Corn tortillas are stuffed with a mixture of refried black beans and spinach, smothered in spicy sauce and baked up until piping hot to create these spicy and hearty vegan enchiladas.
I mentioned a while back that I gave enchiladas out for Christmas this year. I went out, bought some cute little heart-shaped baking dishes, and my husband and I spent an evening filling them up with Mexican freezer-friendly goodness. I didn't really plan on blogging them, but they were a hit, and fortunately I did jot the recipe down for future reference, so here they are. I hope you guys enjoy them as much as my family did.
All I had to do this time around was cook up and photograph a new batch, but wouldn't you know it, I screwed up my own recipe. About a minute after throwing what I though was cumin into my skillet the whole kitchen started smelling like Indian food. Garam masala looks like cumin when you're zoning out. Oops. I almost decided to roll with it to see how Indian enchiladas worked out. In the end I decided to start over, having gotten pretty excited about a Mexican food dinner, so I transformed my goofed beans into a makeshift version of this curry and packed it up for workweek lunches.
I've got Indian enchiladas on the brain now though, just to warn you. While you wait around in anticipation of those, have a go at these more traditional enchiladas. They're delicious.
Black Bean & Spinach Enchiladas
Ingredients
For the Enchilada Sauce
- 1 ½ cups canned tomato puree
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 1 ½ tbsp. chili powder
- salt and black pepper to taste
For the Black Bean & Spinach Enchiladas
- 1 tbsp. olive oil
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- ½ jalapeño pepper, seeded and finely chopped
- 1 ½ tsp. ground cumin
- 1-14 oz. can black beans, drained
- ¼ cup water
- 1 tbsp. red wine vinegar
- 2 cups coarsely chopped fresh spinach leaves, lightly packed
- ¼ cup finely chopped fresh cilantro
- salt to taste
- 8 corn tortillas
For Serving
- chopped scallions
- fresh cilantro leaves
- tahini, thinned with a bit of water
Instructions
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Stir enchilada sauce ingredients together in a small bowl. Set aside.
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Coat the bottom of a medium skillet with olive oil and place over medium heat. Add onion, jalapeño and garlic. Sauté until onion is softened, about 5 minutes. Add in cumin and sauté one minute more. Add beans, water and red wine vinegar. Use a potato masher to mash about half of the beans and bring to a simmer. Lower heat and stir in spinach, adding a bit more water if the mixture seems too dry. Cook just until spinach wilts, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat and fold in the cilantro.
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Preheat oven to 400° and spread about ¾ cup of enchilada sauce into the bottom of a 9x9 inch baking dish. Lightly coat the bottom of a large skillet with oil and place over medium heat. Place a tortilla into skillet to warm it up, allowing it to sit in skillet for 30 seconds to 1 minute. Remove from skillet and place on a work surface. Spoon 2-3 tablespoons of bean mixture into tortilla and roll. Place rolled tortilla, seam side down, into baking dish and spoon sauce overtop, spreading around to coat the entire outside of the enchilada. Repeat until all tortillas are used.
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Bake 15-20 minutes, or until most of the sauce on top of enchiladas has dried out and tortillas are brown around edges. Remove from oven and allow to sit for 5 minutes.
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Divide enchiladas onto plates and top with scallions, cilantro and tahini. Serve.
Recipe Notes
Nutrition information does not include accompaniments.
Hi! Under the enchilada filling portion you list 1/4 C finely chopped fresh cilantro as an ingredient. At what point do you add that to the filling? I couldn't find it in the instructions above, but maybe I keep overlooking it. Thank you!
Julie, the cilantro is used as a topping in the end...i had to look twice to find it ;)
Cook just until spinach wilts, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat and fold in the cilantro.
Mixing up garam masala with cumin isn't nearly as bad as when I mixed ginger up with dried mustard. Worst muffins ever.
These were so tasty, I doubled up on the beans though as it's our main for the day and I added 1/2 tbsp of paprika to the sauce. I actually want to immediately make them again and eat them!
Very, very good. Thank you for one gratifying recipe.
Very welcome! Glad you enjoyed it!!
So it's 1111 sodium for 2 or 4?
For 2.
Did you cook them before you froze them?
I didn't - I just provided instructions to thaw and then cook them according to the recipe.
Where are the red and green peppers and I would use fire roasted tomatoes with green chilis just me I also sautee my veggies in a clarified butter/olive oil so it doesnt burn and all my vbeggies are fresh meaning NOT frozen at all as in farmers markets I can always hear chef ramsey when he says these aint fresh they are frozen and I know Rober Irvine would take his sledge hammer to my kitchen and I rent so I cant have that
I am going to try this just with my alterations as I said in previous post