Veggie Mexican with Home Made Tortillas

Going along with the make your own bread theme I decided last Thursday to make my own tortillas for the usual veggie Mexican. There is a recipe in River Cottage Handbook No. 3: Bread but having done some research online I discovered that authentic recipes contained lard. Now of course I was never going to put lard in mine but other recipes added veggie friendly oil in them. I decided to go for this recipe but amended it slightly by using a quarter wholemeal flour. 

Using a quarter wholemeal flour made my dough a bit more 'thirsty' so I needed to add a bit more water than the recipe suggested. 

I rolled out 17 little balls, they were slightly too small and only made tiddly tortillas but they were very tasty.

They were much more substantial than the ones you buy and they didn't do that horrible claggy thing in your mouth either.

They went down very well indeed with the usual veggie mix with cumin, chilli and paprika.

...and I even remembered that I'd frozen some batches of refried beans but not until I had nearly finished cooking. Microwaves are good sometimes!

Quorn Tortilla Stack, Potato Wedges, Houmous and Refried Beans

Exactly what it says in the title. Quorn mince tortilla stack. Thought I'd put the recipe up as I've made it quite a few times now and it's a good one. I guess it could be made with real mince or soya mince too. 

Ingredients:

300g Mince of your choice

1 small onion, finely chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

2 tsp ground paprika

1 tsp chilli powder

400g chopped tomatoes

2 tbsp tomato puree

1 tbsp soy sauce (or vegetarian Worcestershire sauce)

4 soft flour tortillas

50g mature cheddar cheese

Method:

1. Pre-heat oven to 200 degrees celcius/400 farenheit/gas mark 6.

2. Heat a little oil in a frying pan until hot, cook the onion and garlic for 5 minutes.

3. Add the mince, paprika, chilli powder, chopped tomatoes, tomato puree and soya sauce and season.

4. Simmer for 10-15 minutes.

5. Place a large tortilla on a large non-stick baking tray, spoon over a portion of mince mixture. Repeat with the remaining tortillas and mince and then add the cheese on the top of the final tortilla.

6. Bake for 10 minutes, cut into quarters and serve. 

Veggie Mexican with Refried Beans

Another Monday, another easy recipe. Veggies cooked up with cumin, paprika and chilli powder and served with refried beans and soft tortilla wraps. Leftovers boxed up for tomorrow's lunch....

I even thought about making my own tortillas but I had some in the cupboard. Maybe next time.

Veggie Mexican with Refried Beans

A quick, easy and healthy Friday night meal of veggies, cooked up with chilli, cumin, paprika and some tinned tomatoes and served with some refried beans all wrapped up in soft flour tortillas, yummy. I was really tired on Friday when I got home but had a craving for a big pan of veggies that this well and truly satisfied.

Veggie Mexican with Refried Beans

I needed to use up the veggies that were left in the fridge so decided on a veggie Mexican with some of the refried beans that I'd made and frozen. All good!

Veggie Mexican with Refried Beans

After my last foray into the world of refried beans I decided that they were worth the effort but that I would make up a batch of all the beans that were left in the cupboard and then freeze portions rather than make all that effort every time. Part of my batch made it into last night's Mexican with my spiced veggies and quorn and lovely soft flour tortillas.

Veggie Mexican with Refried Beans

Mr VST and I have both read and really enjoyed Chris McDougal's book Born to Run. It's a fantastic book about running, barefoot running and the Tarahumara Indians who live in the Copper Canyons and live a running lifestyle. There diet is very simple and when they go on their 50 mile runs they eat chia seeds, pinole and pinto beans. We were shopping a while back and Mr VST spotted some pinto beans. I think he was hopeful that eating a few beans might turn him into a super-runner without thinking too much about all the running that the Tarahumara do their whole lives.

I hadn't cooked beans from scratch before. It seems like a lot of hard work and it was. The packet says soak them in cold water for 8-10 hours and preferably overnight, which I did. It then says to rinse them, add fresh water, bring them to the boil and boil for ten minutes followed by simmering for an hour. I looked up some healthy refried beans recipes and came across a couple here. I decided to simmer the beans for 50 minutes, then add some crushed garlic, ground cumin, a dash of olive oil and tomato purée and let them simmer for a further 20 minutes before mashing them roughly.

They were surprisingly tasty and went really well in a flour wrap with my usual veggie mix and some salad.