Fiesta-dillas!

Subtitle: I love smoked tofu. Seriously, it is one of the best things ever.

Tonight, I knew exactly what my tastebuds were craving when I got home from work. Well, besides all the amazing cookies I was looking at on flickr for Isa's upcoming book, Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar, but that's another story. There was no second-guessing or mulling over the menu I have posted to my refrigerator door - tonight we were having Fiesta Quesadillas! I grabbed my little gold book and went to work dicing my peppers and tofu and prepping the garlic to be pressed. Everything was coming together very nicely...then it came time to assemble and heat the quesadillas...and I saw something kind of darkish through the bag of shredded cheddar I was intending to sprinkle on my quesadillas. I opened the bag and jiggled it around a little, peered inside, and surely enough - it was mold. Blech. So I tossed the cheese (and therefore the "quesa-") and decided to make the recipe completely vegan-friendly and renamed it Fiesta-dillas.

I didn't take any pictures because they weren't much to look at. I mean really, 'dillas more or less all look the same. If you've seen one, you've seen mine, okay? Anyway, this is another of my originals, premiered to my faithful readers (mom? lissa? rachel? maybe derek?) so I hope you enjoy:

Fiesta-dillas
Ingredients:
cooking spray
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp cumin
3 large cloves of garlic, pressed or minced
1 large orange/yellow bell pepper, diced
1 cup corn
15 oz can of black beans, rinsed
16 oz jar of chunky salsa, whatever heat you prefer
8 oz smoked tofu, diced
1/2 cup shredded cheddar (optional)

Heat oil in a saute pan on medium heat. Saute garlic and diced peppers until tender, about 5 minutes. Add black beans, corn, salsa, and cumin; stir well. Cook 2-3 more minutes, until corn is heated through. Remove from heat and stir in diced tofu.

Spray a square skillet/griddle with cooking spray and heat on medium-high. Lay out a tortilla on your work surface and spoon the tofu mixture onto one half of the tortilla. Fold the other half over and place on the skillet. If it's hot enough, there should be a quiet sizzling sound. Repeat with remaining tortillas, flipping each one after it's cooked on one side for about 1 minute. When the 'dillas are finished cooking, they will be browned on both sides and the tortilla will have become crisp. You may have to respray as you cook, and if you have a sensitive smoke alarm, let me recommend opening a window near your cooking area or employing the exhaust hood. Stack on a serving platter and serve with tortilla chips and hot sauce.