Veg*n Cooking and Other Random Musings: Quesadillas de Frijoles de Anasazi, Arroz Integral y Verdura (Anasazi Bean, Brown Rice, and Vegetable Quesadillas)

Thursday, July 31, 2008

Quesadillas de Frijoles de Anasazi, Arroz Integral y Verdura (Anasazi Bean, Brown Rice, and Vegetable Quesadillas)

This was one of the best new meals we have tried this summer. We both really like Anasazi beans, but they are often forgotten with the traditional black beans, pinto beans, and kidney beans we usually use in our Mexican food. If you can get your hands on some Anasazi beans, I highly recommend them. They have an oddly "poultry-ish" quality and also a smoky flavor. Anasazi beans are also incredibly filling, it's crazy! We made quesadillas last night, no bigger than we normally do, and neither of us could eat the whole thing - we don't often have that problem.

This was also an excellent application for yellow summer squash. As I'm sure you've noticed if you've been reading this blog for any length of time, we are "beans and rice folks" (neither of us like tofu beyond tofu sour cream, we don't like seitan, and we most definitely do not like tempeh), and we are also quite obsessed with Mexican food. So it has been a fun challenge trying to figure out how to create "authentic" Mexican meals that utilize ingredients such as zucchini and summer squash that grow so well here in the Midwest. I can tell you from experience, the zucchini is harder to make "work" than the summer squash, we've had a few "hits" with zucchini, but also some "misses", things that were edible, but that weren't "blog-worthy" nor worth making again, so I was happy to find a meal that used squash that worked out really well. I can say though, with a little creativity and patience, almost anything can be used in Mexican food and it still taste "authentic", you just have to get familiar with the flavors and textures used in traditional Mexican cuisine.

Anyways, I've also gotten a few comments asking what, if any, produce used in our meals comes from our gardens. This excites me to no end that people enjoy the garden updates and our local food, so for the rest of the summer I will use a "legend" to show which fruits and veg came from our gardens, our CSA, the farmer's market, or the "regular" store.

The legend is:
no asterisk = from the grocery store
* = farmer's market
** = CSA
*** = Container or Community Garden

Without further ado, here are the pictures and the recipe.

















NOTE: I am going to try to start "titling" my recipes in Spanish, since it is pretty much just Mexican food. Not only do I think this is neat, but I learn a little bit of Spanish along the way. Now, with that said, I am coming up with these translations via online Spanish to English dictionaries and translators, and they aren't always accurate. So if you know Spanish, and know I am wrong with my translation, please correct me, it will help me learn!

Quesadillas de Frijoles de Anasazi, Arroz Integral y Verdura (Anasazi Bean, Brown Rice, and Vegetable Quesadillas)
1 cup anasazi beans, cooked
1 cup long grain brown rice, cooked
2 tomatoes, diced ***
1 yellow summer squash, diced ***
1/2 onion, diced **
1/2 bell pepper, seeded and minced ***
1 hot banana pepper, seeded and minced ***
1 serrano pepper, seeded and minced ***
2 cloves of garlic, minced *
ground coriander
chipotle chili powder
cumin
salt

tortillas
salsa

Heat a few tablespoons of water in a small skillet. Add squash, onion, peppers, and garlic. Cook for about 10 minutes. Drain any excess water.

Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and season to taste.

Layer a few tablespoons of filling in warmed tortillas. Fry if desired.

Yummy!

I wanted to end this post with a reminder about the Quit Now Challenge. It officially starts tomorrow and it is not too late to sign up. I will be posting a reminder tomorrow to all you quitters out there that the challenge has begun!

'Til next time.

14 comments:

LizNoVeggieGirl said...

Keep up the garden updates and the FABULOUS meals; and good luck with the challenge!! :0)

Unknown said...

looks delish as always.

last week i made spicy shredded zucchini tacos. they were ok...but i didn't spice them well enough. they did photograph well though. im trying again tonight. gonna try to add corn i think.

any suggestion on spices?

J said...

Veggie Girl - Thanks. The challenges are very fun, as you can see by the sidebar, we participate in quite a few. I hope the people who joined the challenge get as much out of it as we have.

Selina - Thanks.

The spice combination I've had the best luck with for zucchini is as follows:

chipotle chili powder
cumin
ground coriander
Mexican oregano
white pepper
sea salt

Now, I'm not sure of amounts, I always season to taste.

Hope that helps!

Alicia said...

If you allow me a little correction... It should be something like Quesadillas de frijoles de anasazi, arroz integral y verdura. Quesadillas goes at the beginning because it's what it is. It's like "black car": in Spanish it is "coche negro", the adjective after the noun.
Sorry for the boring lesson!
I wish I could try those anasazi!

J said...

Alice - Thank you so much! That really helps and makes a lot of sense. I always forget that English uses kind of weird syntax than most other languages. That has always been my issue, not finding the correct words, but the correct order. Between the Spanish to English dictionary and you, I might just learn Spanish yet!

I'm going to correct my title now.

Hey, it wasn't boring at all, I learned a lot, thank you for taking the time to come help me out. I wouldn't ask for corrections if I didn't want them, trying to learn a different language as an adult is difficult and I need all the guidance I can get.

:-( I wish you guys could find Anasazi beans and all the varieties of peppers we have here, it makes me sad.

Bianca said...

These look super yum! I love summer squash, but often run out of ideas to put it to use. I've never tried the anasazi beans, but poultry-ish sounds intriguing.

hmd said...

Looks fabulous! I like just about anything you can slap on a tortilla :) Scrambled eggs with cheese too. For awhile, my doc had me on a gluten free diet just to test my response and in a desperate moment, I made a pb&j out of a corn tortilla. You know, it wasn't half bad!

Anonymous said...

We love the garden updates (we get to pretend we have gardens!!) and I love anasazi beans. Can't get them in France, but when I lived in the SW of the US I just gobbled them right up!

Anonymous said...

I have had some Anasazi beans that I got in bulk from the co-op sitting around for months because I was unsure what to do with them! I must have read a recipe and thought it sounded good, bought them, and then lost/forgot about the recipe...But now I can make your quesadillas--yay! I *love* zucchini/yellow squash in Mexican food, so this will be a hit for sure!

Thanks
Courtney

Unknown said...

thats funny that you mentioned the squash blossoms because one of the girls at work told me that a few weeks ago. i never knew either! when my yellow summer squash plant broke there were a few tiny squash blossoms. i took them off to hopefully encourage the plant to expend all its energy into regrowing itself vs. producing squash. i fried the few i had in some earth balance. it was very good.

and yes... i took that picture a little before 8am one morning.

Unknown said...

i forget to mention she told me to pick them as early in the morning as possible & while they are still kinda small & before they ever get a chance to open. cook them as soon as possible (that night for dinner is fine). makes me want to grow extra plants next year just for the darn blossoms.

J said...

Bianca - They were, but so filling! Summer squash is great, but it starts to coming so fast and there are so many of them that it can get overwhelming.

If you can get your hands on some Anasazi beans, do so, they are awesome, we are definitely going to be using these a lot more now, I can't believe we've ignored them for so long!

Heather - Thanks! I'm with you on that one, throw it a tortilla and I'm just fine. Oh no! I'm not sure I could survive on a gluten free diet, I love my tortillas so much! Now that I am thinking about it, I can see the pb&j on a corn tortilla being pretty good myself...

Shellyfish - Thank you! I really thought the updates were going to be one of those posts that got ignored. I'm sorry that you can't have a garden, but am happy that you can at least follow ours. I know if I couldn't have a garden anymore for whatever reason, I would like to live vicariously via other peoples gardens.

Aren't they tasty?! That's too bad you can't get them in France. I guess if you ever come to the States for a visit, it would be a good excuse to stock up!

Courtney - Don't you hate when that happens? I bought some wild rice a few months back, had it in one dish and now it just sits there. I know there are all sorts of "traditional comfort foods" that you can use wild rice in, but that's not really my food style. Don't get me wrong mashed potatoes, stuffing, and gravy style meals are good every once in awhile, but they definitely are not staples of my diet.

I hope you enjoy the quesadillas, they were one of the best things we have made lately. And yes, squash in Mexican, if done right, is awesome!

Selina - See, I wouldn't have even known what to do with them! Thanks for the idea, we've had so many blossoms just fall off the plants, to think we could have ate them!

Thanks for the tip, that makes a lot of sense. And haha, you just might have to do that - then post all sorts of tantalizing recipes for me to come try. ;-)

Lisa (Show Me Vegan) said...

your description of anasazi beans sounds great. I had no idea! Now I have to keep an eye out for them.

J said...

Lisa - Anasazi beans are really good, I've never had a bean that had a poultry quality so this bean opens up doors for other applications. Brett says when flavored correctly they can also taste a little like bacon.