Breakfast Bean Tacos

Corn tortillas, seasoned beans, and cheese all come together in Breakfast Bean Tacos, a quick and easy, gluten free breakfast!

Corn tortillas, seasoned beans, and cheese all come together in Breakfast Bean Tacos, a quick and easy, gluten free breakfast!

Every week (or almost…) I write the What I Ate Wednesday post. I started when so called Link Parties were common – someone would set a theme, bloggers would link posts that followed the theme, and people interested in that theme – those bloggers, surely, but other readers as well – would go look at the posts, and find information and  interesting blogs to read.

The link parties have been gradually fading away – not enough other readers use them to find blogs any more, fewer bloggers post to them, the hosts move on to other things that require that time and energy…  But WIAW has continued to putter along, through several hosts. And even on the days when there was no party to link to, I like to post it…  I write about everyday cooking, after all. It is one thing to tell you “Cook a big pot of chicken and use it in several meals!” and another to say “So I added some cooked chicken to these vegetables…”

Every so often I realize I’ve been blithely posting a meal that I have never told you how to make. Now, sometimes you don’t really need much by way of directions – the summer long salads for lunch, for instance.  (Though enough posts of specific salads do well on other blogs, maybe I should do that, once in a while! When I have something particularly good, I guess…) But some are not as obvious.

Corn tortillas, seasoned beans, and cheese all come together in Breakfast Bean Tacos, a quick and easy, gluten free breakfast!

I have regularly eaten a breakfast I call Bean Tacos. As usual, I don’t claim these are authentic anything other than my own breakfast, but I find they work very well as that. Once the beans are cooked, everything else assembles in no time – and it’s a tasty, nutritious, filling breakfast. You can even eat it quickly and easily! I’m sometimes at the computer with tacos on my left and coffee on my right… munching breakfast while I scroll through email. If you have a family and everyone hits the kitchen at a slightly different time, these are ideal – just wrap and zap for each person as needed.

A note about the beans. I have frequently used pintos, and they’re great in this. I love varying them, though – each bean gives a slightly different flavor and texture. I’m fond of black beans or red or pink beans (I can’t help it – so many beans are named by the color!) White beans never seemed quite right in this one, but if they sound good to you… I often use Roman beans, though they’re not really my favorite – I think they cook a little too soft – but they’re the easiest for me to get in big bags, so I usually have them on hand. And while I often use dried beans I have cooked in bulk the day before, canned beans are just fine… sometimes I make a point of picking up a few cans of a kind of bean I have not cooked lately, just for variety!

So, heat some olive oil in a pan – a little more than you might usually use, as it adds a touch of richness and flavor to the beans. Mince half a jalapeno (or more, if it’s small or you like the heat!) and add it. I sometimes use an Asian chili paste instead, just because it is convenient… You could add a touch of minced onion or garlic if you feel ambitious, but in the morning, I don’t – we’re doing well when I remember the chili! As the jalapeno softens, add cumin, and stir.

Corn tortillas, seasoned beans, and cheese all come together in Breakfast Bean Tacos, a quick and easy, gluten free breakfast!

Then add three cups of cooked beans (or two cans,) rinsed and drained. Stir them around to distribute the seasoning, and add half a cup of broth. I used ham broth, here, that I had from the last time I cooked a ham and simmered the bone, but you could use any other kind that you have or that sounds good. (Obviously if you are vegetarian, use a vegetarian broth!) If you don’t make your own, commercial gluten free broth works.  You can use just water, but I like to get some flavor from the broth.

Simmer all that about five minutes. The beans are softer when they are heated through, and they pick up the flavor of the broth and seasoning. Then mash them – I use a potato masher, I know some people use an immersion blender when making a big batch, and a fork will do in a small batch… The beans will absorb much of the liquid. Stir that around, still over heat, for a minute until you have the texture you want (and bear in mind that it will firm up as it cools.) Put that aside.

Corn tortillas, seasoned beans, and cheese all come together in Breakfast Bean Tacos, a quick and easy, gluten free breakfast!

Now – for each person, take three corn tortillas. I find that different brands have very different textures (and in our store, at least, we don’t always know which brands will be available on any given day…)  so you may want to try a few to find which ones you like best. Microwave them for 30 seconds to heat them – this makes them soft and pliable. And I use cheese – usually cheddar, Monterrey Jack or pepper jack occasionally (we don’t always have it in our store.) Cut about an ounce and a half of cheese, per person, into six sticks.

Corn tortillas, seasoned beans, and cheese all come together in Breakfast Bean Tacos, a quick and easy, gluten free breakfast!

Take the heated tortillas, and place a spoonful or so of hot beans into each, with two sticks of cheese on the beans.  Roll the tortillas around the filling, and put seam side down (so they don’t unroll!) while you fix the next. And serve! I then usually let it sit a minute to cool – the cheese melts a bit, the beans firm up a bit, the tortilla becomes easier to handle…

I typically heat, flavor and mash the beans one morning, and make my breakfast then. Rich comes out an hour or so later, makes his own, and puts the rest of the beans away. Then the next day, I take out the container, heat a few tortillas (to make them flexible) wrap beans and cheese in each, and microwave the whole thing another minute. And breakfast! (I usually  fix more beans than I wrote up here, so that I have enough for a few days at a time. )

And if you think these sound remarkably like breakfast bean burritos, you’re probably right. I never liked flour tortillas to begin with, so when I went gluten free I was delighted to find that most corn tortillas were safe, and I never bothered hunting up a gluten free flour tortilla! But if you’d rather use a larger flour tortilla and make one or two burritos instead, go for it.

Corn tortillas, seasoned beans, and cheese all come together in Breakfast Bean Tacos, a quick and easy, gluten free breakfast!

 

Corn tortillas, seasoned beans, and cheese all come together in Breakfast Bean Tacos, a quick and easy, gluten free breakfast!

Breakfast Bean Tacos

Anne Murphy
Corn tortillas, seasoned beans, and cheese all come together in Breakfast Bean Tacos, a quick and easy, gluten free breakfast!
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Total Time 15 minutes
Course Breakfast
Cuisine American, Gluten Free

Ingredients
  

For the Beans

  • olive oil
  • 1/2 jalapeno minced
  • 1/2 t ground cumin
  • 2 cans 3 c beans, rinsed and drained
  • 1/2 c broth or water

For the Tacos

  • 12 corn tortillas
  • 6 oz cheddar cheese

Instructions
 

For the Beans

  • Heat oil in a pan, add the jalapeno and cumin. Stir until the jalapeno softens slightly. Add the beans, and stir. Add the broth.
  • Simmer about five minutes, until beans are heated through and they've absorbed some of the broth and seasoning. Mash the beans. Stir them in the pan until they absorb most of the liquid. Set aside.

For the tacos

  • Take 3 tortillas for each person. Microwave for 30 seconds to warm them and make them pliable. Cut cheese into six sticks per person.
  • Use 1/4 of the bean mixture for 3 tacos. Put a spoonful in a tortilla, add 2 pieces of cheese and wrap the tortilla around the filling. Repeat with the other two tortillas.
  • If the bean mixture is still hot, serve. If it has cooled, microwave 1 minutes to reheat.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

Corn tortillas, seasoned beans, and cheese all come together in Breakfast Bean Tacos, a quick and easy, gluten free breakfast!

 



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