Friday, April 22, 2011 Butternut Squash Burritos


First off, I've gotta say the Stop & Shop in Darien has excellent employees. Every time I'm in there wandering around the produce department like a lobotomy patient someone always offers to help.

Sometimes I just don't know what to make for dinner. And, considering I'm a culinary student and accomplished dinner-party-thrower, this boggles me further into not-knowing-what-to-make-for-dinner purgatory. My mind gets hazy, I can't think straight and I have zero idea how to make anything into something tasty.

Yesterday I did about three laps around the produce section.

"Can I help you?"

"No...I just don't know what I want for dinner."

She smiled. She works in a supermarket and she doesn't know what to make for dinner either. Happens to the best of us.

Finally I spotted a container of cut up Butternut Squash. Hallelujah. Not very Earth Day of me, but this was yesterday. I'll admit, the ease of it caught my eye. I do tons of prep at school. Although I usually cook my winter squash whole, the chunks of orange sold themselves to me and I decided to make some...

Butternut Squash Burritos

Butternut Squash (cubed)
Brown rice
Black Beans
Chopped onion
Chopped garlic
Flour tortillas
Wholly Guacamole 100 Calorie Pack (Since I can't seem to get a good avocado this is my guac of choice for now. Feel free to make homemade and feel superior \m/)
Fresh Cilantro (I was thrilled to find single serving herb selections. For 99 cents you can get the herbs you need and not feel like you're wasting anything. Brilliant.)

First I put some brown rice on the stove. For the two of us I added 1/2 cup of dry rice to about 1 1/4 cups of my homemade chicken stock (I added more later to finish cooking the rice). If you're vegetarian make it with veggie stock or water, although something with flavor is always best.

The cubed squash I boiled until it was tender and seasoned it with some salt and pepper when I took it out. While that was going on I put the chopped onions in a pan with a little olive oil, once they were translucent I added the black beans and spiced them with two kinds of paprika, chipotle and fresh garlic.

Throw the tortillas in a warm oven for a bit then layer the goods around the bottom third, fold in the sides, then the bottom and roll it up. Rice, squash and beans topped with fresh chopped cilantro and guacamole all rolled up in a warm tortilla. Mmm, mmm, mmm. The fresh cilantro makes it. The texture and flavor of the brown rice playes nicely with the spicy beans and sweet chunks of squash and the cool guacamole sneaks in to provide a contrast in temperature.

Very tasty. I'm looking forward to leftovers.

-HH

3 comments:

Natalie said...

OMG OMG OMG I'm totally making this. It looks absolutely delicious and so easy too. Man. Yum!

Tacomamama said...

My husband's Mexican grandma (he's Korean, it's a long story) would always do flour tortillas on a hot (ungreased) skillet, heat it up first and pop it on there until it just starts to puff, then take your numbest hand and just flip it with your bare hands. (OK, you can use a spatula too)

There's something about doing them quickly this way on a high heat that seems to improve the elasticity. Also you get nice little char marks. Must be absolutely no moisture on the skillet or the tortilla or it will stick.

Headbanging Hostess said...

That's kinda how I did it, but on the pizza stone in the oven. But it was only at 200.

I never could get them to wrap right until someone in class showed me the warm up trick :)

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