Cheesy Pinto Bean Tart with Red Quinoa Crust: A Vegetarian Guest Post

Sometimes, my (otherwise wonderful, caring, handsome, and all around lovely) husband forgets I can cook. He’s kind of an alpha chef in the kitchen and our kitchen is pretty small, so we usually don’t cook together. And since he loves it so much, he makes by far most of our meals (evidence = this blog), so I guess I can’t really blame him for overlooking my culinary history. One night when he was about to go out while I stayed home, he got worried that I wasn’t going to feed myself if he didn’t make me food before he left. He even suggested I go get a slice of pizza so I wouldn’t go hungry while studying. Sweet, yes, but also patronizing! As soon as he walked out the door, I put my school books down and started brainstorming about what to make that would impress the carnivore yet still be quick and easy enough that I could get back to work without missing a beat. Normally I’d just make something simple, but I felt like I needed to prove myself 😉

And voila, my version of Mark Bittman’s pinto bean tart. Bittman suggests a millet crust, but we only had red quinoa in the cupboards. I also substituted carrot for corn, since we had no corn laying around.

Ingredients:
Serves 4-6 – Don’t worry—I saved some for Evan to eat when he came home!

1 tbl oil
½ cup quinoa
2 cups pinto beans (canned)
½ small onion
1 small red bell pepper
1 large carrot
2 cloves garlic
½ cup cheese
1 ½ tsp fresh thyme
¾ cup milk (Bittman suggests cream, stock, or water)
black pepper
Salt
2 eggs (you can just use yolks too, 3 to be exact)

Preheat the oven to 350.

Add quinoa to ¾ cup boiling water and reduce heat down to a simmer for 15 minutes. When cooked, press the quinoa down into a greased tart or pie pan to form a crust.

Puree beans, onion, pepper, garlic, thyme, milk, oil, carrot, cheese, salt, and pepper in a food processor until smooth. Adjust seasoning, and then add eggs and mix. Pour mixture over quinoa crust.

Place pie pan into a larger baking dish, and then pour water into the larger dish as you can without it getting into the pie pan. Bake for 30 minutes, or until “set but still jiggly” (according to Bittman). Remove from the oven and let it cool a bit.