black bean and corn enchiladas

I had company today.  Nathan and Michelle and their two dogs visited and we tried a new recipe for dinner while they were here.  Michelle wondered if I had a new recipe that I was dying to try and did I want to try it this weekend.  She volunteered to pick up any missing ingredients and we could try it together.

I have an extensive number of pins on pinterest that are food related and I selected a few to send her asking that she pick one.  She selected a vegetable enchilada recipe.  There is a homemade enchilada sauce that goes over top and the filling contains cheese, green onions, spinach, black beans and sweet corn.  We used canned beans and commercially frozen spinach but the corn was from the garden and frozen last fall.

We enjoyed the enchiladas.  We had a little filling left over when we got the tortillas filled and talked about how good it would be as a filling in a stuffed pepper and ended up eating some as a dip for chips.  We made the sauce first and while it was simmering to thicken it we made the filling and filled the  enchiladas.

The filling-cheese, beans, corn, spinach, cumin

filling on the tortilla

a few enchiladas in the pan

enchiladas topped with sauce and more cheese

Vegetable enchiladas

Sauce:

2 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp cumin
1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup tomato paste
14.5 oz can vegetable broth (we used homemade)
3/4 cup water

Heat olive oil in saucepan over medium heat.  Add cumin, flour and tomato paste and whisk, cooking one minute.  Whisk in broth and water and bring to a boil.  Reduce to a simmer and cook 5-8 minutes until slightly thickened.

Filling:

Coarse salt and pepper
1 tsp cumin 
3 cups grated Pepper Jack cheese (divided)
1 15 oz can black beans, rinsed and drained (we used one that had jalapenos added)
1 10 oz box frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
1 10 oz box frozen corn, thawed (we used our frozen from the garden)
6 scallions, sliced thinly, white and green parts separated

16 six inch corn tortillas

Combine 2 cups cheese, beans, spinach, corn and white parts of scallion.  Add cumin, salt and pepper.

To assemble the enchiladas:

Preheat oven to 400°.  Wrap the stack of tortillas in damp paper towels and microwave for one minute on high.  Place a generous 1/3 cup of the filling on the tortilla and roll.  Place in oiled pan (we used 2 8x8 pans) seam side down.  When all are filled top with remaining 1 cup of cheese and sauce, dividing evenly between pans.  Bake uncovered for 15-20 minutes until bubbly then cool 5 minutes.  Garnish with green parts of the scallions and serve.

There were instructions included for freezing the enchiladas before cooking and then cooking from frozen by forming the enchiladas and placing them in the oiled pan.  Top with the cheese but not the sauce.  Wrap the pan in plastic wrap and then foil and freeze.  Freeze the sauce in a separate container.  When ready to bake the enchiladas thaw the sauce in the refrigerator overnight and the next day preheat the oven to 400, remove the plastic and foil from the frozen enchiladas, pour over the thawed sauce and cover with foil.  Bake 30 minutes, then remove the foil and bake another 15 minutes until bubbly.  Cool 5 minutes before serving.

One of the comments for the original recipe suggested that authentic enchilada gravy does not contain tomato products and gave their recipe for a basic enchilada gravy that used chili powder.

We thought these were very tasty and the gravy was easy to make and had good flavor even if it was lacking authenticity 



Source: original recipe