Tonight I thought I'd try and rework one of my favourite weeknight meals, the burrito tortilla. Burritos are great because you can make them as spicy as you like, and you can really taste the fresh veges you use with them.
I decided to modify the standard "back of the packet" recipe in a few ways...
- Homemade sauce instead of packet salsa
- Homemade burrito seasoning instead of the super-salty packet stuff
- Venison mince instead of beef or chicken
- No added salt
The no added salt part is optional, but with plenty of chili and other flavor, you can get away without it. Now, I'm not qualified as a dietitian so I can't really say with any certainty that this is a "low salt meal"; but when you replace the salty packet-mix ingredients with your own fresh versions, and don't add any salt yourself, then surely this is a step in the right direction?
Tomato Sauce
- 1 tin of whole peeled tomatoes
- 1/2 cup water
- 3 cloves of garlic, crushed and chopped
- 1 onion, chopped
- 1 medium shallot, chopped (optional)
- 1 large fresh chili
- a few sprigs of thyme
- 1 swig red wine vinegar
- a little olive oil
- salt and pepper to season (wait - no salt)
In a wok or skillet, saute the onion, chili, shallot, garlic, thyme in a little olive oil. Add the tin of tomatoes, keeping them whole for now. Cover and simmer the sauce on low heat for around half an hour.
We are wanting a nice chunky sauce, so if after 30 minutes it's still runny, turn up the heat and cook uncovered for another 5-10 mins until chunky.
Remove the sauce and put to one side in a bowl.
Burrito seasoning mix
The inspiration for this came from the back of the packet of burrito mix. Ignoring all the artifical crap from the ingredients, and adding my own touch, left us with the following...- 1 tsp of cumin
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1 tsp cardamom
- 3 tsp cornflour
- 1 tsp chili powder (optional, you can add fresh chillies instead, or no chillies)
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 1 tsp salt (whoops, no salt)
Mix all ingredients into a bowl, and stir.
Venison mince
- 500g venison mince (beef can be used as a substitute of course)
- 1 onion, chopped roughly
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 1 fresh chili
- olive oil
- 1/2 a tin of chili beans
Re-use the wok or skillet used for making the sauce earlier. Don't clean the wok as the leftover tomato flavour will blend nicely with the onions and garlic.
Saute the chopped onion, garlic and chili in a little oil. Add the mince and cook until browned.
Add the burrito mix prepared earlier - it's likely that this will dry up the mince a lot, so before it cakes up, add 1/2 a can of chili beans which usually have a rich sauce that will moisten our mixture up nicely. If your chili beans don't come with sauce, you may need to add some water to get the consistency we are after.
Assembly
- Whatever toppings you like
- 1 packet of flour tortillas
What toppings you use is up to you really. I like lots of fresh ingredients; tomatoes, rocket, capsicum, hummus, cheddar cheese, sour cream and the tomato sauce + mince prepared earlier.
The home-grown rocket I used tonight came with a little visitor. You might want to consider giving the veges a wash first...
When photographing these things, it's best to use less ingredients - but otherwise just accept that this meal is going to be messy and use as much filling as you like :)
So there we have a regular burrito recipe, but using more fresh ingredients and less salt. Burritos are great for during the week, especially after shopping day so the veges are nice and fresh. Enjoy.
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<< Articles index < Venison bangers n' mash | Soft flour tortilla recipe >
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Sandi(UK) - Aug 24, 2008
I found your recipe when I was looking for something to do with some venison mince. I'm probably going to use some spinach and coriander. Also have to replace red wine vinegar with balsamic because this happens to be what I have lying around in my cupboards today
It smells pretty nice already, thanks for the inspiration