Healthy fajitas

Ingredients

1 green bell pepper, sliced 

1 orange bell pepper, sliced 

3/4 onion, sliced 

1 Roma tomato, diced 

2-4 small mushrooms, diced 

1 package fajita seasoning 

2 tbsp. olive oil 

dash salt 

dash pepper 

1 can kidney beans 

shredded Colby-Jack cheese 

small corn tortillas 

sour cream (optional) 

Instructions

In a large skillet, warm the olive oil on medium-high until sizzling. Meanwhile, cut the green and orange peppers and onion. Once the olive oil is heated, slowly and carefully add the green and orange peppers and onion. Lightly turn over the peppers and onion as it heats in the pan—do not cover. If you have a splatter screen available (a screen to place over the skillet to help with splattering oil), place this over the skillet as the contents cook. 

While the peppers and onion simmer, cut the tomato and mushrooms. Once the peppers and onion are at the preferred softness, add the tomato and mushrooms. Lower the temperature to medium-low and continue simmering, folding periodically. The reason the tomatoes and mushrooms are added later is because they will take less time to cook, so this gives the peppers and onion more time to cook thoroughly. 

Allow the skillet contents to simmer and cook for about 10 minutes, folding frequently to keep the vegetables from burning; check the contents after the 10 minutes. Depending on what taste is preferred, allow the contents to cook longer for a softer taste or cook the contents a shorter time for more of a sweet crunch. No matter the preference, the vegetable fajita’s bold taste will surely stand out. 

Once the contents reach the desired state, remove from heat and set aside to cool. Meanwhile, prepare your plate for creating the fajita. Lay one or more corn tortillas flat on the plate, scoop about one spoonful onto the center of the tortilla. Before continuing, open the can of kidney beans and pour into a microwave-safe bowl; microwave for two minutes or until heated. Place a small spoonful of the beans into the tortilla and top with the desired amount of shredded cheese and a dollop of sour cream. 

Roll the tortillas up—some contents may fall out and that is OK—and enjoy the healthy, yet tasty, fajitas! 

Commentary

I have always loved fajitas, but before I became vegetarian, I only ever ate ones made solely with chicken, and I was really craving some one day recently but wasn’t sure how to make them without meat. With that said, I looked online and compared the different variety of recipes included into vegetarian fajitas and I decided to pick and choose which items I like best or thought I would like as the healthiest. 

For ingredients, I chose ones that I not only liked best (such as onion), but also ones that I knew I needed to eat more of so I would like them more (such as peppers and mushrooms)—anyway, what’s a fajita without bell peppers and onions. Many of these items can vary, such as if you prefer a different pepper color over those provided here, simply switch them out, or if you don’t like mushrooms or tomatoes much, just leave them out—but the more items the better and more flavorful, in my opinion. 

Certain ingredients I picked keeping vegetarian necessities in mind, such as the mushrooms provide good and necessary proteins but also don’t give off too much flavor, so I decided to add them to the mixture; this is the same reason I topped the fajitas with kidney beans, and though any bean can take its place, these are simply my favorite. Another item was the tomatoes; at first I though tomatoes might be an odd addition, but they simply provided more sweet juice but without too much flavor. 

Overall, the fajitas turned out really well, especially for my first time making them! It is easy to say I will use this recipe again and make some more delicious, healthy fajitas in the future.