Chipotle Remake

In my sweet little town, there are very few eating establishments that are primarily healthy (as opposed to mostly unhealthy with a few token salads). One of my favorite places to eat is Chipotle. I especially love how we can customize each dish exactly to our liking. My hubby and I usually get a rice and beans bowl to share and the servers are happy to put his meat on one end and a heap of guacamole on my side. We get full sharing one bowl!

While I love this meal at Chipotle, I wanted to duplicate it to serve at home to the whole family. As a home cook, I had EVERY single one of these ingredients on hand so I didn't have to go and purchase anything special for the meal. (I used to have a meal plan and shop specifically for it, but lately I just stock up on items that I know I'll use.)

Here we go - I'll talk you through the process and give you some tips and hints to make this easy.

**I made the rice and beans with no extra seasoning, only because I made a lot and wanted them to carry over to other recipes. The corn, pico de gallo, and sautéed peppers and onions provide PLENTY of flavor.

Brown rice - several years ago, I stumbled across a rice cooking method that ensured perfect brown rice, every single time, no burning, no dryness, just perfect fluffy rice. The trick? You cook it like pasta.

In a medium to large saucepan, bring about 1 1/2-2 quarts water to boil. When water boils, add a half pound of brown rice. When it returns to a boil, reduce heat a tiny bit, to medium high. Set your kitchen timer for 30 minutes and let it boil, uncovered. Check occasionally, and if the water evaporates too much and rice is on the surface, just add a bit more water. When 30 minutes is up, drain the rice in a colander, count to 8, add it back to the pan and cover it. Let it steam itself for 10 minutes and voila!! Perfect brown rice.

Black beans: I normally soak my beans overnight then use the pressure cooker. This time, I did the "quick soak method" on the package. Whatever your preferred method of cooking beans is, use it. Best results are always with a good, long, overnight soak, but that isn't the only way. Heck, you can even use canned beans for this recipe.

Corn salad, guacamole, and pico de gallo. I had frozen corn and cherry tomatoes on hand, so I used those. I usually buy 6-8 avocados at the grocery store every week, so I was covered there.

Corn Salad
1 bag frozen corn, thawed
1/3 red bell pepper, diced
2 T minced red onions
2 T finely chopped cilantro
juice of half a lime

(I made a small amount of pico de gallo, my kids don't usually eat it)

Pico De Gallo
1 c chopped tomatoes (cherry tomatoes cut into 4ths here)
1 jalapeno, diced (seeded if you are concerned about heat...I keep them)
1 T minced red onion
1 T finely chopped cilantro
juice of 1/4 lime

(you can prep all the veggies together ahead and divide them up for these dishes)

Guacamole

2 avocados, mashed
juice of 1/4 lime

For all dishes, season lightly with salt as desired.

Sautéed peppers and onions

1/2 large white onion, thinly sliced
1 green pepper, thinly sliced

In a non stick pan, coated very lightly with cooking spray or olive oil, or even a drizzle of water, sautee till you start seeing some GBD (golden brown delicious). Season with salt and pepper (for some reason, I love a generous dose of black pepper on these).

Chipotle uses Romaine lettuce, but I never keep that on hand. I had the bright idea of using cabbage and it worked perfect! Thinly slice 1/4 head of cabbage for this.

Salsa - you can use your favorite salsa recipe here. I took 6 dried arbol chiles and 2 cloves garlic, soaked them in hot water while I did other stuff. Then I stuck them in my NutriBullet with a can of fire roasted diced tomatoes and gave it a spin.

To serve, in order: rice, beans, sautéed peppers and onions, corn salad, pico de gallo, cabbage, guac, and salsa.

This is such a delicious, healthful meal. I know it seems like a lot of steps, but while your rice is cooking, you actually have 40 minutes on your hands, during which time you can do the rest of the food prep. This is a great, cheap way to feed your family and an awesome way to impress a crowd!

 

Enjoy!