Vegan Cook-a-Long

Burritos

I chose to make burritos for my week one (loosely-defined) sandwich. Somebody once asked what my recipe for tortillas is, and I kind of flaked out about posting it. Here it is:

Tortillas:

ingredients:
3 cups of flour
2 teaspoons of baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
about 1 1/4 cup of warm water
4-6 tablespoons of olive oil

equipment:
mixing bowl and spoon
flattening thing
cast-iron pan



Mix the dry ingredients together. Form a well in the middle and pour the warm water. Pour the olive oil in, and then mix it all together into a dough. You don’t want the dough to be too sticky (a little sticky is ok, but don’t be afraid to add some flour).

Break off pieces of dough, and roll them into small balls. Then, flatten them into tortilla-shaped circles. On a well-heated, non-oiled cast iron pan (I’ve tried this on regular frying pans, they don’t work well), press the tortilla down, stretching it out and making it bigger.

I used to use a potato-masher, but then I started using this spatula. Eventually, the metal twisted so much that it broke, leaving me with a piece of wood attached to a tiny bit of metal, and the actual spatula end thing. This works even better than the whole spatula.

Press the tortilla down with the metal spatula, working it so that it gets bigger while remaining vaguely circular. Cook on each side until it reaches looks like a tortilla.
Sometimes I use my hands to press, but that seems too dangerous to outright advocate here. Still, I’ve never burned myself.

When the tortilla is done, it will likely seem a little stiffer than you want it to be. I stack mine on a plate, and add each new one to the bottom of the stack, occasionally flipping them around. The tortillas regain their moisture this way.
I seriously can’t eat store bought tortillas anymore.

Guacamole:
I used the half of the onion that didn’t go into the beans, a tomato, two ripe avocados, some lemon juice, and a bit of salt.

yams:
I cut up some yams and boiled them until they were tender.

Then I mashed them and added some spices (cumin and chili powder and sal) and olive oil to taste.

Beans:

You might/probably have your own recipe for beans. Mine goes like this: I fried up about half an onion in some olive oil. Then I added some cruhed chili peppers and cumin, and fried it a little more. Then I added a can of beans (drained). This time I used pinto beans, but I usually use black beans. I added a little water, and cooked the beans, mashing them as I went. Then I added more cumin and chili powder to taste.



In addition, I served the burritos with fake sour cream. I didn’t feel like taking pictures of a fully -made burrito, because it was messy enough trying to take pictures of eerything else.

posted by stagflation @ 10:39 PM