Mexican foods are one of our favorite choices on any night. The beans and spice hit home easily. They are also kid friendly food favorites. A simple bean and cheese will do it for the kids. As for the adults – add on a guacamole and I am a happy camper 🙆🏻♀️
Enchilada takes a little bit of prep work in assembling the dish, but the time spent is totally worth it since we can make a large tray. We always love leftovers but with two growing boys, we are most often scraping the bottom ! This dish also freezes well and can be cooked and frozen ahead of time, thereby making for a very good party main course.
Lets get started 🙂 Begin by making a good veggie-packed filling. Throw on some beans for the proteins. Always add some cheese for the ooey gooey effect. Wrap these in soft corn tortillas. Drown them in some homemade enchilada sauce (sooooper easy to make ….) and bake. Sprinkle some cheese on top to complete the ooey gooey effect…. absolutely delish !!
Practically anything can go into an enchilada – but always my principal is to combine veggies and proteins for a wholesome meal. The corn tortillas bring in the carbs. So here we have a full blown meal with all food groups included.
I always try to incorporate new vegetables which we don’t use often. I received baby bok choy as part of my Misfits Market weekly vegetables delivery. Bok choy looks like a fennel bottom with spinach leaves – LITERALLY 🧐 This needs to be just sautéed or camouflaged within something. Enchiladas are a perfect vehicle. The bok choy was cooked tender and no one noticed anything different. I used a triple bean mix – any beans can be used. I had a zucchini and some mushrooms in the fridge and decided to throw them in. So I got a beautiful mix of veggies and beans which by itself was really tasty. My teenager who was helping me wrap the tortillas kept eating spoonfuls of the fillings ! Finally added some Mexican cheese – use anything that is locally available – choices are cotija, Queso, Oaxaco etc. They all are hard cheeses with high saltiness. So go very low on salt when you include these cheeses.
I was able to stack 20 tortilla in 2 rows on a large rectangular casserole dish.
Homemade Enchilada sauce – Blend all this together – diced tomatoes, salsa, Mexican seasoning and dried red chilies. Season with salt.
Since this sauce is baked, there is no need to cook this. It can be drizzled directly on top of the stacked tortilla rolls.
Once done – cut out a nice square piece and serve with a scoop of freshly smashed guacamole. Indulgencia !!!! (Indulgence 😀)
Bean and Baby Bok Choy Enchilada recipe
Ingredients –
- Corn tortillas 20
- Cooked Bean mix 2 cups
- Mixed diced vegetables 2 cups
- (Bok choy, zucchini, mushrooms)
- Onion chopped 2 tbsps
- Garlic chopped 3 pods
- Habanero pepper 1
- Mexican hard cheese 1 cup
- Cheddar cheese (shredded) 2 tbsps
Enchilada sauce –
- Diced tomatoes 1 cup
- Salsa 1/2 cup
- Dried red chillies 6-8
- Mexican seasoning 1 tsp
- Salt
Procedure –
Prepare the enchilada sauce –
- Blend all this together – diced tomatoes, salsa, Mexican seasoning and dried red chilies. Season with salt.
Prepare the vegetable and bean stuffing –
- Start by sautéing onions, garlic and habanero
- Add all the vegetables and cook for 2-3 mins
- Add the bean mixture and slightly mash to make it bind together
- Turn off the heat and add the cheese. Season with salt based on cheese saltiness.
Assembling the enchilada –
- Take a large rectangular glass dish
- Spread 2 teaspoons of Enchilada sauce on the bottom
- Next take the corn tortilla, wrap in damp paper towel and microwave for 30-45 secs to make it soft
- Take one corn tortilla at a time, spread 2 tsps of filling in middle 1/3 portion, fold both sides inwards and place face down
- Continuing doing this to all the tortilla and arrange in a single layer (refer to picture)
- Drizzle the prepared enchilada sauce all over the arranged tortillas
- Bake at 350 degrees pre-heated oven for 30 minutes
- Remove from oven and sprinkle grated cheddar cheese on top before serving
