Roasted Black Bean Tacos with Chipotle Sour Cream

I discovered this recipe on one of my new favorite food blogs, Eat, Live, Run. It sounded delicious - vegetables & black beans slow-roasted in the oven, then served in tacos with chipotle sour cream. It would definitely be a crowd pleaser even for an ardent meat eater. Apparently, the recipe originally came from Oprah, but I've made it a couple times and adapted it slightly-- the original version calls for a cabbage slaw, which I wasn't crazy about. I also made a few other small adjustments, and substituted carrots for red peppers - not very Tex-Mex, I know, but I am appalled at how a single red pepper costs about $3.99.

I'm also inspired by this Mexican supermarket on my drive home from work, which has a cooler full of steaming, freshly made corn tortillas, and Hass avocados that are always perfectly ripe and significantly cheaper than they are in regular grocery stores. With black beans simmering in the slow cooker, I picked up avocados, cilantro, and fresh tortillas on the way home. I'm loving Florida lately, especially all the excellent little ethnic markets like this one. (The picture above is from when I made this recipe the first time with whole wheat tortillas)

ROASTED BLACK BEAN TACOS WITH CHIPOTLE SOUR CREAM

2 cups corn, fresh or frozen
1 lime, juiced
2 tsp. cumin
1 1/2 tsp. paprika
2 tsp. salt
2 Tblsp olive oil
1 cup organic baby carrots, sliced in half
1/2 big red onion, sliced thin
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed, or 3 cups **slow cooker black beans (see recipe below)

SOUR CREAM:
1 cup sour cream
2 canned chipotle chilies in adobo sauce, chopped, plus 2 tsp. adobo sauce

SIDES:
2 avocados
1 tomato
1 lime
handful cilantro
shredded cheese - Cheddar or Monterey Jack
soft corn tortillas

Preheat oven to 425. In a large bowl, mix corn with 1 Tblsp of the olive oil, juice of one lime, 1 tsp. salt, cumin, carrot, and red onion, then spread out on half a baking sheet.

In another bowl, mix remaining Tblsp. olive oil, paprika, black beans. Salt to taste - may need up to a teaspoon, or not so much, depending on how much salt you added to slow cooker beans. Then spread this on other half of baking sheet.

Bake 20-25 minutes, tossing occasionally, until beans are slightly crisp.

Make sour cream: mix in a bowl with chipotle peppers and adobo sauce.

Make guacamole: peel and chop avocados, mash, seed and chop a tomato, add to mash, add about a tablespoon of chopped cilantro, salt to taste, and lime juice to taste.

When beans are done, assemble as many tacos as you like, layering beans, corn mixture, cheese, guacamole, sour cream.


**SLOW COOKER BLACK BEANS: I bought a bag of dried black beans, washed them, soaked them overnight, drained them, then put them in the slow cooker today with a chopped onion, a bay leaf, and covered with water. I cooked them all day on low in the slow cooker, then added salt and a chopped up bunch of cilantro. The recipe above used about three cups of those beans, more than in a can, just because I felt like it. You could, at this point, drain them and save the remaining beans for another recipe. OR - when I got done with the tacos (the beans were still a little firm), I left the remaining beans in the slow cooker and continued to cook them on high with the lid partially off, stirring occasionally, until some of the water cooked off and I was left with a delicious, black bean soup, which will make another dinner tonight. Add a can of drained rotel if you want to make it really spicy (I won't be able to do this with a toddler), then serve over rice, but these beans are AMAZING - sooo much better than canned, which I usually use out of sheer laziness.