It snowed in Denver last night. Winter is knocking on fall’s door and I am beyond excited to be using our oven nightly without having to take a cold shower after dinner is done. Our house has returned to a normal, pre-summer temperature. WOO HOO!

Now that we’ve gotten our house temperature update out of the way (we WILL be getting an AC unit next summer), let’s transition to a conversation about a completely meatless recipe that is so simple, even a “I don’t know how to cook vegetarian dinners” husband can get ‘er done while you are at the gym or happy hour with girlfriends. We were fresh out of butternut squash so I adapted Naturally Ella’s recipe by using sweet potatoes instead. Serve with a small salad or in our case, a batch of freshly steamed broccoli. Then prepare to join the “who needs meat” clean plate club.

Roasted Sweet Potato, Black Beans and Goat Cheese Tostadas

(adapted from Naturally Ella)

Ingredients

• 2 cups ¼” cubed butternut squash (or approx. 2 sweet potatoes peeled and cut into small bites)
• 1 medium red onion (We’re not huge onion fans so we omitted)
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1-2 teaspoon crushed dried chipotle peppers (I didn’t have this so I tossed the sweet potatoes with a few shakes of crushed red pepper)
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ½ cup black beans, rinsed and drained if using canned (I always opt for low sodium regardless)
• Juice from half a lime
• 1 tablespoon honey (I used light agave)
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 4 corn tortillas
• 2-3 ounces goat cheese

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 425˚
2. Roughly dice onion and toss with cubed butternut squash. Combine olive oil, 1 teaspoon crushed chipotle peppers, and salt. Add to butternut squash and toss again to coat. Roast for 20-25 minutes or until squash is tender and beginning to brown.
3. In a bowl, combine black beans, lime juice, honey, and olive oil. Once squash is done, add to black beans and stir. Spoon squash and black bean mixture on to corn tortillas and sprinkle with goat cheese.
4. Place tortillas in the oven and let bake until the goat cheese is browning and the tortillas is crisp, 10-15 minutes.