3 healthy meals – 1 dish!

I’m back! having travelled extensively for the past 6 months has meant not having a kitchen and not being able to tinker with recipes. So to make  up for the lack of recipes I’ve not posted in a while – here’s a 3 for 1! (you’re welcome!)

This is a Mexican bean based dish with a Mexican cashew cheese topping. Make a large batch and get 3 different meals out of it.

1. make your cashew (bless you!) cheese – takes 10 minutes at the most.
2. make a large batch of spicy beans and mushrooms
3. make a spicy bean salad, a chili bean hot pot and a brilliant bean burger!

Ingredients for the batch bean cooking

3 cans of black beans rinsed

11/2 large green onions finely chopped

1 large punnet of mushrooms finely chopped

3 tsp ground cumin

3 tsp red chili pepper flakes

2 cloves of black garlic (or normal if you don’t have black)

salt to taste

oil for frying

Ingredients for Mexican cashew cheese

(check out https://thrivecuisine.com/lifestyle/nutritional-yeast/ for the benefits on nutritional yeast)

2 cups of pre-soaked cashew nuts (if you haven’t had time to soak them, soak them in hot water for 5 minutes)

1/4 cup nutritional yeast

2 tsp cumin powder

1 tsp chili flakes

1 tsp cumin powder

pinch of salt

Method

1. Put all the ingredients for the cashew cheese into a blender and blend until smooth. (you will need to scrape down the sides a few times and re blend).nyay – your cashew cheese is now made!
2. Add a little oil to a fry pan and add the onions, cumin, mushrooms, garlic and chili flakes and fry for about 10 minutes on low-med heat until the onions are soft but still translucent.
3. Add the beans and stir through.Add a little salt and taste.  Take 1/3 of the mixture out (this is your 1st batch) and place in a bowl. continue to stir through until the beans are hot and starting to soften a little more (so you can smash ’em up!). Take another 1/3 out (this is your 2nd batch) and place into a separate bowl.
4. Add a little water to the beans in the pan (a couple of tbsp) and stir.

Mexican Bean Salad

Extra Ingredients

lettuce leaves, onion, tomato, can of corn, chopped cilantro/coriander

Method

1. Allow your first batch of bean mixture to chill.
2. Plate up 4 plates with a delicious mixture of green lettuce leaves
3. Add a can of corn into your bean mix and stir it around.
4. Divide the bean mix up between the 4 plates and spoon over the leaves.
5. Add some chopped tomatoes and sliced raw onions to the salad
6. Top off with some cilantro/coriander and a heaped tbsp of cashew cheese.

Dive in!healthy, scrumptious and bursting with flavor!

Mexican Bean Burger

Extra ingredients

Wrap or bun for your burger

Sliced tomatoes and onions to top off your burger

Chopped coriander/cilantro to adorn your burger when serving!

1 tbsp flax seeds

2 egg whites

oil for frying

Method

1. Mix 1tbsp of flax seeds to 3 tbsp of water and mix.
2. Add 2 tsp of this flax seed mixture to your 2nd batch of bean mixture
3. Using a fork mash up the bean mixture and incorporate the flax seed mixture
4. Add your 2 egg whites and mix together
5. Form 4 patties, heat a little oil in a fry pan and cook them until both sides are bronzed( like your body in the mexican sun)!
6. Place into your bun or warmed wrap and add a little tomato, sliced onion and cilantro/coriander and then top with large tbsp of cashew cheese

now pour yourself a little margarita and enjoy!

Chili Bean Hot Pot

you can either make individual pots or place in a small casserole dish.

Extra ingredients

tomatoes and chopped cilantro/coriander

1.  Place the remaining warm ingredients with the little bit of water that is left in the pan into your pot(s) of choice.
2. Add a layer of thickly sliced tomatoes over the top.
3. Add the cashew cheese on top
4.  Bake at 400F for about 10 minutes to soften the tomatoes and allow the creamy cashew cheese to soften into the mixture.
5. Chose to dive in and keep it layered – or do as I do, and stir the cashew cheese into the mixture creating a gorgeous cheese spicy sauce

A cold mexican beer, match on the telly, chili bean hot pot – heaven!