Burrito Algebra and Veggie Powdery

Oh, burrito season is upon us. It is perennial in my brain, but somehow, when it warms up a bit, those suckers taste even better.

Sarah + Co. (aka Tastespotting Brain) did this whole savory oat thing last month - risottos, pilafs, yowza - and since the only abnormality that showed up when we got our blood test results back last week (because, wow, now you have to give blood to get health insurance, hifive big brutha) was Erk's bad cholesterol - a teeny bit high. And so, I've gone and jumped on the salty oat wagon.

Three times now, we've gone with steel-cut oats rather than rice in our brekkie/dinner burritos, and three times, have been all "Damn, that was tasty". Lighter, somehow. Pleasantly piecey texture, like grits. Amenable to color and flavor sponginess, like rice. Totally a non-annoying substitution.

Of course, Egg + Cheese + Sour Cream + Fakon - Rice + Oats ≠ Healthy Cholesterol-free Burrito, but maybe just a teeny tiny bit of its badboyness is canceled out. Most importantly - supa delicious.

Yellow Oats 
makes 2 grande burritos

1 cup steel cut oats  (the quick-cooking kind, don't give me that face)
3 cups water
1 cube Chik'n boullion
Dash safflower strands
1/2 tsp crushed garlic
Dash sesame oil
1 tsp butter or earth balance
Pinch turmeric
1/2 cup frozen peas and corn

Easy peasy - bring your water to a boil, add all ingredients, cover, and simmer 8 minutes. Uncover and stir and continue simmering 1-2 minutes more, until the oats have thickened to a thick, almost sushi-rice consistency. Add frozen peas and corn. Mix well and plop down as layer one of a slightly classy, yet bad boy burrito.

Eaten with a pile of black beans - also lovely. Turmeric and safflower (a cheaper sister of saffron and available here if you'd like to play) are colorants, so you can consider them optional. 

You know I'm all about a properly assembled burrito, so I started by steaming the tortilla (12 or 14 inch plz, fellow crown-towners can find them here) like so:

Just fold it up a bit and gently lay it into the colander, set over a pan of simmering water, cover, and cook 1-2 minutes. Flip and do the other side too - just one minute'll do.


Start with oats, then beans, then eggs, then fakon, then cheese (keeping all the warmness in the southern hemisphere) moving onto salsa, sliced avocado or guac, sour cream or yogurt, then greens (julienned lettuce, sprouts, chopped cilantro). Quickly roll that sucker up and wrap in foil, if you aren't eating immediately. If you are, go at it with napkins at hand.

yes plz

And yay, I get to announce the winner of my little giveaway! Thanks for caring, lovelies! I didn't really know what I was doing, so I wrote everyone's name on a piece of paper, cut it into 4 even pieces, put them in some kid's punk rock fedora that's randomly been in my car for two weeks, and pulled one out.

Hooray Pretend Chef! You'll be getting some super-cool Spinach and Tomato powder in your mailbox sometime next week. If you guys want to pick some up for yourselves, check out this link! 


Thanks for playing my darlings! That was fun. We'll have to do it again soon. Until then, eat lots of burritos and think of moi!