Vegetarian After 6

A few months ago, I read an article in Outside magazine about Mark Bittman, a food columnist who recently published the book, VB6: Eat Vegan Before 6:00 to Lose Weight and Restore Your Health . . . for Good. I liked his overall concept: pressured by his doctor to make changes in his diet, he decided that rather than take an all-or-nothing approach, he would limit himself during the day, and after 6 would allow his carnivore cravings to run wild.

I’ve tried to go vegetarian before, but never vegan (no butter?? no yogurt?!), but it had never occurred to me that I could spend part of a day eating one way and the rest eating another. Anyway, fast forward to this last week. I’ve once again been struggling with my eating habits (Snickers, anyone?), and felt like a cleanse was in order. I spent most of Monday juicing, but I wanted something more for dinner, something that involved clean-eating, but also something that involved, you know…chewing. Inspired by Bittman’s black bean tacos I came up with this yummy and satisfying (and hey! It’s vegetarian!) dish. Give it a try and let me know what you think!

Roasted Black Bean Wraps

Ingredients:

1 15 oz. can organic black beans, drained and rinsed

4 tbsp finely diced red onion (about 2 thin slices, diced)

1 lime, halved

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 tsp Tabasco green pepper sauce

large pinch kosher salt

1/2 tsp roasted or regular cumin

1 avocado, peeled and sliced

1 cup finely sliced red cabbage

Whole grain or whole wheat tortillas

Chipotle Cream Dressing

1/2 cup organic greek yogurt

1 tsp Cholula Chipotle-flavored hot sauce

dash of ground Chipotle pepper

Heat oven to broil. In a bowl, mix the black beans, red onion, salt, cumin, green pepper sauce, olive oil, and the juice from half the lime until combined. On a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper, spread the bean mixture out into a thin layer, and using a fork, lightly mash the beans – you’re not going for a puree here, just a light mash of most of the beans to create a ground-beef-like texture. Broil for five minutes on the middle rack, or until the beans are nicely dried out. Remove from oven and warm your tortillas while you mix up the Chipotle Cream Dressing in a small bowl.

Assemble your wraps by laying 1/4 of the black bean mixture in top half of tortilla. Top with sliced avocado, red cabbage, squeeze of lime, and Chipotle Cream Dressing. Fold and repeat – this should make four delicious wraps. Enjoy!