweaked and modified based on what I had on hand!

Black Bean Chipotle Nachos
1 Zucchini, quartered and diced
1/2 White or yellow onion, diced
1/4 Red onion, diced (optional - I happened to have some around)
1 chipotle chili, canned in adobo sauce, diced finely
1 14.5 oz can black beans, rinsed and drained
1/4 cup salsa (I like the Emerald Valley brand)
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1 tsp chili powder (or more to taste)
Tortilla chips
Cheddar cheese (sharp or medium)
Cilantro, Green onions, and Avocado for garnish

Start by sauteing the zucchini and onions in some olive oil over medium-high heat - cook for about 5 minutes or until the vegetables begin to soften. Add in the diced chipotle pepper, the black beans, the salsa, and the spices - stir together and then cover and lower the heat - cook for around 20 minutes before removing the lid and allowing the chili to reduce to the consistency you'd like. You don't want it to be runny but you want it loose enough you can easily drizzle/spread over the chips.

Preheat oven to 250 F. Cover a baking sheet with a layer of tortilla chips and then sprinkle a thin layer of cheese over them. Top with the black bean mixture covering as many chips as possible. Cover with another layer of cheese and place in the oven. Check on them after about 5 minutes - if the cheese looks fairly well melted you can turn on the broiler for just a minute to crisp up the top.

Remove from oven and top with lots of chopped cilantro, diced green onions, and diced avocado. Don't skimp on these toppings - they really make all the difference!

We ate this two nights in a row. That's how good it was, not how lazy I was feeling.

-C

Cinco de Mayo, a few weeks late

I've been a little absent lately - between some traveling and work being extra busy I haven't had a lot of energy for coming home and writing and going through photos. I never even finished up writing about our San Diego trip - oops! Anyway, I do have things to share! Like Mexican May (is that not PC? it's just that one day on Cinco de Mayo isn't enough for me!).

In case you didn't know, Cinco de Mayo is one of my most favorite holidays (Is it even considered a holiday here? Doesn't matter really - I consider it one). In college our best parties were on Cinco de Mayo, they were usually filled with pinatas, sombreros, and giant buckets full of margaritas. These days I can't quite imagine drinking a margarita out of a bucket, or at least not on a weeknight. Instead I decided to celebrate the second best way, by making lots of Mexican inspired food.

I came across a recipe for Spicy & Smoky Lentil Taco Meat on another blog - The Chubby Vegetarian. I love tacos and I was excited to try something other than my standard mashed kidney bean mix. The recipe called for smoked sundried tomatoes, which I could not find - instead I used regular sundried tomatoes and a little liquid smoke. I liked the idea of using a smoked cheddar cheese in the tacos as well - usually I'd just use a plain cheddar and this added a nice flavor. Overall the recipe was good, but I would have to disagree with the statement that this replicated the texture of taco meat. Even though it has been a good 14 years since I've had real taco meat I promise you it does not have the texture of lentils. I has tried this recipe out ahead of time thinking I might bring it to work for our Cinco de Mayo potluck, but I decided it wasn't something I could really sell to my meat-eating coworkers.

I decided to go with a Soyrizo stuffed Empanadas to bring to work instead. I used a simple dough recipe I found online and made the filling by sauteing red bell peppers, onions, and jalapenos with some chipotle chili powder and a little cumin, then adding the whole package of Soyrizo and cooking until the peppers and onions were nice and soft. I was really pleased with the results - even my non-vegetarian coworkers seemed to really enjoy them! I forgot to take any photos of them, but to be honest I don't think empanadas photograph all that well anyway.

Now I think I need to make a grocery store run and buy some more avocados! Perhaps I can find something to use them in for Sunday Dinner...

-C

SoCal Burritos

I love burritos. In fact - I love most forms of Mexican food. It's been several years since I've been to Southern California where I think some of the best Mexican food exists, so I was really excited for our trip this week!

Unfortunately, Mexican can be a tricky cuisine for a vegetarian... I have to worry about lard in the toritalls and beans and chicken stock in the rice and who knows what else I might not be thinking of! So I was really excited when I searched for restaurants in La Jolla on Happy Cow and found a vegetarian-friendly taco shop! Don Carlos Taco Shop was amazing. I had the Soyrizo burrito which had a nice spice to it and the owner assured me that the rice and beans were totally vegetarian (his wife is also a vegetarian). Unfortunately it is pretty tough to take an appetizing photo of a half eaten burrito - but that's not going to stop me from sharing with you - also check out their awesome discount cards!

The food was great, but I think the best part was how friendly the owner was. I would seriously seek this place out if I'm ever in San Diego again and I would definitely reccomend it to everyone I know who is in the area!

I'll have more to share on my trip to San Diego when I return, but I was excited about this particular place and wanted to share it right away!

-C