Black Bean and Corn Tortilla Bake

I try to make a few meat free options when possible. Because why not? Also beans are fabulous. Especially black beans when you mix them with corn. So when I found a recipe much like this one (I have only done a little tweaking) in a cookbook my mother bought me for Christmas a few years ago, I knew I had to try it. 

The chopping and prep time for this was a little much. In terms of time before you actually cook the dish. So don't worry, I thought "ugh" as well. But there IS a payoff. Also some of it could be prepped earlier in a day or even the day before, I would imagine. And then you could throw it all together. It's most definitely worth it. I'm debating on making the "filling" just for rollups inside romaine lettuce or to put on top of rice for easy lunches. That's how good it is. Summation: It's worth it, trust me!

Ingredients:
1 large onion
1 medium green pepper
1 shallots (or garlic clove if you aren't a vampire and don't have shallots)     

1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 cans (15 oz each) black beans
1 can (14-15 oz) vegetable broth
1 package (10 oz) frozen corn * thawed
4 green onions
Flour tortillas
1 cup shredded cheese (any kind would work)
Cooking Spray

Other Utensils:
Cutting board
Knife
Skillet
Spring form pan (I used non- spring form, it's just messier, but doable)
Spoons
Colander 

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. 

Chop onions, shallots, and green peppers (Author's note: You know how you always want a way to chop onions without crying? My sister has found the perfect solution. ....are you ready for it? Just let your big sister do the chopping. She was a very good supervisor. I only cried once. It was the onions, not her management tactics, I think. )

Heat oil in skillet and add onions, shallots, green peppers, cumin, and pepper to the skillet. Just heat until a bit tender.

Rinse the black beans. 

Add beans and vegetable broth to veggies in skillet. Bring the mixture to a boil. You will boil in until the liquid is almost gone. (That's a pretty exact measurement for you. Almost gone.) 

In the meantime, grab your green onions and slice them thinly.

Since you're bored and waiting for the liquid to vanish from your skillet feel free to add the corn and green onions together as they look so pretty in the same bowl, don't they? Not necessary...but hey, it's your cooking show. Do it how you like. 

When liquid is almost gone from your tasty concoction, stir in the green onions and corn mixture. Remove from heat. (Marvel at how tasty it looks. Feel free to grab a spoon and try it out. Because, seriously - it's good....)  

Here's where it gets messy. Grab a round pan. Springform would be best, but I didn't have one and so oh well. Which means my tiny 6 inch tortillas were a little bit too small. Just adds to the fun of trying to put it together. Who needs perfection?

Spray the round pan with a little cooking spray. 

Start your layering. It should go like this. 

Tortilla

Mixture

Cheese

Tortilla

Mixture

Cheese

Tortilla

Mixture 

Cheese

Tortilla

Cheese

I was messy. I only got two layers out of it and then I made two pans instead of one. Either way it's going to be tasty. Here's my messy little thing before it went into the oven and then after. 

To get from picture A to picture B just throw it into the oven for 17-20 minutes. It should be heated through and the cheese should be melty and fabulous. And when you cut it should look all messy and fantastic like: 

Tips: I am looking for a healthier tortilla for the next time I make these. The carbs and calories in a regular tortilla are a bit out there if you're trying to eat healthy. But if you eat a slice or two of this? I wouldn't worry. It's when you want to eat the whole thing you have some issues, I think.  (Which I wanted to.)

A gluten free version would definitely be possible if you used a corn tortilla or if you used another gluten free option. Or just skip the tortilla, make the filling, and enjoy. It's fantastic.