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Sunday, April 21, 2013

Beans + Spice= Happiness



I am from Arizona. Spice is in my blood. Sonoran Mexican food is what I crave nearly all of the time. It's raining we have tortilla soup. If it's sunny we have Tacos. I also will come up with any excuse to eat  My Nana's tortilla chips.  I recently came across a wonderful recipe for Crunchy black bean tacos on Pinterest. Last night I finally made them. They were pretty good.  I had to tweak the spices a bit. Cumin and Paprika are safe spices, they give warmth and some flavor, but they are not really spicy. So today I decided that I needed to play in the kitchen a bit and make some beans for the week to have for lunch. I figured I would play with the beans recipe above. Here is what I came up with:

1 15oz can of Pinto Beans drained and rinsed.
1 cup of broth or water
1/2 cup minced sweet yellow onion
2 fresh garlic cloves minced fine
2 tsp cumin
1 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp chili powder
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
2 TBS minced fresh cilantro
1 tsp coconut oil or whatever oil you have on hand

Monterey jack cheese
chipotle jack cheese
medium or mild cheddar
sour cream
guacamole or an avocado
a tortilla product (chips or a tortilla- flour or corn- its your choice)

Method :

rinse and drain the beans
mince the onion and garlic
mince the cilantro.

in a small sauce pan/skillet melt coconut oil, once melted add onion and saute a few minutes then add garlic and saute until fragrant. add in beans and saute a minute then add water/broth. add in spices and cilantro, mix. you will bring this to a slight boil, once there mash some of the beans with the back of the spoon or spatula and allow to continue to simmer. I admit I am not sure how long I allowed them to simmer, stirring them occasionally and not allowing the liquid to cook off completely. I wanted a thicker saucey sauce for my beans to cook in. Once I got that, it was time to eat.

I chose to eat them with a mixture of Chipotle white cheddar, Monterey Jack cheese, sour cream. I scooped it up with tortilla chips and my husband decided they were perfect for a burrito. Really, you cannot go wrong no matter how you choose to eat them. But you gotta give them a try.

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