Enchiladas

Dear Cel,

Tonight's project was to make enchiladas, in an attempt to use up some of the harvest from my garden before it all grows scary in my fridge.  After perusing a few different vegetarian enchilada recipes on the internet, I decided to base mine off of "Beth's Vegetarian Enchiladas" found on Word of Wisdom Living.  I liked the ingredients it used, and most of all I liked that it said I could add or substitute other ingredients based on what I had on hand (which I was planning on doing anyway, but it's nice to be given permission).

Here are the ingredients they suggested, and what I actually used:


Sauce

2 T olive oil
1 t cumin
1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup tomato paste
14.5 oz. vegetable broth
Salt and pepper



Enchiladas

3 cups (12 oz.) pepper-jack, grated (I used a really delicious garlic-pepper cheese, because the co-op doesn't seem to have regular pepper-jack)
12 oz. can black beans, rinsed and drained (except my can was 15 oz., and I was too lazy to rinse)
1 carton (10 oz.) frozen, chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed (I used swiss chard, because I grew SO MUCH!)
11 oz. can corn kernels, drained (except my can was 15.25 oz.)
6 green onions, thinly sliced (except I used homegrown white onions that were kind of green, and their scapes)
1 t cumin
16 6" corn tortillas (I had a packet of 12, and that worked fine)


Making the sauce

The quality was Caitlin-verified!

I put the oil in a frying pan on medium heat and added the cumin, flour, and tomato paste.  (Note: this was supposed to be done in a saucepan.  Why did I make it in a frying pan?  I don't read directions.)  The directions said to cook for 1 minute, whisking.  I interpreted this as needing to mix the ingredients with a whisk, which was probably unnecessary and slightly irritating when it got all clumpy and stuck inside the whisk cage.  But that's ok.  Then I added the broth and 3/4 cup water.  I brought the mixture to a boil, stirring regularly.  The recipe then suggests to simmer until slightly thickened, probably 5-8 minutes.  I probably cooked it longer than that, and my sauce was a little thick as a result, but still very spreadable.  When I deemed it a sauce-appropriate consistency, I added salt and pepper to taste, then turned off the stove.  Next time I will probably add garlic to the sauce, but I didn't think of that until after it was done.

Making the enchiladas



First I preheated the oven to 400.  In a large bowl, I combined 2 of the 3 cups of cheese, the beans, the corn, the peppers, and the swiss chard leaves and stems.  It was very pretty.  I wrapped my stack of corn tortillas in a damp paper towel and microwaved them for one minute. I spread a little olive oil in a glass casserole dish and started to fill the tortillas until I remembered that I had forgotten cumin and onions.  So I poured everything back into the bowl and added chopped onions and a liberal amount of cumin.  The recipe also suggested salt and pepper, but I skipped it.

I started filling the tortillas, adding as much filling as would still allow me to overlap the ends of the tortilla a little bit before turning it seam-side down in the casserole dish.  After the filling was gone and the dish was full, I spread the sauce over the enchiladas, and sprinkled the remaining cup of cheese on top.  The recipe didn't specify whether to cover the dish, but I decided to rest a sheet of aluminum foil on top, and put it in the oven.  The recipe says to bake it for 15-20 minutes until the sauce is bubbly; I left it in probably for about 30.  I took it out of the oven and sprinkled the top with onion scapes.


It was very good.  It has a lot of flavor and texture without being too much; Caitlin called it the ultimate comfort food.  It's a great way to get in a lot of protein and veggies while still making something warm and filling.  Plus, it came out looking really nice.

What are you eating?

Love,

Emmy