Monday 12 January 2015

Vegetarian Enchiliadas

Hungover from your Golden Globes 2015 party? Because I am. Too many bottles of champagne later, I am SO glad that I made these enchiladas yesterday, they're the perfect comfort food AND they're healthy!

I had volunteered to make a casserole-esque dish for the GG party earlier in the week and one bad cold later, I finally dragged myself to the store, two hours before the party and frantically stared at the shelves for inspiration. I remembered my mom's enchiladas being delicious, filling enough for a crowd of people, and not that hard to make, so I called her for the recipe.Thanks to my awesome mom, I served a modified (for vegetarians) dish that was a hit with everyone and made an entire pan of leftovers for the round of hangovers we are all experiencing today.


Start your enchiladas by chopping up the garlic and onions, slicing and cording the bell peppers, and adding all of them to a large sauce pan over medium-high heat, with the butter. Stir until the butter has evenly coated the bottom of the pan and the vegetables, then cover and let sit for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. *Check to see that the onions are caramelizing not burning as they cook and turn the heat down slightly if burning.


Place the rinsed corn and black beans in a small mixing bowl and put half of the mixture in a large frying pan over a medium-high heat. *Don't use any butter to grease the pan. The secret to great enchiladas is in the proper preparation of the stuffing and a key ingredient should always be roasted corn and black beans. Making sure that the mixture is spread flat on the pan, season it with 1/2 tbsp of: cumin, chili powder, garlic, onion, and a few pinches of salt and pepper. Wait 1-2 minutes before flipping the mixture over, then season and repeat until the corn kernels show darker, burnt looking patches. Pour this mixture into the larger pan where the bell peppers, onion, and garlic are sauteing, repeat step one with the corn and black bean mix, and add it to the larger pan.


Once everything is in the sauce pan, add 1/2 cup of the salsa, stir, and season to taste with as much cumin, chili powder, garlic, onion, salt, and pepper as you like. Remove from heat when you are happy with the spice level.


Grab the tortillas and lay one flat in a 13 x 9 pan. Place a scoop (1/2 -3/4ths cup size) on one edge, sprinkling it with a light coat of shredded cheese, and roll up the tortilla, placing it seam down in the pan. Repeat this process until the pan is full - about 6 tortillas per pan. 


Once the pan is full, spread 1 cup sour cream over the top, evenly coating the tortillas with special attention given to the edges so they don't burn. Repeat this with 3/4th cup salsa, and coat with 1 - 1 1/2 cups shredded cheese. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.



Cover the dish with aluminum foil and place in the oven for 30 minutes. At the 30 minute mark, take the foil off and place back in the oven to finish cooking for another 10 minutes. Remove from the oven, cool slightly, cut down the center, and serve casserole style with additional salsa and sour cream.


Our GG party was a smorgasbord of foods and wine from all over: a girlfriend who just got back from Italy brought mounds of cheese and boar sausage, another one brought wines from Spain, and yet another brought two different types of champagne, topped off by my vegetarian enchiladas. As a dinner menu, it sounds like a nightmare but given a strong red wine to string everything together, it was perfect.


Ingredients:

- 1 Red bell pepper
- 1 Green bell pepper
- 1 Orange bell pepper
- 1 Yellow bell pepper
- 1 Spanish onion (Vidalia will work as well)
- Garlic - 3 cloves
- Butter, unsalted - 2 tbsp
- Corn - 2 8 oz. cans
- Black beans, rinsed - 2 16 oz. cans
- Cumin - 2 tbsp
- Chili powder - 2 tbps
- Garlic - 2 tbsp
- Onion - 2 tbsp
- Pepper - 1 tbsp
- Salt - 1/2 tbsp
- Shredded cheese - 2 8 oz. bags (mixed or sharp cheddar and mozarella, which is what I used)
- Flour tortillas - 15 large
- Salsa - 1 jar
- Light sour cream - 1 jar

- 2 13 x 9 pans

350 degrees Fahrenheit
40 minutes
Makes 2 13 x 9 pans

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