I don’t really know where to start with how delicious these are. And messy. And delicious. And colourful. And tasty. And did I mention delicious? They’re a winner and you can easily make the enchilada sauce in advance (or buy it if you live near somewhere that sells a good one).

I feel like enchiladas are a good any time of the year food, and I love that they’re a little trashy! Like anything that’s served from a big baking dish dripping with spicy tomato and red pepper sauce and covered in cheesy is gonna be a little on the trashy side. Lucky for you these are also teetering towards the healthy side.

Don’t get caught up in making them perfect, if some of your tortillas break as your trying to squish them in your tray, don’t panic. It’s fine, this is such a forgiving dish and those broken bit might stick up a bit and become crispy bits in the oven. The filling is really easy to do and super filling.

If it’s too hot to be roasting tomatoes and blending up your sauce tonight (or you now, too much effort) and you can’t get your hands on enchilada sauce try to find a roast tomato pasta sauce and fry off some cumin, smoky paprika and coriander root to spice it up a bit.

I love serving this with a chunky salsa scattered over the top. Some slaw on the slide also works well. if you want to feed a bigger crowd then this Mexican rainbow salad is always a good side too!

If you think the sauce sounds familiar it’s probably because it featured in the second to last post too! Yep it’s a reworking of the tortilla soup!

Serves 4-6

Ingredients

Home Made Roasted Tomato Enchilada sauce

1 kg tomatoes

1 red capsicum or red bullhorn chilli

1 jalapeño chilli (omit if using bullhorn chilli)

1 Tbs olive oil

1/3 cup spring onion, finely sliced

2 cloves garlic, crushed

2 Tbs finely chopped coriander root and stem, finely chopped

1.5 tsp hot smoked paprika

2 tsps cumin seeds

1.5 cups vegetable stock

 

1 Tbs olive oil

1/3 cup onion (I used spring onion because fructose, you can use you preferred)

1 tsp hot smoked paprika (sub for sweet if not into heat)

2 cloves garlic

2 coriander roots, finely chopped

1 tsp ground cumin

2 cups cooked black beans (can use canned, just rinse well)

2 medium sweet potatoes, grated (you want 4 cups grated potato)

1 carrot, grated

1 cup freshly grated sharp aged cheddar

12 corn tortillas (I used 12cm ones, taco size)

3 Tbs feta cheese

Toppings to serve: avocado, radish, coriander, finely chopped spring onion.

Directions

Make the sauce: Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius. Line a baking tray with parchment paper and place tomatoes and bullhorn chilli/capsicum + jalapeño on the tray. Roast in the oven until skin has begun to blacken and they are collapsing, about 45 minutes. The bullhorn/capsicums stem should come out easily when gently pulled, if it does this, you know it’s all ready. Remove any stems and rub off the blackened skin, you don’t need to remove all of it just the particularly charcoaled bits!

Next, heat the olive oil in a medium saucepan, once hot add the onion, coriander, garlic, cumin seeds and paprika. Cook for a couple of minutes until the onion has softened and the spices are fragrant.

Add the tomatoes and peppers to the onion, along with the stock. Bring to a boil. Simmer for 15 minutes. Allow to cool slightly and then blend until smooth in a blender (do it in batches if you need to) or alternatively you could use a stick blender.

Make the Enchiladas: Your oven should still be at 180 degrees celsius.

In a medium saucepan heat olive oil then add onion, garlic, coriander and spices. Cook, stirring frequently for a couple of minutes and then add carrot, sweet potato and black beans. Stir to coat in spice mix and cook for a 5- 10 minutes until beginning softened. Add a little water if it starts to stick. Add 2/3 cup of enchilada sauce and 1/3 cup of the cheese and stir to combine. Remove from the heat.

Find a large baking dish that will fit 12 enchiladas. Pour 1 cup of enchilad sauce into the bottom and spread evenly.

Take a tortilla and dip in enchilada sauce to soften it. Fill with the sweet potato and bean mixture (a little more than 1/4 cup) roll up and face seam side down in your baking tray.

Repeat until you have used all the tortillas, place each one next to the one befor it in your tray so they sit snuggly pressed up against each other.

Pour more enchilada sauce over your rolled tortillas, drissling to ensure it is evenly distributed across the tray. they don’t need to be swimming in sauce but you don’t want them to be dry. Top with remaining cheese,crumbling the feta over last.

Bake in your preheated oven for 30 minutes, or until cheese is melted and golden and the edges of the tortilla are crispy.

To serve, scatter over toppings and cut in, serving 2-3 enchiladas per person.

HH. x