Cuban Burritos

This mouth-watering Cuban burrito recipe is sure to be a tasty addition to your recipe box! Healthy and delicious, the sweet potatoes offset the spice in just the right way.

This recipe I passed along to a friend of mine because my kids were telling her kids about the great supper they had eaten. Subsequently her kids asked her to make them! You know it’s going to be a winner when the kids approve!

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Cuban Burrito Recipe Tips

The main reason I don’t make Cuban Burritos very often is the price of sweet potatoes. I only make them when sweet potatoes go on sale. Sweet potatoes have been grown in Canada, but they are labour intensive with questionable yields.  Needless to say, they are not common garden fare.

But – good news of great joy to all people (Luke)! ‘Tis the season for checking seed catalogues! One catalogue (they have an actual printed catalogue as well as online shopping at rareseeds.com) compares buttercup squash with sweet potatoes (not to be confused with butternut squash)!

They say it was “bred at North Dakota State University in the 1920s as a replacement for sweet potatoes. The rugged plants thrived in the notoriously brief North Dakota growing season. Researchers appreciated its early maturity and natural insect resistance, and exhaustive taste tests were done.”

How many times are veggies grown and bred for taste?? These days, hardly ever. Most are bred for quick maturity and ability to ship, for commercial food production. The buttercup squash flesh is smooth, mild, sweet and creamy. “A shining example of pre-industrialized breeding, where flavour and texture are considered equally important as yield and vigor.”

Each buttercup squash grows to 3-3.5 pounds each. Check out the thick flesh of those squash! Not like some pumpkins I’ve grown with less than one inch of orange goodness. Buttercup squash are winter squash which keep well for many months, once cured.

My friend grew up with buttercup squash in New Brunswick in Eastern Canada, and now grows them here on the prairie in Manitoba. They were very prolific in her garden and gave me a few.

I substituted the sweet potatoes for the squash in this recipe, and my husband didn’t even notice. In fact, when I mentioned it, he stopped mid-bite and gave a startled look, because heaven forbid he like squash! Needless to say, I will be planting some buttercup squash in the garden this summer.

If you’ve read my other recipes, you know I sometimes like to substitute meats for whatever is in my freezer. This recipe is best with chicken. Pork is ok. I don’t recommend other red meat; it takes over the flavour too much.

This Cuban burrito recipe can use canned black beans, or dry black beans. Learn how to cook dry beans in this article. This is actually a great place to use to pre-cooked from dry, and then frozen black beans, since just a small portion is needed.

The cheese literally ties everything together. You can top each burrito with cheese for tasty looks, but I usually mix it right in with everything else so none is wasted, and no one complains about too little on their plate, or too much on someone else’s. (Kids!)

Let’s get cooking!