Sunday, April 26, 2009

Vegetable Fajitas

Last night I had veggie fajitas at a Mexican restaurant. It's always impressive when the sizzling hot plate comes to your table, but I was less impressed with the fajitas themselves- they were pretty good, but I think I'm so in love with my way of making fajitas that nothing else compares. Now, if you've had fajitas in a restaurant but never make them at home, you might think they would be pretty hard to replicate, but actually they're pretty easy. Fajitas are something I like to make for a casual dinner with friends, because you put all the different toppings out on the table and everyone can roll their own...fajitas.
I'm not a big fan of seasoning mixes, but the Old El Paso No-Fuss Fajita kit kicks butt. Actually, I love it for the seasoning, but they don't sell it separately so you have to buy the kit, which is fine because all it contains is seasoning, a pouch of salsa, and some tortillas. The cool part about the fajita seasoning is that it sort of caramelizes and burns (in a good way) in the pan, so you get that authentic flavor of restaurant fajitas at home.
My fajita recipe contains the veggies that I like, and none that I don't. The ones at the restaurant had mushrooms but no corn or black beans. I wish restaurants would have a bean option to their fajitas, so those of us opting out of steak or chicken would still have some protein to our meals. Anyway, enough vegetarian griping, here's the recipe:

Serves 4 very hungry or 6 somewhat hungry adults):
1 Old El Paso No-Fuss Fajita kit
1 can of corn, (preferably no salt added b/c there is lots of salt in the seasoning) drained and rinsed
1 can of black beans, drained and rinsed
1 large or 2 small onions
3 or 4 bell peppers, mix red, green, and/or yellow
jar of salsa
shredded cheddar cheese
guacamole (I will give you my friend Suzanne's recipe later, she makes the best guac!)
extra tortillas (you can now get these make with whole wheat)

Heat a large frying pan on medium-high heat with a tablespoon of oil. You want to cut the onions and peppers into strips- all the better to assemble your fajitas with, my dear. Stir-fry the onions and peppers for about 5 minutes or until they start to soften. Then dump in the corn and beans, mix, and then sprinkle the seasoning mix in. If you're sensitive to things being too salty or seasoned, start with half the packet, taste it, and then add more if it's not flavorful enough. Stir the seasoning powder into the veggies until it's well mixed and you start to get yummy sticky pieces of seasoning on the spoon. Turn off the heat, but you can leave the pan on the hot burner to keep everything warm.
On the table you have put bowls of shredded cheese, salsa, and guacamole. (I guess you could put sour cream, but I hate it so never think of it). Don't forget to stick a spoon in each bowl. Put the tortillas on a plate, cover with plastic wrap, and microwave for 30 seconds or so to warm them up. When the tortillas are warm, transfer the fajitas to a large bowl and serve them with tongs or a big serving spoon. Everyone takes turns passing around all the different ingredients, like some sort of Mexican Thanksgiving dinner, or Mexican dim sum, or some other lovely meal that gets passed around and shared.
Serve with ice-cold Corona or Coca-Cola. Enjoy the leftovers the next day.

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