Meat-Free Fajitos

I have been trying to increase my repertoire of meatless entrees for several reasons, but my Hubby is a meat-and-potatoes kind of guy, who believes a meal is not complete unless it contains meat, potato, vegetable.  Apparently that's the bare minimum: it's better if the meal also includes bread and cheese.  I'm told it's a Dutch thing.  We rarely have potatoes with our meals anymore, but I doubt my husband would take kindly to the exclusion of meat as well.  Then there's the fact that the children don't like beans, and none of us like meat substitutes like tofu or TVP.

So it's been slow going.  Due to the above mentioned restrictions (and AKD's dislike of cheese), I feel confident trying about one out of ten meat-free recipes that I find, and of those I would say about 1 in 5 meets the approval of more than 50% of the family.  You can do the math...

The other day we tried Meat-Free Fajitos (Fajita-Style Burritoes), which I found in the latest issue of Every Day With Rachel Ray.

{Photo Credit}

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup corn oil or EVOO
• 4 portobello mushroom caps, gills scraped and caps sliced
• 1 large bell pepper, seeded and sliced lengthwise
• 1 large onion, sliced
• 1 jalapeno chile pepper, sliced
• 3 - 4 cloves garlic, sliced
• 2 tablespoons fresh thyme leaves
• Salt and pepper
• About 1/3 cup dry sherry (I used marsala)
• 4 12 inches flour tortillas
• 1/2 pound manchego cheese, shredded (I substituted mild cheddar)
• 1 plum tomato, diced
• A small handful cilantro, chopped (I omitted this ingredient)

Directions

1. In a large cast-iron or other heavy skillet, heat 3 tbsp. oil over medium-high heat until smoking. Add the mushrooms and brown for 10 minutes. Add the remaining 1 tbsp. oil, the bell pepper and onion and cook, stirring, until crisp-tender, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the jalapeno, garlic and thyme; season with salt and pepper. Cook, tossing, for 2 to 3 minutes.
2. Pour in the sherry to deglaze the pan; lower the heat to a simmer. Meanwhile, char the tortillas on each side over an open flame or in a dry skiller.
3. Fill the hot tortillas with the manchego, mushroom filling, tomato and cilantro. Tuck in the sides, wrap and roll tightly into a burrito.

It looked and smelled so yummy as it was cooking!  It also tasted delicious and was surprisingly filling.  Unfortunately, it met with only a 40% approval rating (AKD said it just needed some meat and then it would be really good; MC thought it tasted good when we forced him to at least taste it, but still didn't want to eat it once, let alone eating it again at some time in the future).

*Sigh*  I decided to keep the recipe, but I won't be making it again anytime soon...  You should definitely try it, though.  Yum!

If you have any non-cheese-bean-tofu-TVP vegetarian entree recipes that you'd like to share, please do!