17 May 2010

MTBT Goes Meatless for Mondays and My Legume Love Affair with a Baked Black Bean Tortilla Stack

Baked Black Bean Tortilla Stack

Around the blogosphere for some time now I have seen bloggers who are joining the Meatless Monday movement all across the world to show their support for our planet. Whether you join your fellow bloggers, restaurants or chefs like Mario Batali in going meatless even one day a week we have all accomplished something. Whether you follow suit for it's health benefits, or to reduce the negative impact on animals, or to show your support for your local farmers going meatless at least one day a week will benefit us all in one way or another. 

For those who read my blog you will know that MTBT is not the place for carnivores. I am not a vegetarian because I do love my fish, chicken and the occasional other meaty combo. Many of my favourite cuisines such as Greek, Mediterranean or Middle Eastern are already high in vegetarian dishes. I also grew up with a dad who is a vegetarian so it is easy for me to choose this lifestyle. My mom and dad are now in their 80's and ski and go hiking. They are headed on vacation in a few short weeks where they will be hiking throughout the Lake District in England. It may cause us to rethink our own lifestyle.

Cutting out meat and other animal products is the most powerful way for each of us to fight climate change and reduce our ecological footprint as well. Meat free meals are so nutritionally sound and provide proven health benefits.

This simple dish below is very versatile. You can use whatever type of beans you would prefer. I usually use black beans, but my cupboard was bare, so used a combination of red kidney beans along with the cannellini beans instead. You could even use your favourite refried beans recipe or the canned variety. Serve it with some soothing sour cream or homemade guacamole and have a delicious meal on the table quickly. Be part of the solution and join in on Meatless Mondays.

I am also submitting this dish to Susan over at Well Seasoned Cook who has been hosting My Legume Love Affair for well over a year now!!! Way to go Susan for continuing to estole the virtues of the much loved legume!!!!

**Baked Black Bean Tortilla Stack**

1 cup frozen corn
2 teaspoons vegetable oil
½ cup chopped onions
2 teaspoons minced garlic
1 cup chopped sweet red peppers
½ cup chopped sweet green peppers
1 ½ cups tomato sauce (or salsa)
1 ½ teaspoons dried basil
1 teaspoon (each) chili powder/cumin powder
1 ½ cups canned black beans, rinsed and drained
1 ½ cups canned white beans, rinsed and drained
1 cup shredded light mozzarella cheese
½ cup shredded light Cheddar cheese
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
5 large whole wheat flour tortillas

Preheat oven to 350F and spray a 9-inch spring form pan with cooking spray.

 In a large nonstick saucepan sprayed with cooking spray, cook corn over medium heat for 8 minutes or until lightly charred. Stir often. Set aside.

 Add oil to pan and cook onions and garlic for 4 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add red and green peppers, cook for 3 minutes. Then stir in tomato sauce or salsa, corn, chili powder and cumin powder, cover and cook for 6 – 8 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat.

 In a bowl combine black beans and white kidney beans. Mash roughly and stir into vegetable mixture.

In a small bowl combine mozzarella, cheddar and Parmesan cheese.

 Place a tortilla in prepared spring form pan. Spread with one-quarter of the vegetable and bean sauce. Sprinkle with one-quarter of the cheese mixture. Then repeat process 3 times. Top off with the final tortilla and a little extra cheese, then cover pan with foil. NOTE: I cover the bottom and sides of the springform pany with foil to prevent leakage if any)

Bake for 20 minutes, or until heated through and cheese has melted. Cut into 8 wedges with a sharp knife.

Serves 4

You are reading this post on More Than Burnt Toast at http://morethanburnttoast.blogspot.com. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to the author/owner of More Than Burnt Toast. All rights reserved by Valerie Harrison.

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34 comments:

  1. Valli, I just put this on the menu for this week- your picture made me drool! With my Meditteranean Italian heritage, I too enjoy many meatless dishes. Thanks for this one!
    xoxo Pattie

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  2. Val, what a fantastic vegetarian main course dish.

    I smiled when I read that you covered the bottom and sides of spring form pan with foil. This is very good advice and seldom seen in traditional cookbook recipes. It seems they leave it to us to figure that one out the hard way.

    It's fabulous to have healthy parents in their eighties. It sounds like they are definitely doing something right - and the meatless trend may well be the answer.

    Sam

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  3. A wonderful dish! Meatless dishes are so delicious.

    Cheers,

    Rosa

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  4. This would be great to make with the homemade tortillas I made over the weekend! Looks delicious and your photo is awesome!

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  5. This sounds delicious! I made something *similar* but not quite so on Good Froday this year and have been craving it since, but forgot what I put in it... Now I have a good reference! Thanks :)

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  6. I have been making this for years but the kids know it is as a Tortilla Condo:D

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  7. I'm still trying to persuade hubby about meatless Mondays...he loves his meat! Great photo and a delicious sounding dish

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  8. A tortilla condo - that's funny! And it looks delicious.

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  9. This is a fabulous recipe. I must add it to my list.

    Would you like to add it to MY Meatless Mondays at My Sweet and Savory?

    http://sweetsav.blogspot.com/2010/05/my-meatless-mondays.html

    I am looking for interesting and delicious recipes so that others can have as many as ideas to make more meals, meatless.

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  10. I could definitely go meatless more than one day a week, but getting the hubby to change his thoughts that each meal needs to contain some sort of meat is another story. I could easily get used to this for dinner. Delicious!

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  11. Glorious Gorgeous plate! It does have my name all over it. I think we must be meatless 3 or four days a week. I have never missed it and even my husband is leaning more and more that way.
    Black beans are probably my favorite ... except I'm pretty happy with most any bean on my plate.

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  12. I thought I left a comment here, Val - but I will leave it again as I see it isn't here???
    I wanted to tell you how much I appreciate learning from you. I have seen Meatless Mondays more than a few places, but never thought about it too much - certainly not enough to investigate where it started, and why. I am completely sold on the reasoning behind this. Vanja is such a meat eater that it will be extremely difficult to sell him on this idea. But, I am going to give it a very serious GO!
    :)
    Valerie

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  13. You are really onto something here. The stack looks marvelous and I can't think of a more perfect dish for a Meatless Monday supper. I hope you are having a wonderful day. Blessings...Mary

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  14. i like to call this mexican lasagna. i also like to call this extreme comfort food and extraordinarily delicious. meat? pfff. who needs it. :)

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  15. I keep saying I'll join in the meatless Mondays trend and this looks like a great recipe to start with!

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  16. I'm not quite organized enough to go meatless on Mondays, but I *do* make a conscious effort to do so at least once a week! Frittatas and quiches and pasta are my friends!

    This looks great. We don't eat enough beans in my home, but this would be a great, tasty way to incorporate them.

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  17. Anything with black beans is good.

    Peace, Love and Chocolate
    Tiffany

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  18. my favorites!
    I may have to give this a try... in abouta month. It's Italian until then :-)

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  19. Hi, thanks for permission to link this up. It is linked and if you would like to see it with the photo, you can find it here. Thanks so much. It is a great recipe.

    http://sweetsav.blogspot.com/2010/05/my-meatless-mondays.html

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  20. I love the new look, Val! I agree on eating less meat ... I try to cook vegetarian several times a week. This dish looks and sounds fabulous.

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  21. Val..I am so hungry after reading your post! That looks so good. Just hand me a beer and I'm complete!

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  22. I try to go meatless as much as possible and I love this black bean stack! Legumes are the way to go as far as protein, in my opinion.

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  23. Your photo says it all, Val. So scrummy. The more I eat beautiful meals like this bean stack, the less I miss meat. A great addition to MLLA 23. Thanks for joining!

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  24. Looks super good!! Took me a while to figure out what MTBT was but finally got it - DUH! Love the new look of the blog too...!

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  25. While not a vegetarian, I don't gravitate to meat as much as I once did, so I'm always interested in hearing about meatless main courses. This sounds like a terrific meatless dinner (and so easy too).

    I've been a bit MIA recently, but wanted you to know how much I love your new blog design---your site is gorgeous! This is by far the most beautiful version yet :)

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  26. Thank you so much everyone. I hope the chronicle my "meatless" days more often.

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  27. Who would miss meat with a meal like this. I love it.

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  28. V - I'm looking forward to hearing more about your Meatless Monday meals. This is a great reminder that this act can curb our carbon footprint, plus there are many great delicious vegetarian dishes such as this one.

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  29. I have been trying to eat meatless more often, but I end up just eating tons of pasta! This sounds like a great meatless, pasta free meal!

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  30. Meat? Who needs meat when presented with this gooey and cheezy dish.

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  31. I should join you Val on Meatless Mondays, I'm already making a few meals a week meatless, just made pasta with veggies tonight, next up your BB tortilla's

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  32. this looks wonderful val - this year i've been getting into cooking more mexican food and it sounds like the perfect dish to try next

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  33. That looks so ooey gooey cheesy and tasty and good!

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  34. This has been chosen as one of the year's highlights at My Meatless Mondays. Stop by and take a peek. Feel free to bring another recipe.

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Welcome to my home. Thank you for choosing to stay a while and for sharing our lives through food. I appreciate all your support, comments, suggestions, and daily encouragement.

Val

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