How to Jalapeño

This Monday I felt like trying something other than a curry or chili, which is often what we make at Ste. Famille as you will soon see. So searching in one of our classic vegetarian cookbooks, I found burritos that the book described as "this is a fully loaded, knife and fork burrito that will make you very happy". Seeing as Mexican is one of my favourite kinds of food I was pretty excited.


The recipe called for 1-2 chili peppers, but when I went to Provigo to get some, one of the employees said they didn't have any, but was kind enough to show me to the jalapeno peppers (no, I am not kidding, a person working in retail in Montreal actually did help me, it was quite shocking). So I figured, jalapeno peppers should work, and I love spicy food so why not.

But alas, the jalapeno peppers were quite scary. I mean if onions make you cry, what is a jalapeno pepper going to do? Make my eyes bleed? Quite possibly.

So I had chopped up all my other vegetables and the jalapenos continued to stare at me. The recipe told me to mince them, I don't really know the exact method for mincing I just knew they had to be really small so I didn't kill Daniele when she bites into her burrito and there is a big chunk of jalapeno. So I tried my interpretation of mincing and that seemed to work well even if it took some time. And then, being quite curious I tried a piece of jalapeno, let's just say DON'T DO THIS!!!

Ok so I finally minced the pepper (I only did one, but you could definitely do two it wasn't that spicy), conquered my everest, and burned my tongue in the process. Let's move on to the actual recipe.

Like most recipes, I have to adapt a bit because some of my childhood picky-eating tendencies are still with me today. So the recipe called for 2 tomatoes, but I ignored that and added another pepper.

Serves 4
Ingredients:
1 onion, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
1 red pepper, chopped
1-2 chili (or jalapeno) peppers
2 cans black beans, rinsed
10 oz. baby spinach
3 tbsp. olive oil
4 garlic cloves, squished
2 cups brown or Mexican rice
4 large tortillas (I got the spinach kind, they were amazing)
Salt and pepper, to taste
Salsa, sour cream, shredded chedder cheese for toppings

1. Heat oil in large skillet over medium heat. Add onion, garlic, sweet peppers, and hot peppers and cook, stirring, until onions soften (8-10 min).

2. Add spinach and cook until spinach is wilted, then add black beans. Cook, stirring occasionally, for about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.
3. Place a tortilla on a plate, add a spoonful of cooked rice, a scoop of the bean mixture and desired toppings. Fold over the bottom and top, roll in the sides and enjoy!

Looks delicious right? It was. But wait, isn't it missing something? Yup, I completely forgot to serve the rice! Other than that minor issue, I am a huge fan of this recipe.