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Veggie-packed baked burritos are stuffed with a hearty filling and baked to crispy perfection - and make an awesome freezer meal!

Veggie-Packed Baked Burritos (for the freezer).

  • Author: Bet Denton
  • Prep Time: 25 minutes
  • Cook Time: 15 minutes
  • Total Time: 40 minutes
  • Yield: 8 burritos

Ingredients

  • 1 Tablespoon olive oil, divided (plus more for baking the burritos)
  • 1 medium onion, diced
  • 1 bell pepper, diced
  • 1 lb ground turkey (or ground beef)
  • salt and pepper, to taste
  • 2 teaspoons chili powder
  • 1 teaspoon cumin
  • 1 cup salsa (I used a medium restaurant-style salsa)
  • 2-3 big handfuls of raw baby spinach
  • 6-8 oz cheddar cheese, shredded (or any kind of cheese you like!)
  • 8 flour tortillas (I use whole wheat)
  • lettuce and tomato, for serving
  • You could also add avocado, cilantro, guacamole, more salsa, extra cheese, sour cream, or any other toppings you like!

Instructions

  1. Heat about two teaspoons of the oil in a large skillet over medium to medium-high heat and add onions and peppers. Cook, stirring occasionally, for several minutes until softened. Season with some salt and pepper and push the vegetables to the sides of the pan.
  2. Add the remaining teaspoon of oil to the middle and increase the heat to medium-high to high. Add ground turkey and let it brown, undisturbed, for a couple of minutes, then break it up with a wooden spoon or spatula and stir it around with the onions and peppers until it is all cooked through. Add the chili powder, cumin, and another sprinkle of salt and pepper.
  3. Reduce the heat back to medium and stir in the salsa and spinach and cook until the spinach is wilted and the mixture is saucy, but not too liquidy – you don’t want the burritos to get soggy when they bake. This will depend on the consistency of the salsa you use. I cooked mine for a couple of minutes more to evaporate some of the salsa liquid.
  4. Set up an assembly line with the meat mixture, tortillas (warming them slightly in the microwave helps them to roll more easily), cheese, and a baking sheet lined with foil (if baking immediately), or a baking sheet or plate lined with foil (if freezing). Use a spatula to divide the meat mixture into approximate quadrants, and use about half of each quadrant per tortilla (it’s about 1/3 of a cup). Add a few tablespoons of cheese on TOP of the meat. Fold in the sides of the tortilla partway and roll it up, placing it seam-side down on the foil.
  5. To bake, preheat the oven to 400 and drizzle a little olive oil onto each burrito and rub it in with your fingers (or you could brush it on). Bake for 10-20 minutes until the tops of the burritos are brown (when I bake them in my toaster oven, they get brown in 10 minutes – maybe because they’re closer to the heating element – but they take closer to 20 minutes in my regular oven to get as brown and crispy as I like them).
  6. To freeze, flash freeze the unbaked burritos on the pan or plate in your freezer. Once the burritos are frozen, store them in a zip-top freezer bag. You can thaw them overnight in the fridge or for a couple of minutes in the microwave before baking as above!
  7. Serve the baked burritos with a big pile of crispy romaine lettuce and chopped tomatoes, and any other garnishes you like!

Notes

This recipe is slightly adapted from Quick and Easy Beef Burritos on Pie Birds

To stretch the filling, I’ve also added about a cup of cooked brown rice to the meat mixture and made about 10 burritos.