So Good!

Yesterday I made layered vegetable enchiladas for dinner. I first made them while I was at my sister's in Denver, but we froze those for later use so I didn't actually confirm that they were edible. I was hopeful, so I went ahead and made them anyway.

Verdict: really, really good!

Thanks, Bess, for introducing me to the recipe.


And here it is:

• 1/2 medium onion, chopped
• 8 ounce bag of spinach leaves
• 1 cup frozen corn
• 1 15-ounce can refried beans
• 1 15-ounce can low-sodium black beans, drained
• 10 corn (or whole wheat) tortillas, quartered
• 19 ounces canned enchilada sauce
• 1 cup Monterey Jack cheese, shredded
• green onions, sliced, for garnishing
• Vegetable oil

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees.

Heat approximately 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onions and cook until they become translucent, about 3-5 minutes. Add the spinach leaves and continue cooking and stirring until they start to wilt. Add the corn and continue cooking until heated through. Set this spinach-corn mixture aside.

Spread one-third of the enchilada sauce over the bottom of a 9 x 13-inch baking dish and top with one-third of the tortillas. Layer with the refried beans, the black beans and half of the remaining enchilada sauce. Top with one-third of the cheese.

Next, layer with half of the remaining tortillas, all of the spinach-corn mixture and half of the remaining cheese. Top with the remaining tortillas, the remaining enchilada sauce and the remaining cheese.

Bake in the oven for about 30 minutes, until the sauce starts bubbling and the cheese has melted. Garnish with the green onions before serving.

(recipe from Sunset magazine)




So, over the last year or so I've learned that when a recipe calls for vegetables, it normally doesn't matter if you don't use the quantity it calls for. That being said, I'm not sure how much spinach I used, but it was a TON. I just kept dumping it in there. And I used a full onion. I also used more corn than it calls for.

The recipe above is for a 9x13 pan and the one I used was bigger. I also doubled the beans for the bean layer and used two cans of each type instead of just one. I used more tortillas (didn't count how many, but just made each layer pretty covered), but only one can of enchilada sauce. I also used more cheese since it was a bigger pan. But again, quantity isn't that important.

The one change I would make to it when (not if) (: I make it again is that I will add cilantro to one of the layers. I may dump it in with the veggies after they're cooked, or I may mix it in with the beans (speaking of which, I mixed the beans together before putting them in the casserole dish, but I don't think that's necessary). Either way, cilantro (if you like cilantro) would be an excellent addition.

Enjoy!