Up for some more chopping board therapy? Well, I’ve got to admit, I didn’t go too far to find this recipe for sweet potato and black bean burritos – it’s only  few pages along from Fat Tuesday’s Skinny Red Beans in the Moosewood Restaurant’s Low-Fat Favourites.

Apart from the chance to stand around, happily slicing my way through a mountain of sweet potatoes and onions (with all the teary snifling you’d expect that would bring on), what caught my eye about this dish was the intro blurb claiming that it didn’t need cheese.

Oh yeah?

I’m sorry, but there’s no such thing as ‘no cheese’ in my world. Does. Not. Compute. Cheese makes the sun come up around here at Bird Towers. How could anything not taste better with cheese? So I was intrigued to see how it would turn out.

Of course, the Moosewood authors are right. The sweet potatoes make for an unexpectedly satisfying and creamy filling, which means that you don’t miss cheese one little bit. And that can only be a good thing for those of us trying to cut down on extra calories after the festive season   

Sweet potato and black bean burritos from Moosewood Restaurant Low-Fat Favourites

Serves 4 to 6

You’ll need:

5 cups peeled, cubed sweet potatoes
Pinch of salt
2 teaspoons vegetable oil
3½ diced onions
4 large garlic cloves, minced or pressed
1 tablespoon minced fresh green chile
4 teaspoons ground cumin
4 teaspoons ground coriander
4½ cups cooked black beans, (2x 400g cans, drained)
2/3 cup lightly packed coriander leaves
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
Another pinch of salt
8 eight-inch flour tortillas
Fresh tomato salsa to serve

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/gas mark 4.

2. Place the sweet potatoes in a medium saucepan with a pinch of salt. Cover and bring to a boil, then simmer until tender – about 10 minutes. Drain and set aside.

3. While the sweet potatoes are cooking, warm the oil in a medium frying pan/skillet and add the onions, garlic and chile. Cover and cook on a medium-low heat, stirring occasionally until the onions are tender, about 7 minutes.

4. Add the cumin and coriander to the onion mixture, and cook for 2 to 3 minutes longer, stirring frequently. Remove from the heat and set aside.

5. In a large bowl, combine the black beans, coriander leaves, lemon juice, salt and cooked sweet potatoes. Then use a potato masher to squish the whole lot together. Stir through the onion mixture.

6. Lightly oil a large baking dish. Spoon about 2/3 to 3/4 cup of the filling in the centre of each tortilla, roll it up and place it, seam side down, in the baking dish.

7. Cover tightly with foil and bake for about 30 minutes, until piping hot. Serve topped with tomato salsa.

Cook’s notes

I reckon that if you left the coriander leaves out, the sweet potato mixture would be good for freezing if you have leftovers/make up extra on purpose.

But the leftovers also make a fab and very portable snack – that’s my lunch in the pic at the top of this post.

The tomato salsa recipe Moosewood provided didn’t really blow me away. It was nice but not really blogworthy. If anyone out there has an outstanding salsa, let me know!