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Recipes

Black Bean Tortillas from Guatemala

The trick to this recipe is to cook the beans until they are very soft, with just enough cooking liquid left in the pan to render a moist puree. Because the skins need to be left out of the bean puree, the pureeing must be done in a food mill, not a blender.

Prep Time:

2 hours + overnight

Yield:

12 servings

Nutrition Facts

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Nutrition Facts

  • Calories: 320
  • Fat: 15g
  • Saturated Fat: 6g
  • Sodium: 280mg
  • Carbohydrate: 31g
  • Fiber: 5g
  • Total Sugar: 3g (Added Sugar 0g)
  • Protein: 16g

Ingredients

2 cups dried black beans, soaked overnight and drained

½ head garlic

1 small onion

½ small bunch of cilantro

6 cups cold water, plus more as needed

Sea salt

12 soft white corn tortillas (preferably whole grain)

Olive oil or canola oil, for frying

1 pound queso blanco or other white cheese such as Monterey Jack, shredded

Instructions

  1. Rinse the beans and transfer to large saucepan with the garlic, onions, three sprigs of cilantro, and water. Bring to a boil, partially cover, and simmer until the beans are very tender, about 1 hour. If the beans begin to dry out before they are cooked, add more hot water as needed until the beans are fully cooked. At the end of cooking time, there should be a cup or so of bean liquid in the pan.
  2. Remove the head of garlic, squeeze the soft cloves out into the pot with the beans and discard the garlic peels.
  3. Set the beans and their cooking liquid aside to cool, and then pass the beans and enough of their liquid for a creamy consistency along with the cooked garlic and onion through a food mill. The puree should have the consistency of guacamole. Add salt to taste.
  4. When you are ready to serve the tortillas, pour enough oil to cover the tortillas into a large frying pan and heat over high heat.
  5. When the oil is sizzling hot, slip in one or two tortillas, or as many as will comfortable fit without crowding and fry until crisp, about 3 minutes per side. Drain on paper towels.
  6. When the tortillas are cool enough to handle, spoon a dollop of the warm bean puree on each tortilla, and top with a sprig of cilantro and the shredded cheese. Serve hot.

Recipe Julia Della Croce for “The Oldways Table.” Photo Fotolia and iStock.

How’d it Taste?

  • Michael Cummings says:

    I made this recipe, serving the beans with flour tortillas, avocado, and queso. It was delicious. Despite the relative incivility of initial comments, I recommend giving this recipe a try.

  • Karla says:

    These are not black bean tortillas. They are black bean tostadas.

    • Reyna says:

      shes right and this recipe is disgraceful

      • hannahdepin says:

        Sorry to hear that you didn’t enjoy the recipe! Would you suggest any tweaks, or do you have a different approach to making this dish?

        • Adriana Botello says:

          The beans need to be cooked only with garlic and maybe epazote (this could be a recipe on its own, traditional “frijoles de la olla”, then you need to refry them, just in the food processor do not bring the flavors up :).
          The tortilla part was good, assemble the tostadas add the beans and cheese, but you will need a kind of salad to go on top, I will suggest very thin slice cabbage with cilantro and onion. And then you add the chile salsa of your preference! enjoy 🙂

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