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| {vegan enchiladas with cilantro avocado cream sauce} |
I planned to write a post about meal-planning today--you know, theme night ideas and the best vegan / vegetarian meal-planning Web site ever. Then, we made vegan enchiladas. A-ma-zing vegan enchiladas that make you forget to ask "Where's the cheese?" Seriously, that good. I think so, anyway. My husband likes everything and likes it all pretty equally, so don't ask him.
I found the recipe on Oh She Glows--one of my new favorite vegan recipe sources. She has lots of variety, delicious-looking desserts, and she runs the Green Monster Movement blog. She's worth checking out.
Anyway, her vegan enchilada recipe sounded delicious. However, I changed a couple things up that made it more kid-friendly (also Trina- and picky-eater-friendly). "Chunks" are a picky-eater's worst enemy, so I blended the sauce and kept the black beans and spinach as the filler or "meat" of the enchiladas.
Here's my take on Oh She Glows' Vegan Enchiladas with Cilantro Avocado Cream Sauce:
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| {vegan enchiladas} |
INGREDIENTS
Sauce Ingredients:
1 TBSP extra virgin olive oil
1/2 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 cup sweet potato, peeled and cubed
1 can enchilada sauce + 3/4 cup tomato sauce (or 2 1/4 cups one or the other)
1 1/2 tsp ground cumin
a few squirts lime juice
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp chili powder
Filler Ingredients:
1 TBSP extra virgin olive oil
1/2 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 bell pepper, chopped
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
2 handfuls spinach, chopped
a few squirts lime juice
6 whole grain tortilla wraps
Cilantro Avocado Cream Sauce Ingredients:
1 1/4 cup avocado flesh (we used 3 small avocados)
2 TBSP water, or more as needed
2-3 TBSP lime juice
1 cup fresh cilantro leaves
1 tsp salt
3/4 tsp ground cumin
black pepper to taste
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| {vegan enchiladas} |
DIRECTIONS
1. Preparation: Peel and cube sweet potato. Simmer for 10-15 minutes just until tender. Remove from heat, strain and set aside. Meanwhile, cut up onion, garlic (if using fresh), bell pepper, and spinach. Drain and rinse black beans. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Sauce: Heat oil over medium heat in a large frying pan or sauce pan. Cook onions until translucent. Reduce heat and add garlic and cook for a minute or two. Add sweet potato, enchilada and/or tomato sauce, and seasonings. Simmer over low heat for a couple minutes. Pour into blender and allow to cool a bit while working on filling.
3. Filling: Heat oil over medium heat in same frying pan after the sauce is poured into blender. Add onions and cook until translucent. Reduce heat and add garlic, cooking for a minute or two. Add black beans, spinach and lime juice. Turn off heat when spinach is lightly wilted.
4. Enchiladas: Carefully blend up sauce until smooth. Pour a light layer of sauce into the bottom of a 9x9 casserole dish. Spoon bean filling over tortillas, pour a couple of spoonfuls of the sauce over the bean mixture, roll tortilla and gently place in pan with flap down. Continue until bean filling and tortillas are all used up (last enchilada or two might need to be squeezed in a bit). Pour all of remaining sauce mixture over the enchiladas, then run a spoon or knife between each enchilada and along the edges to allow sauce to completely cover the enchiladas. Cook enchiladas for 15-20 minutes at 350 degrees.
5. Cilantro Avocado Cream Sauce: While enchiladas are cooking, prepare cream sauce ingredients and add everything to blender. Blend or pulse just until thoroughly mixed. Serve immediately.
6. Serve enchiladas topped with Avocado Cream Sauce and chopped green onions and cilantro.
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| {avocado cream sauce} |
Notes for future: These were delicious! Albeit, a little on the spicy side. If you like spice, this is perfect. However, Brylee doesn't like her mouth "hurting," and Daniel and I aren't always that tough either. I will be making these again, however I'll probably tone down the spices a bit. If you're using all tomato sauce (and no enchilada sauce), then this just might be the right amount of spices.
Overall......
{YUM!}
