Enchiladas!

Sometimes you just want to have some gooey, bursting with flavor, spicy enchiladas - the problem I have been coming to is the quality of the ingredients that I can buy at my supermarket.  The more I learn about nutrition, the more I want to make foods that don't contain a ton of overly processed foods, high salt and sugar content, unhealthy oils, food additives, and so forth...

So I decided to make some enchiladas from scratch.

No additives, no sugar, minimal oil and pretty low salt!

From the sauce to the tortillas, everything from scratch. 

The crazy thing is, I thought it would take hours and yet, I had a hot meal on the table in less than 2! So yeah, not ideal for every week, but there are plenty of things to do to simplify this recipe. Such as making the enchilada sauce a day or two before and storing it in the fridge. I have not tried this yet, but perhaps even freezing larger batches to have on hand at any point in the future?

The sauce

 

Without further ado, let's talk sauce!  So I scoured the internet and found many, many versions of enchilada sauce, I tried a few but found they weren't right. So I kind of figured out a ratio that I like, it isn't burn your mouth off spicy, like I found a lot of them to be. I like to get a lot of sauce on mine so they aren't dry after cooking in the oven. 

So this is the technique I used, if you like it spicy add more chili powder, it will kick it up a lot using very little! 

I started in a large pan, over low heat, with about 2 tsp of olive oil and threw in about 2 large tablespoons of tomato paste, followed by my spices: 1 tsp dried oregano, couple grinds of black pepper, 1/2 tsp salt, about 1 tbsp cumin powder, and about 1/2 tsp chili powder.  

Just before mixing add in about 2 tbsp of plain flour, this will thicken it up when you add the liquid. 

Whisk the ingredients together until a thick paste appears, then slowly, slowly add 1-1/2 cups water, or broth. Keep whisking over the heat until the mixture thickens up, if it seems too thick add more water. If too thin, allow it to simmer a little longer. I simmered this on low for about 20 minutes.  When it is a perfect thickness and the taste is to your liking, pour into a bowl and put aside. 

The fillings

My enchiladas always have rice in them, something I learned from the way my dad makes them. So to make a quick, yet flavorful rice try this: 

Take about 1 cup of  rinsed rice, I use Jasmine. Place into a medium saucepan and add in about a tbsp of tomato paste, 2 tsp of cumin and a pinch pepper.  Mix well together and then add in your water per the packaging instructions. Cover and simmer till cooked. The rice will be deliciously flavorful and stand out in your enchiladas! 

While the rice is cooking, get started on your other filling: 

Chop a sweet potato into cubes and place into a large pan, pour enough water to just cover the bottom of the pan, cover and steam until tender. 

Next toss in some chopped red peppers, a can of rinsed black beans and about a cup of frozen peas. If you don't like peas, might I suggest adding spinach? It tastes delicious and adds that touch of green to something very red and brown in nature!  Mix and sautee on low until the peas and peppers are tender, add a little salt to taste and put aside.

Now for the assemblage! 

Line up your workstation! Tortillas first (I made my own, but I will put in another blog post how to make those, as this blog post is getting a little long!) 

Then sauce

rice

and finally veggie mixture!

Take a casserole dish and pour about 1/4 cup to half a cup of sauce into it, spread it about to cover the bottom:

Then start filling, take a tortilla and put a large spoon of rice, followed by a large spoon or two of veggies: this totally depends on the size of the tortillas you are using. Mine were smaller so it was easy to overfill them, you want enough filling to roll them so they won't fall apart in the pan.  Too much filling and you won't be able to close them!

Mine were about like this:

I roll mine in the pan so the sauce gets on the whole tortilla. But you are going to pour the remaining sauce over the pan at the end, so don't worry about that if you don't want to!

Rinse and repeat until your pan is full!

Pour the remaining enchilada sauce over the whole thing, making sure to even it out and filling those dry spots!  I put a bit of goat mozzarella on top, if you want to make this vegan, add a bit of vegan cheese!  

Place in a preheated 350F oven and bake until the cheese if bubbly, about 30 minutes. 

Serve with some fresh, homemade salsa and some sliced avocado! 

Mmm.... mmm... a comfort food meal that you can feel good about eating!! And who doesn't want that?! 

So enjoy, 

until next time!

(Please ignore that silly pea, I somehow missed him when taking my photos and he just wanted to photo bomb every one... sigh!)