Erin at Gibble Me This recently posted Mexican tamale pies. The beans and polenta enticed me to try it too, especially since I’d recently come across a recipe for quinoa polenta. The day before making the Mexican tamale pies, I made double the quinoa polenta so that I could also use it for the quinoa BBQ polenta. I also made refried beans (with 4 cloves garlic, cumin, chili powder, chipotle powder, and cayenne pepper) overnight in the slow cooker and to use those beans before blending them with my immersion blender.
Ingredients
- slow-cooker refried beans
- 1 15 oz can Muir Glen fire roasted diced tomatoes (no salt added)
- frozen Whole Foods fire roasted corn
- 1 small zucchini, diced
- cilantro
- quinoa polenta to cover the casserole
- scallions for topping
I didn’t measure out exact amounts because I thought the refried beans were getting overcooked, so I hurriedly dumped a bunch in a bowl with other ingredients, then put the combination of them into an 8×8 casserole dish.
I topped the dish with quinoa polenta and then baked it for 35 minutes.
Here’s the final product. It didn’t stay together as well as I had hoped, but it still tasted good! From the rest of the casserole, I put together five tupperwares for lunches or dinners later in the week.
Future Iterations
I will add more vegetable or chicken broth to the quinoa polenta and prepare it the same day.
I may try the filling with some of the following: ground beef, ground turkey, chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, poblano peppers, or onion.
I may try the topping with the following: masa harina, cheese, or jalapenos.
