Here at RIPE, I don’t do food styling, I cook dinner. So, please imagine this mound of Tillamook sharp cheddar cheese melted and crispy around the edges of these enchiladas. When they came out of the oven the other night, not even I wanted to pause for a photo.
Enchiladas are really easy to make—you just roll up a filling in tortillas, stack them in a dish, pour on sauce, top with cheese, and either pop them in the oven or in the freezer for later. You can fill them with roasted or steamed vegetables, rotisserie chicken, beans and cheese—there are a multitude of tasty combinations. Then comes the sauce. Some you can buy are pretty good, like the roasted tomatillo one from Frontera (thanks Caroline!), but for great flavor, nothing beats homemade. Given my abundant supply of roasted garden tomatoes, I decided to start there and wing it with Cookie and Kate’s How to Make Enchilada Sauce post as a general guide.
For my filling, I wanted to use the hominy I had left over from recipe testing posole and the rest of the GIANT butternut squash (5 pounds 13 ounces!) I had cut up the night before. Once I added a big can of black beans, I had a lot of filling, so I got out three pans to fill—one for us, one for a family dealing with the virus and quarantine, and another recuperating with broken ribs. I don’t usually test out new creations on friends, but I’m happy to report that all three families loved these enchiladas. (And I’m happy I have something else to do with all my roasted tomatoes!) If you want to make one 8×13-inch pan of enchiladas, make the whole batch of sauce and freeze half for next time and cut the filling and tortilla amounts in half.
Enchilada Sauce
makes about 6 cups of sauce, enough for two 8x13" pans of enchiladas (about 12 enchiladas each)
Ingredients
Enchilada Sauce
- 4 cups oven roasted garden tomatoes (or two 14 oz. cans tomatoes) See my post for what I have on hand in my freezer (https://ripefoodandwine.com/2018/08/13/oven-roasted-tomatoes-for-pasta-or-polenta/)
- 1 small can (7 ¾ oz.) jalapeño salsa
- a couple cans of water to rinse out the salsa can
- 2 tbsp chipotle in adobo
- 2 tsp apple cider vinegar
- 4 tbsp unsalted butter
- ½ cup purple corn flour or regular flour (all-purpose or gluten free blend) I used Zócalo Peru Organic Purple Corn Flour
Tortillas and Filling
- 2 dozen tortillas the corn and flour blend Trevino's are nice
- 2-3 8 oz. packages Tillamook farmstyle cut sharp cheddar cheese
- 4 cups butternut squash (or sweet potatoes), ½-inch dice
- 3-4 cups cooked hominy Rancho Gordo home cooked or canned; rinsed and drained
- 1 large can (29 oz.) cooked black beans Rancho Gordo home cooked or canned (Goya); rinsed and drained
- ⅔ cup sour cream
Instructions
Roast the butternut squash
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Preheat oven to 400°F. Toss the butternut squash (or sweet potatoes) with a tablespoon of olive oil and roast on a parchment paper lined sheet pan until tender, but not fully cooked, about 20 minutes.
Make the enchilada sauce
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Blend tomatoes with the salsa, chipotle adobo, water, and apple cider vinegar in a blender of food processor and set aside.
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Melt butter in a saucepan over medium-high heat until sizzling. Sprinkle in the corn flour (or regular flour) and cook a couple minutes, stirring with a wooden spoon. Pour in the tomato purée, bring to boil, lower heat, and let simmer, partially covered, while you assemble the filling.
Assemble, fill, and bake
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Combine the roasted butternut squash or sweet potatoes, hominy, black beans in a bowl and gently mix in the sour cream.
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Butter two rectangular baking dishes, each about 8x13". Put a couple big spoons of sauce in the bottom of each dish. Set up an assembly line of tortillas, filling, and cheese, saving some cheese for the top. Roll up the tortillas and place snuggly into baking dishes. (If you have extra filling, make more enchiladas or set filling aside to bake on its own with cheese on top.) Pour the remaining sauce over the top of the enchiladas, dividing equally between the two pans, then sprinkle with cheese. Spray the inside of a piece of foil with non-stick spray and then cover the enchiladas tightly.
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Bake at 400°F until hot, about 30–40 minutes, removing the foil for the last 10 minutes to bubble and crisp the cheese. (Thaw in refrigerator first if you are baking from frozen.)
