Tali's Tomatoes

This week I had a bit of a Mexican craving. We have some really great fast food type Mexican places popping up in Australia at the moment, with some of them even having brown rice burritos! However, they still always come covered in cheese and sour cream so I generally try and avoid them for that reason.

While on the hunt for some take-away type food during the week I came across sweet potato and black bean burrito recipes.

I prefer to use black beans because I like the flavour but you could use kidney or pinto beans instead. The beans paired with the sweet red onion, sweet potato, spicy chilli and creamy avocado make you not even realise you are missing the sour cream or the cheese - I promise! I felt like I was eating something really naughty when in fact it was super healthy.

Try wrapping them in a large lettuce or cabbage leaf for a healthier alternative to the wrap bread.

• 1 1/2 limes, juiced
• 1/2 lemon, juiced (could use lime juice instead)
• 3 tomatoes, finely chopped
• 1 red onion, thinly sliced
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 500 g sweet potato, skin on and chopped into 1 cm cubes
• 3 cups cooked black, pinto or kidney beans (1.5 cups dried*)
• 1 cup thinly sliced red capsicum
• 1 cup chopped silverbeet, kale or spinach
• 2/3 bunch fresh coriander, finely chopped
• 2 avocados, flesh removed and roughly mashed
• 8 tortillas
• 1/2 to 1 tsp chilli powder (or cayenne powder)
• 2 tsp dried cumin
• 1 tsp dried coriander
• 1/2 tbsp coconut oil for cooking
• salt and pepper to taste

• lettuce
• cooked brown rice
• cooked quinoa
• jalapeños

Add the sweet potato to a saucepan, cover with filtered water, bring to the boil then cover and simmer until just tender, around 20 minutes. Drain the sweet potato and set aside.

Prepare your salsa by adding 2 chopped tomatoes, coriander, a pinch of cumin, salt and lemon juice to a bowl and stir to combine. Set aside to allow flavours to develop.

Heat coconut oil in a frying pan over a medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and sauté until soft. Add the capsicum, sweet potato, 1 chopped tomato and spices and stir regularly for around 3 minutes to avoid the mixture sticking to the pan, mashing some of the sweet potato softly so that you have some mashed and some whole pieces of potato. Add the black beans, spinach/kale or silver beet and lime juice and stir until combined and heated through. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Heat tortillas according to packet directions (I didn't bother and they were still great) and then top with some sweet potato mixture, avocado and salsa and roll to combine. See here for a photo demonstration of how to roll a burrito.