Chocolate Turtle Bean Tostadas Recipe

Photo: Joanne Bruno

By Joanne Bruno

Here’s the conundrum.

Once you’re old enough to drink at your own wedding, it stops being socially acceptable to eat chocolate bars for dinner.

Not even Valrhona.

Not even if you dip the chocolate bar in peanut butter. 

And especially not if you melt marshmallows on top and place it in-between two graham crackers and call it a sandwich.

(Although if we’re being lexicographical sticklers here.  That is so totally a sandwich.)

It just seems kind of unfair though.  Because when you’re young enough that chocolate-for-dinner is looked upon as cute and cherubic, you have a mother standing over your shoulder ready to whisk that chocolate right out of your hands as soon as she thinks it’s going to spoil your appetite.  And then by the time you’re old enough to snatch it right back, you know so much about the food pyramid (although, I guess it’s the food plate now) that even thinking about such a thing wracks you with guilt and trepidation.

But.  What if?

What if you mixed the chocolate with superfoods like black beans and parsnips?  Spiced it up with some cinnamon and chili powder and then threw the whole mix-up over a tortilla shell and called it dinner?

(And if some peanut butter happens to fall out of your cabinet and onto some of that chocolate?  I so won’t tell.  Promise.)

This is what I like to call “working the system”.

Conundrum. Solved.

Photo: Joanne Bruno

Chocolate Turtle Bean Tostadas Recipe

Serves 4-5, adapted from Super Natural Cooking

1/2 lb black beans, soaked overnight and simmered in salted water until tender
2 tbsp olive oil
2 onions, chopped
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 lb parsnips, peeled and diced
1 cup vegetable broth
2 tbsp chili powder
1 tbsp cumin
2 tsp cinnamon
4 oz 70% dark chocolate, coarsely chopped
salt to taste
4 oz feta cheese
4 tortilla shells

1. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat.  Add the onions and garlic and saute for 5 minutes until soft.

2. Add the chili powder, cumin, cinnamon, and parsnips.  Saute for 2 minutes  Add the vegetable broth.  Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer until parsnips are tender, about 5-8 minutes.

3. Turn off the heat and mix in the chocolate until melted and incorporated.  Season with salt to taste.

4. Heat the tortilla shells.  Top them with the bean/parsnip mixture and a sprinkle of feta cheese.

Joanne Bruno is a food writer and second year medical student.  Find more of her delicious ramblings over at her blog: Eats Well With Others.  Joanne is also training for her third marathon with Team in Training, raising money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.  For more information or to make a donation, check out her fundraising website.

Photo: Joanne Bruno

Tagged as: beans, Chocolate, joanne bruno, recipe, vegetarian