My husband is from the south. He LOVES spicy food and loves southwest/Mexican inspired meals. We were talking the other night about he could eat Mexican every night. I told him I could too IF it had a lot of vegetables. If you go to Mexican restaurant there are the staples, tortillas, meats, beans, rice, lettuce, tomato, onions, jalapenos etc. but besides fajitas I don’t always see a ton of vegetables.
My sister is a vegetarian and while we were just back in our little WAY up north small town we went to the “Mexican” restaurant and for her being a full out vegetarian and me being the picky meat eater I am, it was hard to find items on the menu for us to eat. It might be because I love a ton of vegetables in my dishes and lettuce and tomatoes (especially when it’s just shredded iceberg lettuce) doesn’t satisfy my fix.
Recently I have realized we spend a TON of money on groceries. I mean probably what families of four spend. It makes me sad to spend more than double what my mortgage is at the store every month. I know buying organic is more expensive and the meat that we buy tends to be more than something pumped with hormones. I have said several times I would give up cable before I gave up buying organic.
In any case I know what we spend the most at the store on, meat, cheese, and wine. I am trying to train my husband to be more conscious when we are at the store. I cannot complain, the man pretty much does all our grocery shopping so I can get home at a reasonable hour, but he buys everything I tell him to. If I wanted asparagus and it was $4.99/lb I would probably instead get something cheaper. He sees asparagus on the list and buys it. (Did I tell you I do finance for a living??) So me being on a mission to save some money has resulted in us eating a little more vegetarian (which is fine with me!)
The other night I decided to satisfy my husband’s love for spicy food and my love for veggies and make a vegetarian enchilada dish. I wanted beans and veggies and even a little cheese. I also remember seeing recipes for “cream sauce” enchiladas. Usually they are “creamy chicken enchiladas” which typically are made with sour cream. I am not a huge fan of sour cream in general. Instead of sour cream we use Greek yogurt. It has probiotics (good digestive bacteria your body needs) and is a good source of protein. 
I decided to make my creamy sauce by starting with a simple béchamel sauce but instead of the milk I used chicken stock to avoid all the extra fat. First I sautéed onions, garlic and jalapeños and then once I had that cooked made my roux and added in my liquid.
Once the sauce was done coming together and thickening I took it off the stove and added in the Greek yogurt and avocados. To make the avocados blend in and make the sauce smooth I used my immersion blender. If you don’t have an immersion blender you can use a blender just be careful because hot liquid expands so you want to leave your lid cracked. I then added in roasted peppers to keep a little texture to the sauce.
The enchilada filling was full of veggies. I used bell peppers, onion, jalapeno, garlic, zucchini, spinach, heirloom tomatoes with pinto and black beans. The filling was the easy part. All you have to do is sauté all the vegetables and then add in the tomatoes, beans and spinach at the very end. It was seasoned simply with chili powder and cumin.
I decided to tackle something I hadn’t really tried before – Mexican rice. You know when you go to restaurants and the rice is a little bit light red/orange and has a SLIGHT flavor to it but nothing overpowering? I wanted that. I did some research and most recipes call for tomato sauce and a little cumin. However, when I got home I was fresh out of tomato sauce. I did have a can of diced tomatoes though.
Whenever I make a grain that has to cook in a liquid I always replace water with chicken broth. Why not add an extra layer of flavor to your food? I cooked my rice in chicken broth and instead of tomato sauce I drained all the liquid and a few of the tomatoes from my can of diced tomatoes in with the rice as it cooked. I also used a little leftover minced onion I had with some garlic, cumin and bay leaves. It was a nice compliment to the enchiladas.
When you hear “creamy” it doesn’t always have to be fattening. Learning how to make substitutions when you cook can help you make any options healthier and save you fat and calories. My husband didn’t even miss the meat in this dish!
veggie enchiladas with avocado “cream” sauce and mexican rice
- Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
Ingredients
Enchiladas
- *2 bell peppers (any color) diced
- 1 red onion diced
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 1 medium zucchini diced
- 2–3 cups fresh baby spinach roughly chopped
- 1 can of pinto beans, liquid drained
- 1 can of black beans, liquid drained
- 1.5 TBS cumin
- 1 TBS chili powder
- 1 TBS olive oil
- 2 medium sized tomatoes diced (any tomato of your liking, I prefer heirlooms when in season)
- 2 cups shredded cheese (montery jack or pepperjack work best)
- 1 package of corn tortillas
“Cream” Sauce
- ¼ cup white onion minced
- 4 cloves of garlic minced
- ½ jalapeno minced
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 4 TBS flour
- 4 cups chicken stock (to make this completely vegetarian use vegetable broth instead)
- 1 6oz container plain non-fat Greek yogurt
- 3 poblanos or cubanelle peppers (if you can’t find fresh you can use one small can of diced green chilis)
- 2 tsp cumin
- Salt and pepper to taste
Mexican Rice
- 2 cups jasmine or any long grain rice
- 4 cups of chicken stock
- 2 tsp cumin
- ¼ cup white onion minced
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 16 oz can diced tomatoes
- Additional ingredients for topping enchiladas include cilantro, avocado slices, scallions and diced tomatoes
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 450
- Place peppers directly on the oven rack. I place a baking pan one oven rack below the peppers in case anything drips down. Cook the peppers for 30 minutes turning every 10 minutes to char all sides.
- In the mean time start making your sauce and filling. In a large skillet start the filling. Over medium heat sautee the red onion, bell peppers, garlic and zuchinni with the cumin and chili powder. Season with salt and pepper to your liking. Suatee for 8-10 minutes until vegetables have softened. Add the drained beans, tomatoes and spinach and cook until the spinach is wilted. Adjust seasoning to your liking. If you like spicier food you can add in additional chili powder or a ¼ tsp cayenne pepper.
- In a large sauce pan start the cream sauce. Sautee onion, garlic and miced jalapeno in olive oil over medium heat. Once vegetables have softened add in flour and cook the flour 3 minutes so the flour is not raw. Turn the heat up to medium high and add in 3 cups of chicken stock or broth. Whisk to remove all lumps of flour. Once mixture comes up to a gentle boil continue to whisk and let mixture cook a few minutes to thicken. Remove from heat and add in avocado. With an immersion blender puree mixture so the avocado is blended in. If the mixture is too thick use the remaining chicken stock to thin mixture out to a creamy sauce like consistency. Leave off of the heat and whisk in greek yogurt.
- Once peppers are done roasting in an oven place in a brown paper bag (lunch bags and grocery bags work well) and let sit in the bag for 10 minutes. Turn oven temperature to 400. At this point the skin will be easy to remove from the pepper. After removing the skins of the peppers chop into a dice and add to the enchilada sauce.
- In a large baking dish ladle enough sauce to coat the bottom of the pan. To assemble enchiladas fill a tortilla with filling and sprinkle with some of the cheese, roll, place seam side down in the pan. Continue this process until you have filled your pan or run out of tortillas. Top the enchiladas with remaining sauce and bake uncovered for 10-15 minutes until bubbly. Top with more cheese and bake an additional 5 minutes until the cheese has melted. Let stand for 5 minutes.
- While enchiladas cook add rice, chicken stock, bay leaves, cumin, salt and pepper, onion, the juice from the tomatoes and ¼ of the can of diced tomatoes to a sauce pot. Bring rice to a boil. Once rice is boiling turn the temperature down to low and cover. Cook according to instructions on rice (usually between 20-40 minutes depending on what type of rice you buy). All the liquid should absorb out.
- Serve enchiladas with rice on the side and top with any additional toppings of your choice.
- Prep Time: 30
- Cook Time: 60
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 4
