Black Bean Sweet Potato Enchilada Bake

You can tell when a Mexican restaurant is good by the way their enchilada sauce tastes. At least, that is the way I could tell, even though I never ate them. I did always take a bite of kids' enchiladas, though, and the enchilada sauce was always a good indicator of the quality of the food served there.

In the last year, as you can well imagine, I have eaten at very few restaurants. My favorite food is Mexican, but not all the MX restaurants in this area are vegetarian friendly. The ones that are, are definitely NOT vegan friendly. In fact, with a little questioning, I found that most sauces (even though dish is labeled vegetarian) are made with chicken or beef stock. Unfortunately, most places believe that lack of actual meat equals vegetarian. And let's not even address the cheese and sour cream issue!

OK, rant over. Here goes the recipe talk.

My little old Hispanic neighbor lady taught me how to make her special enchilada sauce when we moved in here about 12 years ago. Oh yes, it was a lovely sauce. Very tasty indeed. However, it wasn't lacking in fat, not at all! In fact, her sauce was appx 1/3 vegetable oil! It was fine back in the years when I didn't give much of a thought about what I was eating. I even tweaked the recipe with less oil and the use of bouillon and ground beef, as well as LOTS of cheese, but now there is no chance that I'd prepare that recipe for myself or my family. Seriously, it was delicious and I am not knocking her food, we've just become more conscientious eaters and choose to make better choices with what we eat.

A few weeks ago, a friend and I went on a little field trip to a neat little restaurant in a neighboring town. I ordered the black bean sweet potato enchilada stacks, which were ridiculously delicious. As with all dishes that I try and enjoy, I promptly start formulating a way to recreate them in my own kitchen.

While the restaurant version is a little saucier (I think the tortillas had a coating of oil that prevented the sauce from getting absorbed) I think I came pretty close. I also didn't use cheese or sour cream in mine, choosing to use avocados instead.

I did a little research online, comparing different recipes, and ended up creating my own version. Boy was it good! I will definitely make this again, and I am thinking it would be a fabulous dish to take to a pot luck. My meat eaters loved it, so I think it would be a hit in mixed company.

Black Bean Sweet Potato Enchilada Bake

 

Preheat oven to 375

 

For the enchiladas, you will need:

 

1 dozen corn tortillas (I used homemade, but any will do)

3 small to medium sweet potatoes, peeled, cubed, and cooked*

2 c black beans, drained

1/2 white onion, chopped

2 t olive oil

salt and pepper

 

*cook sweet potatoes any way you like. You can bake them first, then remove from skins and roughly chop. You can steam them for 10-15 minutes (I did that). Sautee in a little olive oil, or roast cubed potatoes in the oven.

 

In a large skillet, sautee the onions in olive oil till translucent. Set aside about a third of the sautéed onions for the sauce. Add cooked sweet potatoes and beans and stir together, lightly mashing everything together. You want it to be chucky but with enough of it mashed to hold things together. When your sauce is done, add about 1/4th cup of it to the mixture for added flavor and moisture.

 

For the sauce:

1 can fire roasted diced tomatoes

4-5 arbol chiles, soaked in a half cup boiling water

1/2 t garlic powder

1 t chili powder

1/2 t cumin

the onions that you set aside from the enchiladas

 

Put all sauce ingredients into a blender and let 'er rip on high for a couple of minutes. I don't usually go over 1 minute, but you can adjust the time according to the strength of your blender. I use a Nutribullet.

 

In a 9X13 baking dish sprayed with non stick spray or lightly oiled or lined with parchment paper (I use a pampered chef baking dish and don't need any spray because it's well seasoned), add about 1/3 of the enchilada sauce. Line the bottom of the dish with 6 tortillas. I place them down, one by one, and flip them so they are coated on both sides. Add the sweet potato and bean mixture. Dip the remaining tortillas in the sauce and place on top of the filling. Pour remainder of the sauce over the top, making sure to evenly coat everything and to get sauce down into the nooks and crannies.

 

Bake at 375 degrees for about 20 minutes, till heated through.

 

Serve with sliced avocados on top.

 

Confession, I added cheese to the 2/3's of the casserole that my family ate. I added just enough to say there was cheese. This quieted the "Is there meat in there?" questions with a "No, but there is cheese." "Ok."

 

Enjoy!