Most days I’m thinking of something quick, and easy but also kid-friendly for dinner. I wish I could spend hours in the kitchen creating fabulous multi-step recipes but reality hits on those school days when I’m panicking because I need to get dinner on the table in less than an hour.
Today was one of those days. Time to pull out a go-to recipe. Phew! I have all the ingredients on hand.
It’s Mexican night over here you guys. Enchiladas anyone?
The original recipe from William Sonoma’s Comfort Food Cookbook is stuffed with shredded chicken topped with avocado and sour cream; here I used beans instead for a meat-free dinner and decided to make a “green” sauce instead of using dairy free sour cream to keep dinner on the lighter side. Besides, I was out of sour cream. You can use just about any filling you desire, anything goes.
Come to think of it, this would also be a nice weekend brunch …
And did I mention: ready in thirty minutes. YES.
Traditional recipes rely on tomato for the sauce, but my three younger boys cannot tolerate the high phenols in tomato so we go green. I imagine red sauce would be just as delicious should you choose to go red. Now I’m beginning to sound like these are baseball teams.
Anyway … so we start with the green sauce.
Then mix it up with the yogurt.
Sidenote: If you thin the sauce with more olive oil or lime juice or use less coconut yogurt it makes a tasty green-goddess-style salad dressing.
Tortillas quickly seared on one side and now we are ready to fill er up. I used a spaghetti strainer to pull out the beans from the sauce for filling. We will use the sauce later.
Roll and repeat.
And then pour the remaining sauce over. I like to keep chunks of beans in the sauce for some texture. I wish you can smell the smoky tomatillo flavor in here. The hint of cumin does a great job with that.
Now I know it may seem like I’m using enough garlic to ward off vampires in this recipe, but trust me, it will not taste that way. The garlic is not overpowering at all.
I should also tell you that I didn’t top it with any “cheese” because I ran out so I added some diced sweet raw onion instead of our usual topping of Daiya “cheese”. Thankfully, my boys didn’t whine too much over it because they love raw onion over anything. Sometimes we gotta wing it.
This is my kind of winging it. Once they got past the first bite they forgot there wasn’t any “cheese” in here!
Gimme some green, smoky, creamy, comfort food all rolled up in one. Pun intended!
Happy Monday!
- For the green sauce:
- 3 ripe avocados, divided
- ½ cup coconut yogurt, plain unsweetened flavor
- 6 garlic cloves
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt, or to taste
- 1 teaspoon crushed black pepper, or to taste
- 1 large handful fresh
cilantro, stems removed - juice of 1-2 limes (about 2 tablespoons)
- 2 tablespoons diced jalapeño peppers (I use Jeff’s Naturals “diced peppers”)
- For the tomatillo sauce:
- 1 teaspoon coconut oil or canola oil
- 1 yellow onion, diced, divided
- 1 16 oz. can pinto beans
- 1 16 oz. can great northern beans (or any beans you prefer)
- 1 12 oz jar tomatillo sauce (Whole Foods 365 or Trader Joe’s makes a GF one)
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- juice of 1 small lime
- 6 large tortilla rounds, at room temperature (I used Udi’s. Vegan Option: Rudi's Plain Tortillas)
- coconut oil or canola oil for greasing pan
- For finish:
- Fresh cilantro leaves
- Sweet or white onions, diced
- Limes
- Position a rack in the center and preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 C).
- Some notes:
- Note on choosing ripe avocados: if you are using the avocados the same day or next, look for avocados that have a brown skin and have some give to them when you hold it. There shouldn’t be any dents, white marks, or look shriveled, these are too ripe. Also, look at the tip (where it separated from the tree), it should be light brown and easy to push off. They should never be refrigerated, and kept out of direct sunlight. Hard, green avocados are ready to cut in 2-3 days when left out at room temperature.
- On a nutritional side note: The darker, area away from the fruit is the most nutritious part. So make sure to scrape out any remaining dark green part that sometimes gets stuck to the skin. Avocados are one of mother nature's power foods, packed with protein, fiber, good fats, vitamin K (a tough one to get), potassium (more than bananas), b vitamins, and vitamin e. Some seriously good stuff in here.
- To peel avocados: Slice avocados in half and stick your knife into the seed so that it sticks, then rotate the knife sideways and pull the seed away from the fruit. Then push your thumb in between the skin and fruit to separate the fruit from the skin. If it is too resistant or not soft enough then hold the tip of the skin and pull back like a banana peel. Remove any brown spots from the fruit. Mine were a little too ripe so I cut off the brown spots for the sauce. I saved the halves without brown spots for the finishing touches. Reserve 2 halves, squeeze a little lime or lemon juice over it (to prevent browning) and dice to use later.
- For the green sauce:
- Add avocado and other six ingredients for the green sauce (again: one avocado reserved for final finish) into a small food processor, mix until smooth. It should be thick yet pourable if not add more lime juice. Set aside.
- For the tomatillo sauce:
- Meanwhile, add oil into a medium saucepan set over medium-high heat. When hot add half of the diced onions (reserve half for later), stir and cook until soft (about a minute). Add the remaining tomatillo sauce ingredients and let it come up to a boil for a minute then cook on simmer heat for 5 minutes. Turn off and set aside.
- For the tortillas:
- Meanwhile, set a large non-stick (preferably PFOA free, aluminum-free ceramic ) skillet, big enough to fit the tortillas, on medium heat. Add a teaspoon of coconut oil, when sizzling add a tortilla round and cook until it looks charred (dark brown spots). Repeat with the remaining rounds.
- Assembly of the dish:
- Pour about ½ cup of the tomatillo sauce into a 9 x 13-inch oven-safe casserole dish. Then use a slotted spoon or pasta spoon to pick up a couple of large scoopfuls of the chunky ingredients from the tomatillo sauce (use the liquid for pouring all prepared enchiladas) and add it to the tortilla (cooked side down) about 2-inches from the edge of the tortilla, this will make it easier to roll. Add a few sprigs of cilantro then fold over the filling and roll leaving the ends open. Transfer to the baking dish. Repeat until done; then pour remaining tomatillo sauce over the enchiladas.
- Bake for 15 minutes.
- For finish before serving:
- Then pour avocado sauce across the center lengthwise then sprinkle raw onions, fresh cilantro, and diced avocado throughout. Squeeze lime before serving.
- Serve hot or warm.
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