Create your own Mexican restaurant in your house with this delicious meal!
Our Southwestern Black Bean Casserole is a healthy way to enjoy Mexican food. This tasty casserole isn’t exactly unique. After all, many Mexican recipes contain vegetables and black beans. Where this dish pulls away from the pack is the ingredient choices. Those other Mexican dishes are usually filled with saturated fat and calories, both from the meat and the excess use of cheese and sour cream. Unfortunately, if you’re trying to eat healthy to lose weight, adding those tasty ingredients to your dishes simply isn’t an option. Never fear: You can satisfy all your cravings for Mexican food in a nutritious way with this healthy casserole! Our recipe lets you enjoy all those Mexican flavors without worrying about calories, saturated fat, or unhealthy ingredients.
Not only that, but this dish is super fast and easy to make, too. It’s perfect for those weeks where you need to meal prep and get everything ready in advance. You can assemble the casserole when you have time and store it in the fridge until you’re ready to bake it for dinner. Or, go ahead and cook up a big batch on the weekend, cut it into individual portions, and refrigerate or freeze the servings. A quick reheat in the microwave or the oven and you’ll have lunch (or, dinner) ready to go! Even when you make it in advance, this Southwestern Black Bean Casserole tastes so great, you won’t believe it’s actually healthy!
Perfect for Meatless Monday
Legumes are an excellent source of protein and are often eaten in vegetarian diets as an alternative to animal protein. Even if you are not a full-fledged vegetarian, it’s fun to mix things up a little and serve a meatless dish like this on occasion. Your family will love this casserole and will happily abide by your desire to serve vegetarian dishes once or twice a week for dinner.
This vegetarian dish works because it gives you everything you need. It’s full of protein-packed black beans, savory salsa, and flavorful spices like smokey cumin and herbaceous cilantro. Put it all together with heart-healthy whole wheat tortillas and melted cheddar cheese and you definitely won’t miss the meat!
We love it when we find a recipe that allows our readers to enjoy their favorite dishes, but without the fat and calories. Cleaned up versions of popular dishes are great to have in your collection of recipes. Looking for other ideas? Our Skinny Mexican Rice is a perfect side dish for this recipe. You might also enjoy these other healthy side dishes.
Southwestern Black Bean Casserole
Ingredients
- 30 ounces black beans cans, drained
- 2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
- 2 garlic cloves minced
- 1/2 cup vegetable broth low-sodium, fat-free
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons cilantro fresh, chopped
- 4 whole-wheat tortillas low-sodium, optional 6 corn tortillas
- 12 ounces salsa no sugar added
- 1 cup 2% cheddar cheese shredded
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375°.
- Drain beans, and set aside. In the meantime, in a medium skillet, add oil; heat over medium-low heat. Add garlic, and sauté until tender, about 4 minutes. Add black beans and broth, and continue cooking for approximately 3 minutes. Add cumin, black pepper, salt, and cilantro; stir to combine.
- Spray the bottom of an 8x8-inch casserole dish with nonstick cooking spray. Add a tortilla, 1/4 black bean mixture, 1/4 salsa, and 1/4 cheese; continue layering until all ingredients have been used. Top casserole with remaining 1/4 cup cheese.
- Cover casserole dish with foil, and bake for approximately 20 minutes or until cheese is hot and bubbly. Remove foil, and continue cooking 8–10 minutes. Remove from oven, and garnish with non-fat Greek yogurt or sour cream, if desired.
Nutrition Information
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me and my sister we really liked it. mom accidentliy put onions in the food.
this is ZACHARY DAVIS (7 years old)
Hi Zachary, You may be our youngest reader!!! I’m thrilled both you and your sister enjoyed the Casserole. Onions always add a touch more flavor to just about any recipe. You’ve got a smart mom. 🙂
Please feel free to leave feedback anytime. Thanks again, Zachary. 🙂
This came out really tasty and looked great, although my tortillas were a bit big for the casserole dish. Next time I’m going to add pepper jack and Colby jack to the cheese, because I can never stick to the amount of cheese as stated in a recipe, and cheddar on its own gets a bit oily. I also might add some sliced black olives into the mix.
Heather, I like your suggestions and may try the olives next time. I’m so happy you enjoyed my recipe. 🙂
Tasty, but dry. I’ll have to experiment with the amount of liquid. And I’m with Zachary’s mom…I added sautéed onions.
Susan, Hi! I’m not sure why it would be dry. However, I would suggest adding a little more broth.
I made it tonight. It was easy and tasty. I used corn tortillas and used 2 per “layer” so I’d have some in each bite.
Great! I’m so happy you enjoyed the Black Bean Casserole.
I wonder if it would work to use a layer of crispy corn chips or tortilla chips rather than the soft tortillas? I know they would get soft but wondered if anyone has tried that?
Izzy, I haven’t tried it but they should do fine
Absolutely delicious. Will definitely make again.
can I make this in a 9×13 pan? If so, would the cooking time change?
Nina, You would need to double the ingredients. If you use a 9×13-inch pan, the cooking time would be the same.
Gale you swept me off my feet with this one. I added a layer of spinach. To DIE for!
Henrietta, I love hearing that. It’s a family favorite. 🙂
Loved this dish! I did add corn and some bell peppers since I had them left over. Turned out great.
Sounds great, Kris! Glad you enjoyed 🙂
Delicious sans cilantro. Would totally make this again
We don’t care for cumin, can you recommend a substitute?
Chili Powder works well.
It was very good.
Delicious! Making it again tonight!
Yay! We’re happy to hear that you love it! Thanks for letting us know 🙂
My family really loves this recipe! I add one can of cooked chicken breast to the beans while cooking to add meat sometimes. It tastes just as delicious!
Really easy to make and filling! I had two pieces so I don’t know that one piece would be enough for a meal but still a great side or have two!