Monday, February 21, 2011

Black Bean Tacos

Do you ever have one of those days where you just know exactly what you want for dinner and it totally peps you up? No, just me? I go to the gym straight from work Mondays, Tuesdays and usually Thursdays along with coming home for a brief 1/2 hour first on Wednesdays. This results in my starting to throw dinner together anywhere from 6 to 7:30 at night. Obviously that doesn't leave much time for intricate dinners. Some nights I rely on weekend leftovers. Sometimes I throw together something quickly like a salad or sandwich and sometimes I rely on boca burgers or meatless balls, jarred spaghetti sauce and whole wheat spaghetti. Occasionally though, as happened tonight, I was struck with inspiration and put together a meal I'd like to share with you.

A few months back I mentioned that I had made Oh She Glows' Easy Avocado-Lime Black Bean Salad. When I set out this afternoon, that was what I was going to make. I saw someone in my office eating tacos for lunch and I instantly thought of throwing that black bean salad on some corn tortillas and having me some yummy tacos for dinner. Luckily I had already set some black beans to soak before I left for work this morning and I had my fabulous new Pressure Cooker to cook them up in no time flat. A trip to the store on my way home to pick up some tortillas and cilantro resulted in a slight shift in the dinner plans. I started thinking about what else I could put on the tacos to jazz them up a bit. I thought about some lettuce and salsa, but those seemed like they would take away from the lovely combination of this recipe, so I ended up picking up a head of red cabbage.

I didn't measure ingredients which is probably a good thing as my salad turned out a bit too oniony for even my onion loving tastes. For the original recipe, make sure and check out Oh She Glows' post and then add in the cabbage if you'd like.

First: Chop your onion

Then add chopped cilantro
Next add the juice from your limes
Blurry picture, but the most used contraption in my kitchen next to my food processor.
Add in some cumin and salt
Slice up your cabbage
I ended up not mixing the avocado in since I didn't want to leave it overnight in the leftovers.
Apart from using too much onion, these tacos were unbelievably delicious! And considering that I could put this together after the gym and a shower on a week night, I'd say we have a winner.

Oh, and I <3 my pressure cooker. I see a long and happy life together.

2 comments:

  1. Oh my gosh! I totally threw this together this morning for my lunch later. I had to lightly cook the onion, though. I can't bring myself to eat raw onion. Yeah, it's only barely 10am but I snuck one for later...so good!!!

    What kind of meals do you use cilantro in? It's kind of pricey here so I don't get to buy it fresh often, but I have a seasoning packet of it that I use in a lot of meals.

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  2. Hi Sprankles! I am so glad you liked this recipe. I will have to try it with some cooked onions as I have since picked out almost every onion as I have eaten it.

    I usually use cilantro in Mexican flavored dishes. I usually use it with lime or lemon juice and cumin/paprika/chili powder. I'm surprised that it is pricey where you live. Here you can get it non organic for around $.50 and organic for more like $2.00 for a bunch. It is not one of my favorite flavors, but in moderation in the right dishes I think it is quite yummy.

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