Veg Out! Spicy Plant Based Black Bean Burritos

Looking for a delicious way to add more veggies to your diet? I pinky swear promise that you will not miss the meat in these plant based burritos! That's because the filling is so tasty and full of creamy textures. There's the seasoned rice, black bean filling, salad and the ingredient that brings it all together, the addictive vegan garlic sauce or toum. This is a pushy recipe Dear Reader!

I wanted to make some plant based burritos as I'd just seen a documentary called The Game Changers that advocates a plant based diet for elite athletes. It's a controversial documentary and even vegetarian Nina warned that it was full of inaccuracies.

I'm neither plant based nor an elite athlete (please, stop laughing) but I thought it was interesting and even though I still eat meat we do tend to eat a lot of vegetarian food as we love vegetables. The doco also got me craving black bean burritos something absolutely fierce.

Dear Reader, I know you may look at this recipe and it may seem like a bit of a production but I promise that it's mostly about the prep. Once you have the components done you can just assemble the burritos when you want to eat them during the following 3-4 days. Or if you have guests over they can just assemble at the table. They also improve with time as the burrito gets nice and soft once it is filled and wrapped up so it's great for the lunchbox.

Once I tried these burritos I was hooked and I've made these black bean burritos for three weeks straight and the recipe below is my favourite vegetable and filling combo (which is why the pics may look a bit different because corn was a new addition that I thought worked better than yellow capsicum).

On Sunday I cooked up a big batch of the rice and a batch of the black bean filling, garlic sauce and salad. I keep them separate heating up the rice before wrapping it up and it makes for a really quick lunch or dinner once the initial prep is done.

So tell me Dear Reader, have you watched The Game Changers? Have you increased the amount of vegetables you eat over the last year or two? Do you eat something different every night for dinner or do you eat the same thing over a few nights?

Spicy Plant Based Black Bean Burritos

An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott

Preparation time: 30 minutes

Cooking time: 15 minutes concurrently

Makes 5 burritos

• 5 extra large flour tortillas
• 100g/3.5ozs. cheese or vegan soy cheese, grated
• Coriander
• Hot sauce
• 1 avocado, sliced or mashed
• 1/2 cup spring onions
• 1/2 cup garlic sauce (see recipe here)

Black Beans

• Oil for frying
• 1 onion, peeled and finely diced
• 2 cloves garlic, peeled and finely diced
• 2 chillies, diced
• 400g/14oz tin black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1/2 cup vegetable stock

Rice

• 1 cup rice, rinsed well
• 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1 teaspoon salt or stock powder
• 1.5 cups boiling water

Salad

• 1 red capsicum, seeded and diced
• 200g/7oz tin corn, drained
• Juice from 1/2 lime
• 1/4 red onion, diced
• 2 tablespoons coriander, chopped
• Salt and pepper for seasoning

Step 1 - Make rice: place the rice, turmeric, cumin, paprika, salt or stock powder and water and place lid on and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to lowest temperature and steam for 10 minutes without removing the lid. Fluff the rice with the fork.

Step 2 - Make the black beans: heat oil in frypan and sauté onion and garlic. Add the black beans and chilli and the stock and cook the beans for 5 minutes.

Step 3 - Mix the salad ingredients together in a bowl.

Step 4 - To assemble, take a sheet of foil and lay a burrito on top of it. Divide cheese and sprinkle it on top and heat in a 180c/350F oven for 3 minutes or until melted. Then top with a generous, thick slathering of fluffy garlic sauce, rice, black beans, salad, coriander, hot sauce, avocado and spring onions. Roll up tucking in the shorter sides and then rolling up. Wrap in the foil.