Sweet Potato & Black Bean Enchiladas with Swiss Chard Pesto Recipe. Kind of.

Confession time: If you ask my friends and family, they would probably all say that I love cooking and do a pretty good job of it. Truth is, I am a terrible cook. I tend to forgo measurements and sometimes just eyeball it. I substitute random ingredients to make things healthier or to use up what I’ve got it the fridge.  Nigella Lawson, I am not.

Growing up in my house we ate pretty healthily. While most kids got a small pack of chips or a fun size mars bar in their lunchbox, for us a muesli bar was considered a treat. Takeaway food was out of the question, maybe once a month, if that. It’s no secret my parents are super fit, but everyday after school for my brother and I it meant athletics, basketball, soccer, you name it, we played it. Neither of us really excelled academically at school, but we sure had lots of trophies for sport. You get the drift.

I was around eight years old when I stopped eating meat. I actually don’t remember whether I stopped immediately or weaned myself off of it, but I sure do remember how horrified my family was, especially my mum who cooked all of our meals and no longer knew what to feed her youngest child anymore.

Even into my teens, shit, even my early twenties, ok fuck it, probably up until only recently have they “accepted” it, and I use that term loosely, as they still say every time I get sick that it’s because I don’t eat meat. I’ve got the common cold that everyone in the office (who eat meat) has, it’s because I don’t eat meat. Accidentally cut myself? It’s because I don’t eat meat. Split my chin open from doing the worm? Nope, I have vodka to thank for that.

Even to this day my mum gets sneaky when we come over for dinner and will make chicken breasts (the one piece of meat I occasionally eat) but when I cut into in, it’s got bacon stuffed inside. “I bought you a vegetarian stuffed mushroom,” she says, nope that shits got bacon all chopped up in it.

One night my brother tried to be a sneaky fuck and cook some beans separately for me so I wouldn’t miss out when we went to his place for dinner. Pretty nice huh? No, that A-hole cooked them in beef stock he made from the bones of the meat everyone else had. It’s like I’m speaking another language sometimes.

Anywho, back to my crappy skills in the kitchen. After my two year ban from the kitchen after I set the oven on fire was finally lifted, mum gradually let me back into the kitchen. It was there that I learned how to fend for myself. If I wanted to eat interesting food, I had to learn how to do it myself. It was really through trial and (a lot of) error that I taught myself how to put healthy meals together that taste good.

When I think of a chef, I think of precision, accuracy and being almost graceful in the kitchen. This is pretty much the exact opposite of what I am like in the kitchen. I’m usually bare foot, rapping along to some ASAP Rocky with some sort of stain on my top. I also like to chuck things in haphazardly if I feel it might be a good substitution and am a little paranoid when it comes to knives, so if I can tear an ingredient up with my hands or bung it in a food processor, then it’s A-ok by me.

I encourage you to do the same. Get your hands dirty. Use up what you already have. Experiment, cos that’s the only way you’re gonna learn. Most importantly, rap. Just have fun with it.

I call this a “kind of” recipe, as it was Saturday night at I felt like comfort food without the cellulite and empty wallet. There’s no measurements, no recipe. Just something I dreamed up with what I had on hand.

I was craving a bit of Mexican, and thought enchiladas would do nicely with the sudden cold change of weather in Perth. I started with the filling. Found a sweet potato so chopped it up without peeling, drizzled over some coconut oil and sprinkled some salt and paprika before baking it until it looked cooked. Real technical stuff.

Next I made the Mexican spice mix. We never EVER buy sauces or marinades as they are full of sugar, salt and preservatives, plus they taste so much better when you make them yourself. I went with a pinch of cumin, ground coriander, paprika, salt & pepper, a dash of cayenne pepper and some olive oil. Then drained a can of black beans (use kidney beans if that’s what’s in your pantry) and chucked them, as well as the spice mix and the cooked sweet potato and then semi-mashed them up together. If you don’t have sweet potato, use some brown rice or quinoa. Chuck in some mushrooms if you have them. anything goes.

I used wholegrain tortillas (corn tortillas would work if you are gluten free) and laid down some filling before rolling up and putting in a glass baking dish. Then I chopped a tomato and put that down the middle, with a light sprinkle of some cheese before baking for roughly 25-30mins at 180c.

While they were cooking I made a Mexi-fied version of pesto and got some stuff we had growing in our backyard, including two handfuls of Swiss chard, a green chilli and a handful of coriander, rinsed, and without chopping anything up put in a food processor with a few garlic cloves, some lime juice and a dash of olive oil until it was bright green and chunky.

Once the enchiladas were out of the oven I spooned over the pesto and topped with a mashed avocado and a dollop of Greek yoghurt. Done.

They were delish. My inner fat girl was bummed I didn’t make more. I even stole some off The Pres’s plate. I give them two gringo thumbs up.

xx