July 22 dinner: black bean, quinoa and kale burritos

Yes, kale.  Recently one of my online message board pals wrote about sauteing up beet greens and mixing it in with a bean and quinoa burrito filling.  As I was looking through the fridge, attempting to figure out how to use up all the produce before this afternoon’s CSA pickup I remembered this, though slightly incorrectly as using kale.  I checked my message board and was corrected but encouraged to try it anyway.  While the goal isn’t to sneak veggies past a picky palate, we are getting a wee tired of dark leafy greens in the usual methods (ie sauteed with oil and garlic – great as a side dish a bit monotonous as a main dish).  I also had just a bit of that Quinoa-Black Bean salad in my fridge but not enough for a full meal.

The result wasn’t quite what I had in mind, one bunch of kale, even when blanched, did not cook down as much as I hoped.  I had just as much kale on my chopping board as I did black beans; so much for hiding it.  But it was already blanched so I decided to continue.  I figured between an extra clove of garlic and melty pepper-jack cheese it couldn’t be too bad.  Luckily it was much better than that.  The burrito filling even turned out pretty in my opinion.

Black bean, quinoa and kale burritos

• 1 bunch kale
• 1 1/2 t salt
• 1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
• 3/4 cup quinoa-black bean salad*
• 1 T oil
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 t cumin
• 1/8 t chipotle powder
• pepper-jack cheese
• lettuce
• flour tortillas
• salsa

Put on a big pot (soup pot sized) of water to boil.  Blanch the kale (for 5-7 minutes), skip the next paragraph if that is all the direction you need.

If I haven’t mentioned it before, kale needs a good swish in a bowlful of water before using.  Once it is cleaned strip the leaves from the tough stems.  You can do this by using a knife or just dragging your index finger and thumb (plus a bit of your hand) down the stem from cut side to tip.  Because you will eventually be chopping it semi-fine it doesn’t matter if the leaf comes off the stem nicely.  Roughly chop the kale.  When the water is boiling add the salt, then add the kale and cook it for about 5-7 minutes.  While it is cooking fill up a bowl (like the bowl of the salad spinner) with cool water, you will put the blanched kale into the cool water to stop the cooking.  Then I dump it into the salad spinner insert and use it to remove the excess water from the kale.  (I think this is much less messy than trying to squeeze it dry with my hands or between towels).  Chop the kale to be semi-fine, you don’t want any pieces bigger than a bean, but it doesn’t need to be turned to mush either.

Heat a 10″ skillet, add the oil and garlic and saute until the garlic is nice and fragrant then add the kale and sprinkle the cumin and chipotle on top.  Stir it so the spices cover the kale nicely then dump in the black beans and quinoa salad.  Stir occasionally while it heats up.

Grate the cheese and shred the lettuce.  Heat up your tortilla in your preferred (or required, *cough* darn electric stove *cough*) method.  Fill with the black-bean, quinoa and kale mixture, top with some cheese, salsa and lettuce, wrap and enjoy.

*since I used this I should give the recipe shouldn’t I?  That will be the next post.  I’m sure about 1/2 to 3/4 cup of cooked quinoa would be great too, or some rice if you have that handy instead.

Editting to Add: not quite the next post but finally, the quinoa and black bean salad recipe