Sweet potato and black bean chimichanga

Today is one of those ‘crazy for no reason’ days. In the middle of such a day I had a sudden intense craving for sweet potato. But I had a dish to make and a blog post to write on tortilla based dishes. So I decided to find a connection between sweet potatoes and tortillas.

A perineal issue at home is the diametrically opposite taste buds that the husband and I have. He loves South Indian food and only South Indian food whereas I like to experiment at least once a week with other cuisines and flavours. So my usual cheat sheet involves adding some Indian flavours to whatever I am trying and ease the way to the husband. So this recipe has many sources – online, offline and in my head.

If you are a purist, I would recommend that you don’t read any further because there is one travesty too many!

WHAT YOU NEED

7-8 tortillas

100 gms black beans

100 gms sweet potato

1 medium sized green capsicum

1 medium sized onion

1 medium sized tomato

2 cloves garlic

2 green / red chillies

1-2 tbsp of sour cream

50 gms Grated Mozarella cheese

1-2 tsp of cumin powder

1-2 tsp of pepper powder

2 tsp sambhar powder / garam masala / curry powder

1 tsp chilly powder (optional)

Salt

1-2 tbsp Oil

WHAT TO DO

• Soak the black beans for 4 to 5 hours. Drain the water and add fresh water
• Cook the beans and sweet potato in a pressure cooker till the beans are cooked and the sweet potato is mashable. It took me 3 whistles and 7 minutes on simmer.
• Heat oil and add the chillies and garlic and fry for a couple of minutes
• Once the garlic starts browning, toss in the onions and cook till onions are translucent
• Drain the black beans of any residual water, add it to the onions and cook for 2-3 minutes
• Toss in tomatoes, capsicum, 1tsp cumin powder, pepper powder, sambhar powder and salt and cook covered for 5 minutes. Keep aside
• 
• Skin the sweet potato and mash it thoroughly. Leave no lumps. Add the sour cream, 1 tsp of cumin powder, chilly powder and salt. Mix in all the ingredients to the sweet potato.
• 
•  Take a tortilla and spread the sweet potato paste in the centre. Add the bean mixture on top. Grate some cheese on it.
• Fold the tortilla like a burrito.
• 
• Preheat the oven to 180C.
• Fill in all the tortillas in the same manner and place all the tortillas on a baking dish
• Brush both sides of the tortillas with oil
• Bake for 12-15 minutes and turn over the tortillas and bake for another 7-9 minutes til golden brown.
• Serve hot with salsa or sour cream

NOTES

1. You could also deep fry the chimichangas instead of baking them.
2. The black beans can be substituted with red kidney beans and other vegetables like carrot and broccoli can also be added.
3. I used Mozarella cheese but you can use cheddar or any other melting cheese of your choice. You could also completely omit the cheese if you like.
4. The sour cream can be replaced with Greek yogurt.

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