Cooking in the Shenandoah Valley: Meatless Enchilada Style Burritos with salsa verde

I know, I know: it's been 4 months since my last post. January 2016 started with such potential and promise--I thought I would post a few times a month -- my friends and the internet would see just how easy it is to maintain an active, creative life as a first year resident. Yet, some resolutions are meant to fail and all I can do is try and try again keep up a regular appearance as the KitchenDoc. Just  because I haven't posted, doesn't mean I haven't been cooking. I've been cooking--a lot. There are lots of new interesting vegan and vegetarian dishes that I've wanted to share. Hopefully coming soon: tofu pancakes, orange glazed tempeh and baked falafel balls with tzatziki sauce.

This weekend I went to the Shenandoah Valley with old friends, and I was inspired to document one of our meals. I met up with Jess, her husband Matt and Jess's sister Alison, her husband Derek and another dear friend from VCU medical school. We spent our Saturday morning and afternoon trekking through the George Washington National Forest. Our portable hiking lunch was pimento cheese sandwiches prepared by the lovely Mississippi bred Wroten sisters--Alison and Jess.

The vegetarian dinner preparation was left to the husbands. Despite being given a pass on kitchen duties, I decided to document and help out with dinner. We were given all of the ingredients and general directions to make vegetarian "burrito-enchiladas." Our goal was to use up all the vegetables in the fridge and get dinner on the table while also relaxing and drinking our way through the weekend stash of beer.

It was a good time cooking with these modern cooking husbands. The main lesson I learned was how to roll a tight burrito--thanks to burrito roller extraordinaire Derek . Matt did a killer job chopping up sweet potatoes and filling burritos with just enough veggie filling for a full but not bursting burrito.

Here you have it.

Meatless Enchilada style burritos with salsa verde
(this can be a vegan recipe if you substitute the cheddar cheese for vegan cheese)

Ingredients: (this amount of ingredients yielded 10 burritos)
10-12 Flour tortillas "burrito sized"
Shredded cheddar cheese about 8-12 oz depending on your love of melted cheese-basically one of those small bags of shredded cheese
One jar salsa verde
One can vegetarian refried black beans
3 medium sweet potatoes, cubed
1 red pepper, diced
1 or 2 jalapenos depending on your spice tolerance, de-seeded and diced
Half a head of cauliflower cut into small florets
10 stalks or about half a bushel of asparagus cut into 1 inch pieces
1 bushel cilantro, washed and chopped
2 limes

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F

Making the filling: 

1.  Fill a large pot half way with water and bring to a boil.
2. Wash or peel the sweet potatoes and then cut into small cubes
3. Add the cubed sweet potato to the water, boil them until soft enough to easily pierce with a fork--about 10 minutes
4. While the potato boils, chop the red pepper and jalapenos, add to a medium sized saute pan with olive oil. Saute over medium heat until they are softened but not brown. Turn off the heat once soft.
5. Coarsely chop the asparagus and cauliflower and add it to a roasting pan--ideally the same one you will use to.bake the burritos. Dry roast these.vegetables for 10 minutes. These vegetables should remain crunchy to give texture to the burrito filling.
6. In a large bowl mix together the sweet potatoes, red pepper and jalapenos. Mix well until the sweet potatoes are crushed but not smoothly mashed. Then add in the roasted vegetables and mix to combine. Season the filling with a few tablespoons of salsa verde, the juice of a whole lime, and salt and pepper.

Wrapping the burrito: At this point start to prepare assembly line.

1. At one end have the bowl of sweet potato filling, the opened can of refried beans, then the tortillas, an open space for.rolling and finally the roasting pan for baking the burritos. 
2. Smear a heaping tablespoon of refried bean into the middle of the tortilla
3. Then add a large serving soon amount of filling to the middle--about 4 tablespoons of filling
4. Now for the rolling: I have a video embedded but I can try to explain as well--Lay the tortilla on a flat surface, then lift up the eddges to meet and smash together the filling, then lie it flat again, bring up the left and right edges, then fold them over, and use your thumb and index finger to softly pin them down, then with your middle fingers, pick up the upper edge of the tortilla and flip it over the pinned down side edges and tuck it under the filling, then keep tucking and rolling until you sort of flip the burrito over the seam. Place the burrito seam side down in a pyrex or roasting pan. Repeat this step until you use up all the filling 

Smush it all together

Gather the edges and pin them down with index finger and thumb

Tuck the sides and start the roll the top edge over

Keep tucking the top edge under the filling

After tucking in the top edge, roll the whole burrito over so it lies flat on its seam

Place in pan, seam down

The final steps: 

Cover with salsa verde and cheese

1. Cover each burrito with a tablespoon or two of salsa verde, then sprinkle the whole dish with cheese. 
2. Bake the burritos for 10-15 minutes at 400 until the cheese melts. 
3. Serve with cilantro and lime for garnish and topping
   

   

   Bake until the cheese melts

   
   

   

   Garnish cilantro and lime