What Chu Know About Enchiladas: fruits and veggies Monday

Hola and welcome back to #fruitsandveggiesmonday! I am steadily impressed with the dishes that enter F’s and V’s (fruits and veggies), @lenasveganliving, and am constantly inspired by everyone- thank you for that!

My friend @plantstoplanks made this fabulous looking Nice Cream Pie, a little while back and although it wasn’t for Fruits and Veggies but to celebrate her parents 50th (yes, I said 50th) wedding anniversary, it was incredible. I mean, do you know how to make an ice cream cake let alone a healthy version called nice-cream cake-pie? Me either! One of these days I will have a go at this pie/cake, ice-cream-nice-cream plate of deliciousness. But until then my friend @plantstoplanks killed it with this one.

Anyway, I’m saying all of this because I really appreciate the community, here, on Mondays. The group of people are just fantastic and I’m very glad to have been invited into the fold. Without further adue, my fruits and veggies for this week…

What Chu Know About Enchiladas

So, if you’re like me then your kitchen counter is covered with beautiful fall looking flowers, that photograph with enchiladas perfectly. No, I did not buy these at Traders Joes with plating pictures in mind, but they do happen to look great with my new itsy, bitsy, fall pumpkins (copped from TJs also).

I know- the “vase” is actually a coffee mug that, I think, worked out swimmingly :)

Back to these delicious enchiladas! Made all from scratch, stuffed with a ton of vegetables and sauced to perfection, you can’t go wrong with these gluten free, dairy free, vegetable abundant, homemade enchiladas.

My husband says “your flowers are placed too proportionately to use that one as a cover photo” but I am rebellious (kinda) so I use it as ‘the alternate’ cover shot 🤠.

Ingredients

Filling:
Olive oil
1 onion (chopped)
1 bell pepper (chopped)
1/2-1 zucchini (chopped)
1.5 C black beans (cooked or canned)
1/2 C corn (frozen/thawed or fresh/cooked)
1/2 C green peas
5 stalks green onion (chopped)
1/2 C cilantro (chopped)
3-4 garlic cloves (minced)
sea salt and pepper to taste
1/2 Tbsp chili powder
1/2 Tbsp cumin
1 Tsp oregano
Dash cayenne pepper
All spices, here, optional

8-10 gluten free tortillas or 10-12 corn tortillas

Really you can stuff these little suckers with whatever you want and seasoned however you’d like- that’s the beauty of these Enchiladas 💃.

I start by… you guessed it… sautéing my onions then adding my chopped bell pepper. Continue cooking until your husband yells “damn, that smells goooood” then toss in the garlic.

Careful not to burn your garlic (it does not give off that “damn, that smells good” smell).

I add my zucchini and stir all of that around for a minute then toss in your black beans and green peas.

If you feel like your mix is getting too dry then go ahead and pour a 1/4 C of vegetable broth into the fold or add a little water. I will usually add a chopped tomato for more juices but did not do that this time. Really, it’s whatever you want :)

Toss in your corn and green onion (make sure your corn is thawed or it’ll get too juicy in there) and stir carefully without spilling over onto the oven top.

It’s like I’m constantly battling dishes or pans that are too small, too big, not the right shape 🤷🏼‍♀️ Just out here living the life of Goldilocks and The Three Bears …

Go ahead and add your spices, salt and pepper.

Mix well and let that simmer on low for 10 minutes or so while we get started on the sauce. This is where the magic happens…

Ingredients

Sauce:
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp flour (gluten free)
1 Tsp garlic powder
1 Tbsp oregano
4 Tbsp chili powder
1/2 Tsp salt
1/2 Tsp pepper
1-2 Tbsp tomato paste
2 C vegetable broth

I usually make a double batch to ensure I have all of the sauce I need. As you can tell from my pictures, I forgot to do that this time 🤦🏼‍♀️

Start by adding olive oil (2 Tbsp) and flour in a pot on low heat. Whisk together with a fork… I employed my favorite helper here… sometimes we could use a few extra hands when it comes to enchiladas.

Keep your helper whisking continuously so that nothing burns and start adding the spices.

Let your helper stop stirring for just a second so you can grab a process photo and then continue cracking the whip :)

Add your tomato paste, whisking that in until fully blended and then your vegetable broth.

As you can see I had to give my mixer a break (I think it’s a law or something) and took over the job of whisker…

Whisk, whisk, whisk,
Whisk, whisk, whisk,
Whisk your groove thing,
Whisk your groove thing!

Keep whisking on a low simmer for about 10 minutes. The sauce should be thickening.

And Taaah-daaaahh… you’ve got sauce! Take it off the heat or drive the whip on your handsome Mr. Whisker but don’t let it burn.

Cut some more green onions to go with your chopped cilantro and set aside for “sprinkling” during the stuffing process.

Take one or two scoops full of sauce and line the bottom of your enchilada dish. Pre-heat your oven at 350F while preparing to get messy.

First, I tried my new (and super exciting) gluten free tortillas. I heated a stack up for about 30 seconds in the microwave and pulled one out while it was steaming. Scooping 2-3 healthy spoonfuls of guts into the tortilla, I could already see that these were going to suck! As I tried to roll, all I got was a rip and enchilada guts were going everywhere…

Salvaging what I could, I thanked my food Gods that I had my beloved corn tortillas on hand to save the day.

Take your tortilla and give a couple healthy scoops of filling, dollop of enchilada sauce, sprinkle of green onions/cilantro and roll that bad boy up placing it seam side down in your dish. Top with more sauce.

I, actually, had to grab another small dish to stuff more tortillas so quickly ran out of sauce. I just called these Skinny Enchiladas and moved on.

Sprinkle with remaining green onion and cilantro then cover tightly with foil and place them in the oven for 20-25 minutes (until the sauce is bubbling).

Voila… What Chu Know About Enchiladas, Enchiladas!

The only casualty of the night was losing my Sous Chef to me going all Gordon Ramsay on him. I think this Latin dish brought out my fuego so will work on keeping the heat confined to my food. Thank you so much @dandays for always being a good sport. At least I can apologize with yummy food :).

Thank you for hanging out with me today during Fruits and Veggies Monday and as always, I’m looking forward to all of the great entries.

Pura Vida ✌️