Freezer Sweet Potato Breakfast Burritos
Make-ahead breakfast burritos with roasted sweet potato, firm scrambled eggs, sausage, black beans and sharp cheddar. Wrapped in parchment and foil, they freeze for three months and reheat in about three minutes.
Servings 8 burritos
Ingredients
For the Sweet Potatoes
- 1 ½ pounds sweet potatoes peeled and cut into ½ inch cubes
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- ½ teaspoon ground cumin
- ¾ teaspoon kosher salt
For the Filling
- 1 pound bulk breakfast sausage
- 1 medium yellow onion diced
- 1 red bell pepper diced
- 1 15-ounce can black beans drained and rinsed
- 10 large eggs
- 2 tablespoons whole milk
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- 2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese
For Assembly
- 8 large flour tortillas 10 inch
- hot sauce, sliced avocado and cilantro for serving after reheating, never frozen inside the burrito
Instructions
Roast and Cook the Filling
- Heat the oven to 425F. Toss the sweet potato cubes with the olive oil, chili powder, cumin and kosher salt, spread them on a sheet pan, and roast 20 minutes, stirring once at 10 minutes, until the edges are browned and the centers are tender but not mushy.
- Cook the sausage in a large skillet over medium heat, breaking it up, about 8 minutes. Drain it well and set it aside, reserving a spoonful of fat in the pan.
- Cook the onion and bell pepper in the reserved fat for 6 minutes, until soft and lightly browned. Stir in the black beans and warm them through, then add them to the sausage.
- Whisk the eggs with the milk and black pepper. Scramble over medium-low heat until the curds are broken small and dry to the touch with NO wet sheen left. Firm eggs are essential, soft creamy eggs release water in the freezer.
- Combine the roasted sweet potato, sausage mixture and eggs on a sheet pan and spread everything out. Let it cool to room temperature, about 20 minutes, before you wrap anything.
Roll, Wrap and Freeze
- Warm each tortilla 15 seconds in the microwave so it bends instead of splitting.
- Lay about ¾ cup of the cooled filling in a log slightly below center, leaving a clear 2 inch border at both ends, and top it with ¼ cup of the cheddar.
- Fold the two short sides in, bring the near edge up over the filling, then tuck and roll tight, keeping your fingertips on the sides. Set each burrito seam side down to seal.
- To eat now, crisp the burrito 2 minutes per side in a dry hot skillet, seam side down first.
- To freeze, cool the burritos completely on a rack, wrap each one in parchment, then in foil, and put them all in a dated zip bag. They keep 3 months.
- To reheat from frozen: remove the foil, leave the parchment on, microwave 2 minutes, flip, and microwave 60 to 90 seconds more. For the best result, follow that with 2 minutes per side in a dry hot skillet. Add avocado, hot sauce or pico after reheating, never before freezing.
Notes
- Firm eggs, not creamy: undercooked scrambled eggs hold water that pools in the burrito on reheating. Cook them until dry to the touch.
- Cool before wrapping: warm filling steams the tortilla from the inside and the moisture never leaves.
- Leave these out: avocado, fresh salsa, sour cream and fresh spinach all ruin a frozen burrito. Add them after reheating.
- Tortilla size: 10 inch tortillas only. An 8 inch tortilla cannot hold ¾ cup of filling without splitting.
- Parchment then foil: the parchment lets you microwave without unwrapping to a bare burrito, and the foil blocks freezer burn and goes in the oven.
- Oven from frozen: 375F for 30 to 35 minutes, still wrapped in foil, is the easiest way to reheat several at once.