Black Bean and Cheese Enchiladas

As you would realise from the majority of my posts, I’m not a vegetarian! But we do like to have at least one meat free dinner a week – preferably more. This recipe has been adapted from one found on the NYT cooking site. It is delicious, very filling and you certainly don’t miss the meat.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 medium onions, finely chopped
• 1 red capsicum, deseeded and cut into approx. 1 cm dice
• 4 garlic cloves, peeled and thinly sliced
• salt and pepper to season
• 1 1/2 tsp ground cumin
• 2 tsp Mexican chilli powder
• 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
• 1 400gm tin whole tomatoes
• 1 – 2 tsp chipotle in adobo (to taste)
• 1/4 cup sour cream, plus more for serving
• 2 tins black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 1/4 cups Mexican mixed cheese
• 10 -12 soft flour or corn tortillas

To serve

• Fresh coriander
• Avocado
• Sour cream
• Lime wedges

Directions

Preheat the oven to 200c. In a large frypan, heat the oil over medium to high heat. Add the onions, capsicum and garlic, season with salt and pepper. Cook stirring occasionally, until softened and beginning to caramelise, 6 to 8 minutes. Stir in the cumin and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Remove from the heat.

Transfer half the vegetable mixture to the blender, add the tomatoes, chilli powder, smoked paprika, chipotle in adobo and sour cream. Blend until very smooth. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Add the black beans and 1/2 cup cheese to the remaining vegetables in the frypan and stir to combine. Taste and add salt and pepper if needed.

Pour half of the sauce (about 1 1/2 cups) into the base of a “lasagna” style baking dish. Spread to cover the base. Line up the filling, tortillas and baking dish in a row.

Place 1/3 cup of the bean mixture in the centre of one tortilla. Roll up the tortilla and place in the casserole dish, seam side down.

Repeat with the remaining tortillas until you have used up all the beans or until you can’t fit anymore tortillas in the dish!

Pour the remaining sauce over the enchiladas, then sprinkle with the remaining cheese, 3/4 cup. Bake until the cheese has melted and the filling is hot, about 10 minutes.

This enchilada sauce is so tasty and easy to make, nothing at all like the commercial jarred sauces you buy. If you do make this recipe please leave a comment to let me know how you got on. Enjoy. Sheryl x