Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Vegetarian Enchiladas with Sour Cream Sauce

Yum


What do you do when you’re stressed out from school/work or having a really bad day? Well, I generally bake :-)… shopping helps too, but baking is always better! So yesterday, after arguing with my apartment management folks to no avail (didn’t know carpet cleaning could be so complicated!), I came home and decided to bake. I was thinking of making a simple chocolate cake, but didn’t have all the ingredients (that rarely happens!). I realized that I had not baked anything savory in a while, so I figured I’d experiment with a tomatillo and sour cream sauce for enchiladas… it turned out pretty delicious! The recipe might seem long, but it is very simple and quick. The sauce can be modified as per taste and desired consistency. Also, the filling for the enchiladas is completely customizable to your taste, or ingredients available in your pantry :-). Here’s what I used:

Ingredients:
For sauce
6-8 tomatillos (can use canned)
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp flour
1 ½ cup vegetable stock (or water)
1 – 1 ½ cup fat free sour cream (depending on how thick you want the sauce to be)
Diced Serrano pepper (to taste)
½ cup chopped cilantro
Salt
Cumin powder

For enchiladas
1 tbsp olive oil
Salt
Paprika (to taste)
Pepper (to taste)
1 tsp cumin powder
(You can use fajita seasoning or other spices of your choice)
2 cloves of garlic - chopped
1 small onion sliced/diced
½ red bell pepper sliced
1 zucchini chopped
1 cup cooked black/kidney beans (or 1 can)
Any other vegetables/meat of your choice
Shredded cheese (I used the Sargento 4 Cheese Mexican blend)
6-8 corn/wheat tortillas

To make the sauce:
Cut tomatillos in half and broil on both sides until soft (Took me about 5 minutes per side). Heat butter in a saucepan. Add chopped Serrano peppers, flour. Add vegetable stock once the flour is golden brown. Whisk to avoid lumps. Let the mixture boil and reduce till the vegetable stock is thickened. Add sour cream and cilantro, mix well and take off the heat.  Puree the mixture with tomatillos in a blender. Season with salt as required.

Making the filling:
For the filling, heat oil and add onions, garlic. On medium-high heat, sauté onions and garlic for a minute, then add peppers. After the peppers have softened a little, add zucchini, beans, salt and spices. Sauté for a couple minutes and turn off the heat.

To assemble:
Pour about ¾ cup of sauce in a baking dish. Lay the filling in the middle of a tortilla, sprinkle cheese (optional), and roll. Lay it seam side down in the baking dish. Repeat for all the tortillas. Pour rest of the sauce evenly and top with more shredded cheese if desired.


Bake in the oven at 350 deg F for 20 min followed by broiling until top is golden brown (only about a minute). Let it cool for a few minutes before serving.

~Gayatri

4 comments:

  1. Made enchiladas following this recipe yesterday; they turned out great! We liked them even more than the restaurant ones! :) Thanks for the recipe, Gayatri. I always wanted to try cooking Mexican food, and this was definitely a great start. Looking forward to more recipes on this blog :)

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  2. Thanks for trying it out Mugdha! Glad you all enjoyed it :-)

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  3. I followed the recipe for the sauce and made potato enchiladas. It was awesome. Much better than store bought sauce! Loved it! Thanks for the recipe.

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    1. Soumya, potato enchiladas sound delicious! Glad you liked the sauce. Thanks for the feedback! :-)

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