Mexican Black Bean Sweet Potato Tortilla

Serves: 8

Written By Eydie Desser

Hola Amigos! In honor of Cinco de Mayo, we wanted to make a Mexican meal to remember – ensuring it’s good and healthy too. Sweet and savory, this is an elevated version of what you might typically find in a stuffed taco or tortilla. Filled with satiating fiber, it will convert you to the plant based version, no doubt! Two ingredients: sweet potato tortillas and seasoned beans make all the difference. A tu salud (here’s to your health).

Ingredients

For the Beans:

1 cup dry black beans, soaked overnight, and the soaking liquid (or 2 cans no-salt black beans with its liquid)
1 teaspoon cumin powder
1 tsp. ground coriander
1 teaspoon smoked paprika powder
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon liquid smoke

For the Tortillas (makes 8-10 tortillas):

1 (12-16 ounce) sweet potato, baked or microwaved, skin removed
1 cup spelt flour + more for dusting and rolling out the dough

For the Dressing:

1 medium size avocado (about 3/4 cup mashed)
½ cup freshly squeezed orange juice
½ cup freshly squeezed lime juice
1 medium size garlic clove, chopped
½ red onion, skin removed and roughly chopped (about ½ cup)

For the slaw:

2 cups thinly sliced Napa cabbage
2 cups finely diced red tomato
2 cups finely diced yellow tomato

Directions

For the Beans:

If using dry beans:

Pour soaked beans and soaking liquid into a 5-quart pot adding enough fresh water to cover the beans by 3 inches. Stir in all of the seasonings, and bring the water to a boil. Cook until the beans are tender. Depending on the age of the beans, it could take 25 minutes to an hour. Once tender, strain the beans, reserving the liquid. The beans can be made several days in advance.

If using canned beans:

Heat an 8” sauté pan over medium-high heat for a minute or two. Pour beans with the liquid into the pan and add all of the seasonings. Bring to a simmer, turn the heat to low to maintain simmer and cook the beans for about 10 minutes.

Make the Dressing:

Place all of the ingredients in a high-speed blender and blend until very smooth, about 1 minute.

Make the Tortillas:

Scoop cooked potato flesh to fill a 1 cup measuring cup.
Place 1 cup of spelt flour into a large bowl. Add sweet potato and mix together with a rubber spatula to coat the sweet potato. At this point, to thoroughly incorporate the flour, use your hands to squeeze and mix the dough until all of the spelt flour is absorbed.
Generously sprinkle a little bit of spelt flour on a flat surface. Roll the dough into a log, adding more flour if sticky. Using a pastry dough cutter or knife, divide the dough into 8-10 equal portions, adding more flour as needed.
Roll each piece into a ball and sprinkle the dough balls well with flour. Using a rolling pin, roll each piece out to 1/8th-1/16th inch thickness.

Cook the Tortillas:

Heat a non-stick pan over medium high heat until a drop of water sizzles. One at a time, place rolled out dough into the pan and cook on one side until browned, about 1-2 minutes and when the tortilla starts to bubble, Flip over and cook for another 1-2 minutes until browned on the other side. Place the cooked tortilla on a towel lined plate, and continue until all of the tortillas are cooked, stacking them on top of each other. Cover with a kitchen towel to keep warm.

To Serve:

Strain the black beans of their liquid.
Combine the red and yellow diced tomatoes
Place tortillas on a platter, top each with ¼ cup shredded Napa cabbage, ¼ cup black beans and 1/2 cup mixed diced tomatoes.
Spoon a tablespoon or 2 of dressing on top and serve.