2013 – Gluten Free Living

When we visited my son and his family over Valentine’s Day, my daughter-in-law, Candice, made this scrumptious recipe. It was awesome. I knew it would be one of those recipes I would want to make multiple times because it’s that good. Because it’s made with corn tortillas it’s gluten free, although I made my batch with both corn and wheat tortillas and quite frankly, the wheat tortillas hold up a lot better than corn tortillas do. Maybe because I can never find corn tortillas in the fajita size – only the small ones. Which is crazy, you would think living in the Dallas area where there is such a high demand for Tex-Mex, food stores would carry large corn tortillas! Maybe at Fiesta, but there is not one of those close to where we live. The corn tortillas do tear a little bit as you roll them–even though I tried to be gentle. So be prepared for that, even though the wonderful flavors and texture of Sweet Potato Black Bean Enchiladas are not affected.

All I can say is this recipe is amazing. The filling is made with sweet potatoes, black beans, salsa, diced tomatoes, cheese (I substituted cheddar cheeses for the kind recommended which my daughter-in-law had done also. Very tasty), and one chipotle chile in a can of adobo sauce. I had purchased a can of this sauce quite some time ago and never ended up using it in the recipe I purchased it for so I was really glad to be able to get this can off my shelf! Now I have to figure out how to use up the rest of it. Don’t be alarmed about using a chipotle pepper. I didn’t find that it made the dish excessively hot by any means. The enchilada sauce calls for a lot of gourmet chili powder spices which I didn’t have. I substituted plain chili powder to replace those and found it worked very well. I also used the larger can of tomato sauce rather than the small 15-oz. size recommended. I’m sure glad I did as I needed all of it. 

I garnished my enchiladas with sour cream, lime slices, avocado slices, chives and cilantro. Oh, did that ever taste wonderful on the enchiladas! Wow. I couldn’t get enough. The only difficult thing about this recipe is cutting the sweet potatoes! After you peel them with a vegetable peeler you have to cut the sweet potatoes into small dice. Be CAREFUL! It is so hard getting a sharp butcher knife through sweet potatoes because they are so dense. Go slow. After you manage to get 3 or 4 slices sawn off from each potato cubing the rest is easy. Just be careful you don’t cut yourself. While this recipe is a little more involved than most recipes I make, it is well worth the effort. If you like Tex-Mex, if you like sweet potatoes and black beans (especially together) you will love this marvelous entree.

This vegetarian recipe is great for Meatless Mondays or anytime if you like meatless dishes (which I do). It is an extremely hearty, filling, and satisfying dish. Serve it with chips and salsa or a side salad if you wish. You won’t even miss the meat in this entree. It’s exceptionally good. If you’re dairy intolerant you will need to find a different alternative for the cheese, although we really liked the cheddar cheese substitution for the original cheese called for in this recipe.

If you’re looking for a great tasting meatless main dish recipe for your family consider this healthy option. It’s not excessively high in calories  even though it has cheese. Sweet Potato and Black Bean Enchiladas are so tasty. If you’re family likes Tex-Mex style food you will love this spectacular dish. I hope you will pardon my overuse of pictures in this post. This is one of the first times when I took pictures that almost everyone of them came out clear. Hopefully, you will see the story I’m trying to tell even though there is an excess of pictures. Words can never adequately describe the delicious taste of something. I’m hoping these pictures will show you instead.

 Sweet Potato and Black Bean Enchiladas is an amazingly tasty dish.

We garnished this dish with avocado and lime slices and fresh cilantro.

We served Sweet Potato and Black Bean Enchiladas with tortilla chips and sour cream and chives.

 This is a picture of John’s plate with the wheat tortillas. This entree is very hearty and satisfying.

 This close up shows the texture of the wheat enchiladas.

 Here’s my serving of Sweet Potato and Black Bean Enchiladas. You can see a little of the stuffing ingredients oozing out of the torn corn tortilla shell. Lots of sweet potato, black beans, tomatoes, salsa, diced tomatoes and cheese!

 Here’s a close up of my plate. Yummy! I couldn’t wait to dig in.

Here’s what I did.

 Pour a couple of tablespoons of olive oil into a large sauteuse or Dutch oven.

 Add diced onion and saute.

 Peel sweet potatoes. This is more than the recipe called for. I really needed only 2 of these whoppers to get the amount of sweet potato needed for this recipe.

 Cube potatoes. Be careful, cutting the slices into the dense sweet potato can be tricky. Don’t cut yourself because the knife slips!

 Here are the cubed sweet potatoes.

 These are the ingredients you will be using in the sauce.

 Here the onion has been sauteeing for awhile.

 Add cubed sweet potatoes.

 Add diced tomatoes. The original recipe calls for draining the tomatoes. I found the recipe needed the juice from the tomatoes and was glad when I saved it. I added it back into the recipe.

 Add a jar of salsa.

 Add garlic. I added a heaping tablespoon of minced garlic from a jar.

 Here is one chipotle pepper in adobo sauce. I could have handed two in this recipe but I settled for the one specified in the recipe.

 Dice the chipotle pepper and add to other ingredients in large saucepan.

 I added black beans before realizing they are NOT supposed to be added in at this point. I would wait and add them later because the sweet potato mixture has to be mashed. I ended up mashing up some of the black beans too because I added them to soon. But they did all right cooking with all the other ingredients.

 Cook for 40-50 minutes or until the sweet potatoes are cooked through. Pierce with a fork to test for doneness.

 While filling ingredients are cooking, prepare sauce. Add tomato sauce to a stock pot. I really liked the idea of using a large 29-oz. can of tomato sauce rather than just a 15-oz. can as the recipe stated. I ended up needing all the sauce.

 Add vegetable broth.

 These are the spices that are needed.

 Add chili powder. Because I didn’t have the exotic chili powders called for in this recipe I substituted regular chili powder for all of it. The recipe turned out fine.

 Add garlic powder.

 Add onion powder.

 Add oregano.

 Stir ingredients together and bring to a simmer. Remove from heat.

Here the sauce has been brought to a simmer and I’ve turned off the heat. You can season with additional salt and pepper here, but I didn’t think it would need any so I didn’t add any extra seasonings. 

 Here the sweet potatoes have finally cooked through.

 Mash potatoes with a potato masher.

 Here’s what the mixture looks like. NOW, is when you should add the drained and rinsed black beans.

 Add cheese. I used a mix of Colby Jack and Monterey Jack cheeses – about 1 1/2 cups. You can you sharp cheddar or any kind you prefer.

 Stir filling ingredients to combine.

 Spread some of the enchilada sauce into a prepared baking dish.

 Spread some sauce into the prepared pan. This is really more than needed. You need more for the top then the bottom of the pan.

 To warm the tortillas, I wet a paper towel, wrung it out and then wrapped the tortillas in it. I placed them in the microwave for 15 seconds on high.

 Spread filling on tortillas. This was actually too much. I had to take about 1/3 of the filling off in order to roll the tortilla without all the filling coming out of it!

 Roll tortillas up.

 Continue rolling the corn tortillas until it is completely rolled. Place seam-side-down in pan prepared with cooking spray and a little of the enchilada sauce spread on the bottom of the pan.

 Here is a pan of the corn tortillas. You can see the tortilla shells are breaking apart slightly.

 Here I’ve wrapped the enchilada filling in wheat tortillas. They did not break apart and were a lot easier to roll up.

 Spread enchilada sauce over top of the enchiladas.

 Sprinkle generously with cheese. I used more cheese than the recipe calls for. Bake in 350 oven about 20 minutes. Top with more cheese if desired. (I didn’t feel that it needed more cheese because I put a lot on to begin with).

 Split avocados in half; remove pit and peel and slice down. This was a whopper avocado!

 Slice down the avocados for garnish.

 Cut a lime in half, then slice down for garnish.

 Use cilantro for garnish.

 Here’s what Sweet Potato and Baked Bean Enchiladas look like just out of the oven.

 These enchiladas are loaded with cheese! We loved the taste of this fabulous meatless entree.

 Here we’ve dished up our servings. John ate the wheat tortilla-filled enchiladas and I ate the corn tortilla-filled enchiladas.

 Here’s another look. I filled three pans with all the enchilada filling. I ended up using a whole bag of corn tortillas and 5 or 6 wheat tortillas I had laying around!

 This was an incredibly tasty dish.

 This picture with the cracked tortilla shell shows the filling inside of the enchilada.

 I’ve garnished my enchiladas with sour cream and chives.

 I think this shows a little more of the texture of this dish. Sweet Potato and Black Bean Enchiladas is a great dish to serve on Meatless Mondays. 

 Now I’ve garnished my enchiladas with sour cream, chives, and avocado slices. I can’t tell you how delicious this was–every forkful was succulent and so appetizing. Thankfully I have enough of this for a few days of leftovers because I’m salivating right now!

 Here’s another look at how this entree looks with avocado and sour cream garnish.

Here’s the recipe.

SWEET POTATO AND BLACK BEAN ENCHILADAS

(Recipe adapted from  my daughter-in-law, Candice Ambra, Oxford, PA, via James McNulty via Vegetarian Times, December 2011, pg. 59)

Enchilada Sauce:

1 29-oz. can tomato sauce

1 ¾ cups low-sodium vegetable broth

2 tsp. chili powder

1 tsp. garlic powder

1 tsp. onion powder

1 tsp. dried oregano

Sweet Potato and Black Bean Filling:

2 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil

1 small onion, diced (1 cup)

1 ½ lb. sweet potatoes, peeled and diced (3 cups) (I used 3 large sweet potatoes – probably closer to 5 cups)

1 15-oz. can diced tomatoes, undrained

1 16-oz. jar prepared medium salsa

1 heaping tablespoon minced garlic from a jar

1 chipotle chile in adobo sauce, drained and minced (I think two would be better)

1 15-oz. can black beans, rinsed and drained

16-oz. assorted cheddar cheeses, Monterey Jack & Colby Jack

Enchiladas:

16 6-inch corn tortillas, warmed (I used more)

2 limes, cut into wedges

2 avocados, sliced

½ cup sour cream, for garnish

Cilantro sprigs, for garnish, optional

To make Sauce:

Bring all ingredients to a simmer in saucepan over medium heat. Whisk to combine, then remove from heat. Season with salt and pepper, if desired.

To make Filling:

Heat oil in separate saucepan over medium heat. Add onion, and sauté 3 to 5 minutes, or until soft. Add sweet potatoes, tomatoes, salsa, garlic, chipotle chile, and 1/2 cup water (I just rinsed out the salsa jar with a little water); bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer 30 to 40 minutes, or until sweet potatoes are soft. Mash mixture with potato masher until combined. Add black beans, and cook 5 minutes. Stir in half of the cheddar cheese, and remove from heat.

To assemble Enchiladas:

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Spray two 13- x 9-inch baking dishes with cooking spray. Spread 1/2 cup Sauce in bottom of each dish. Fill tortillas with Filling. Roll, and pack close together seam-side down in baking dish. Top with remaining Sauce and cheddar cheeses. Bake 15-20 minutes. Add extra cheese if desired and melt. Let rest 10 minutes before serving. Garnish with lime wedges, avocado slices, sour cream, and cilantro sprigs, if using. 

 When Jordan and Candice served this dish they had homemade guacamole which I dumped on top! It was fantastic prepared that way too!

 I was so glad when our daughter-in-law Candice prepared this wonderful dish for us when we were in Pennsylvania last month. We loved this great Tex-Mex dish.

 We served this entree with corn tortilla chips and sour cream with chives.

 This close up shows more of the filling inside the enchiladas.

 I couldn’t resist one last picture. This picture shows more of the texture of the filling itself. Are you ready to come join me for dinner?

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