Black Bean & Sweet Potato Tacos with Swiss Chard Pesto

I know you might be thinking, "That sounds like a weird combination of ingredients."  Stay with me on this, you won't regret it.  You want to try new things, right?  I've made a black bean and sweet potato burrito before, which was good, but this is way better!  Roasting the sweet potatoes is tasty and very appealing to the eye (always a plus).  And the addition of the swiss chard pesto is very unique and adds an interesting flair.

Also, you can adjust the spiciness level to whatever you prefer.  The boyfriend and I differ on this a bit, although we both have a similar Midwestern background.  I'm a wimp.  It's sad.  I try and try to enjoy more spice, but alas, I cannot.  I can't taste anything past the fire.  So I'm the perpetual "1 star/mild" girl at restaurants.  However, the boyfriend's multi-year stint in Colorado has served his taste buds well and he loves medium-hot cuisine.  Yay for him, but it does require some finesse in our shared cooking.

This pesto isn't too terribly spicy, as written.  The swiss chard absorbs a fair amount of any kick, so if you like it spicy, add in more, and taste, taste, taste!

This recipe is also a snap to put together, which is always welcome, of course.  I will admit that the boyfriend was a bit wary (even if he won't say so), and wasn't as excited as I was to try this recipe.  BUT, you can't argue with results, and the result was that we ate it all.

Tasty.  Easy.  Affordable.  Healthy.  Pretty.  It's a... quintuple threat.

Black Bean & Sweet Potato Tacos with Swiss Chard Pesto
(from the Bev Cooks blog)
Makes 4-6 individual tacos, with lots of leftover pesto, so make more potatoes and beans, or freeze the pesto!


Pesto:
1 bunch swiss chard, cut into chunks
1 jalapeno, roughly chopped, seeds removed
3 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
2 Tbsp. green hot sauce

1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
Salt & pepper to taste

Sweet Potatoes:
1 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
1 large sweet potato, peeled and cut into a small/medium dice
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp chili powder
Salt & pepper

Black Beans:
1 (14.5 oz) can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp garlic salt

8 white corn or flour tortillas
1/3rd cup queso fresco, crumbled
1 avocado, diced
lime and cilantro for garnish

Preheat your oven to 400.

On a rimmed baking sheet toss the diced sweet potato with the oil, 1 tsp chili powder, 1 tsp cumin, a pinch of coarse salt and pepper. Roast for 30 minutes.

In the meantime, toss the swiss chard, jalapeno, garlic, and hot sauce into a food processor. Season with salt and pepper. Start pulsing. With the motor running, pour the oil into the processor in a thin stream, until you have pesto. Taste and adjust seasoning as desired.

Toss the beans into a small sauce pan and season with the remaining cumin, chili powder and garlic salt. Heat through, 5 minutes.

On a small grill or skillet, warm the tortillas.

Assemble: tortilla, sweet potatoes, beans. Dollop with a good 2 Tbs. of swiss chard pesto. Sprinkle on the diced avocado, queso fresco, a good spritz of lime and a few cilantro leaves.

Enjoy!

Whole Wheat Biscuits (Vegan)

I love biscuits.  This is a well known fact.  I would love to share biscuits with all my friends, however, some of them are vegan.  Hm.  This presents a problem.  How to make them without my beloved dairy?  And lard??  And no weird flours or ingredients that I'd have to get at a special store?

Enter: Coconut oil (non hydrogenated)

 

For those of you who haven't cooked with it before, it's great.  It's generally found in the organic area of the grocery store, and it's fantastic for cooking up to medium-high heat.  It's a mildly flavored (no suntan lotion smell, I promise!) and it's great for baking.  I also particularly enjoy using a bit of it for cooking eggs or some stir fries.  

To note though, that all coconut oils are not created equal.  I used Dr. Bronner's (yes, the same manufacturer as the hemp peppermint-all-in-one pure castile soap!) for this recipe, and it did smell coconut-y, but not in a bad way.  I do know that Spectrum brand is odorless, so next time I'll probably use it instead.  Also, it does melt at a lower temperature, so I knew that keeping it "in chunks" for biscuits would be tough.  Thankfully, we just acquired a food processor, and that does the trick for cutting in the fat without making a melted, soggy mess.  So the question -  can coconut oil replace butter and lard in a biscuit where it's crucial to have chunks of fat to create steam pockets and therefore flaky biscuits?

Apparently, yes.

But first, another dairy dilemma - what about the buttermilk?  A friend suggested almond milk.  To recreate the tang that buttermilk has, I soured it with lemon juice.  And, bingo, it worked.  And it didn't taste of almonds, which wouldn't have necessarily been a bad thing, but not what I was going for.

I will admit that I wasn't sure these were going to work, so I didn't photograph the process (oops).  Work they did, and the flavor was great!  The whole wheat flour lent a nutty and more wholesome flavor, and they were flaky and tender, as all biscuits aspire to be.

And they are boyfriend and vegan friend approved!

(If you're going for just "regular whole wheat biscuits," you can still use this recipe.  Just swap out the coconut oil and almond milk for butter and milk)

Vegan Whole-Wheat Biscuits
(heavily adapted from the Cook's Country recipe)
Makes ~ 12 biscuits

12 Tbsp coconut oil (scoop out, and put in a bowl in the fridge until you need it - remember, it needs to be cold!)
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/4 cups almond milk (with 1 Tbsp + 3/4 tsp lemon juice)

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees, and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Mix dry ingredients in your food processor, a few pulses will do it.  Scatter the coconut oil chunks (cold) over the dry ingredients and pulse briefly, until it resembles a coarse meal.

Dump the mixture into a bowl and stir in the almond milk mixture by hand.  Stop when the dough forms a uniform texture.  (The food processor will overwork it and produce tough biscuits.  Tough biscuits = all the bad things in the world!)

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead gently.  Roll it out evenly, until it's about 3/4 inch thick.  Dip a floured biscuit (or cookie) cutter into flour before cutting out the biscuits.  Place them onto the prepared pan.

Bake the biscuits for 5 minutes in the 450 degree oven, and then rotate the pan and turn the oven down to 400 degrees.  Bake for 10-12 more minutes.  Transfer to a wire rack, let cool a few minutes, and then enjoy!

Grandma's Molasses Cookies

I remember visiting my grandparent's house one summer, when I was young.  I was playing outside on the farm and having a grand ole time.  Going back in the house, I found some molasses cookies that my grandma made and I helped myself.  They were delicious.  So, throughout the afternoon, on breaks from playing, I went back inside and had more cookies.  A kid's dream.  (I also remember having a huge stomachache that evening from all of the cookies.)  The delicious cookies, however, were not forgotten.

So when I got a request for a molasses cookie recipe, I immediately thought of my grandma's cookies.  I called her up and asked for the recipe.  She had this recipe (which may or may not be the original), but nonetheless, it's tasty.

Now, I generally stay away from gingerbread-y type things.  I've tried them, but I do not enjoy foods that feel like they're punching you in the taste buds (can you tell I'm not an adoring fan of staggering amounts of ginger?)  These cookies are great because the ginger is not overwhelming, but still gives you spice and warmth.

These cookies are tasty any time of year, but feel particularly appropriate on these dreary, cold, and all around icky winter days.  We all need a little warmth this time of year, why not in a comforting cookie?

Grandma's Molasses Cookies
(My grandma's recipe!)
Makes 2 dozen (although the original recipe was doubled so it makes a lot)

1/4 cup shortening
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1 egg
1/2 cup molasses

2 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp. ginger
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 cup buttermilk (or 3/4 tsp. lemon juice or vinegar in 1/4 cup milk)
1 tsp. baking soda

1/4-1/2 cup white sugar, reserved

Cream butter, shortening, and brown sugar.  Add in egg and molasses, and mix well.  In another bowl, combine remaining dry ingredients, and set aside.  In small bowl, combine buttermilk (or alternative soured milk) and baking soda.  Alternatively add in flour mixture and buttermilk mixture into butter and sugar mixture.

Wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate 1-2 hours.  This dough will be sticky.  Saying it's sticky before it's chilled is like saying Mt. Everest is a kind of a tall hill.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
After dough is chilled, scoop out tablespoons of dough, roll into balls, and roll in reserved white sugar.  Slightly flatten with glass.  Alternatively, this dough can be rolled out and cup into shapes.  I'm just a tad too lazy.

Bake for 10 minutes.  After you've removed it from the oven, let cookies sit on cookie sheet for a few minutes and then remove them to a cooling rack.

Enjoy!