Southwestern Taquitos - Organic Recipe - GF, SF, V

When I was a kid, we used to eat these chicken & cheese taquitos that we thought were super yummy. Never mind the fact that they were super processed and microwaveable (yuck!). Who knows if they even had real chicken or cheese in them? But we loved them. We'd all come barreling into the house after swimming in our backyard pool for hours, dripping wet and ravenously hungry, pop a few into the microwave, and jump back into the pool until they were ready to eat. Fast forward a few years and you'd find me loving the flautas (they reminded me of giant taquitos) at a Mexican restaurant down the street from my college dorm. At the very least, I think it's safe to say I like Mexican food and Mexican-food-inspired flavors. I get it from my Momma. She loves her spicy foods!

My new favorite taquito recipe is a much healthier version than our kid-hood favorite...it's gluten-free, sugar-free, vegan, and doesn't wreak havoc on all of my little cells (or my digestive system)! It even tastes better than those microwave ones we used to eat. Exponentially better. You're just going to have to trust me on that until you try them yourself. ;)

Ingredients:

- organic corn tortillas (organic corn is super important // try to look for ones that only have organic corn, water, and lime on the ingredients list)
- organic black beans (2 cans, or the equivalent in freshly made beans)
- 1 medium organic onion (whatever color is your favorite), finely chopped
- 1 medium organic shallot, peeled and finely chopped
- 3-4 cloves organic garlic, peeled and finely chopped
- 1 cup organic tomatoes, diced (we used organic baby heirlooms from the farmer's market)
- 1 organic jalapeno, seeded (or not), and diced
- 1 organic red bell pepper, seeded (or not) and diced
- 2-3 organic sweet mini peppers, seeded and diced
- 1 organic serrano, seeded and diced
- 1 ear organic corn
- handful of fresh, organic cilantro, chopped
- handful of fresh, organic oregano, chopped
- juice of 1 organic lime (feel free to add the zest, too!)
- organic cumin
- organic black pepper, ground
- organic chili flakes or red pepper flakes
- Real Salt
- organic hummus (optional)


Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Combine your beans, onion, shallot, garlic, tomatoes, jalapeno, bell pepper, sweet mini peppers, serrano, and seasonings in a large bowl. Play with the seasoning level, adding a little at a time, until you reach a flavor intensity you like.
3. Warm your tortillas in a skillet or pan over low heat. It only takes a few seconds to heat each tortilla. This just softens them up a bit so they don't break or crease when we roll them.
4. If you're using hummus, spread a TBSP of it down the center of each of your tortillas. (You can always substitute pepper jack cheese if you're not concerned about avoiding animal products. Just make sure your cheese is organic and/or made from milk that came from cows that were pasture-raised and not given antibiotics or hormones.)
5. Place a couple spoonfuls of your bean/veggie mix in each tortilla.
6. Roll your tortillas and place, rolled edge down so they don't unroll, in a baking dish or on a cookie sheet. (Parchment paper on a cookie sheet works the best for us.)
7. Bake 15-20 minutes or until heated throughout and the outside is crispy

Enjoy! I recommend serving these our Avocado Salsa Verde Dip.

Experiment: We are going to make a larger batch next time to see if these freeze well. Let me know in the comments below if you're interested in knowing how well they freeze.