Three Bean Enchiladas

We make burritos fairly often at our house, but I had been missing having enchiladas, with a great sauce over them.  This was my first attempt at composing a recipe for bean enchiladas, using an enchilada sauce recipe that I have been using for years.  I think it is much better than any store bought enchilada sauce I have tried, and so very easy to make.  The better brands of store bought enchilada sauce are quite pricey, and this is really inexpensive to make, with easy to find ingredients.  Any leftover enchilada sauce freezes great and can be used to add to refried beans.   

I also used homemade vegetable broth and my beans were some that I had cooked from dried beans.  These items were already in my freezer.  We used black beans, green lentils, and navy beans in this recipe.  We meant to use pinto beans, but accidentally thawed navy beans instead, and they were surprisingly good in this recipe.  I only chose the lentils because I had some in the freezer that needed to be used up, and again they were surprisingly good.  I think any bean could be used in this recipe.

If you haven't used chipotle chilies and adobo sauce, you really should try it.  It is available in every grocery store in my town, and I would guess the same would be true most everywhere.  It is called chipotle chilies in adobo, available in a can in the Hispanic section of the store.  It is actually two great products in one.  I pull one or two whole jalapenos out of the can and mince for a recipe, and

also use a few spoonfuls of the sauce.  The jalapenos are quite hot, so I have to be careful how much I use.   They are dried, smoked jalapenos, and it seems to me that it really intensifies the heat.  I use less of them than if I was using a fresh jalapeno, and the seeds can be scraped out to bring down the heat.  Why use them instead of fresh jalapeno?  Because they have an intensively strong, wonderful smoke flavor, as does the sauce.  There are also onions in the sauce, at least in the brand I tend to buy, and those are wonderful in a recipe also.  I store leftovers in the freezer. 

THREE BEAN ENCHILADAS

ENCHILADA SAUCE:

1 ½ Tbsp. olive oil
¼ cup flour
1 Tbsp. tomato paste
2 Tbsp. adobo sauce
1-2 Tbsp. chipotle chili, finely chopped
1 ½ Tbsp. chili powder
2 cups vegetable broth, preferably homemade
2 tsp. brown sugar
¾ cup water
salt and pepper to taste

Heat olive oil in a large saucepan.  Add flour, and toast, stirring constantly for two minutes.  Add tomato paste, adobo sauce, chipotle chili, chili powder, and toast for two more minutes, stirring constantly.  Add the vegetable broth and stir immediately and constantly with a whisk, to work out any lumps.  When lumps have been stirred out, add the brown sugar, water, and salt and pepper to taste.  Bring the sauce to a simmer and cook for 10 minutes, until slightly thickened, whisking the sauce often.

 FILLING:

1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 Tbsp. chipotle pepper, finely chopped
1 Tbsp. adobo sauce
1 Tbsp. chili powder
2 Tbsp. ancho chili powder
6 cups of beans of choice- pinto, black beans, garbanzo beans, navy beans, Anasazi beans, lentils, etc.,  with most of the liquid drained from the beans, reserving that liquid 
2 cups of corn, fresh, frozen, or canned
1-2 cans Hatch green chilies, chopped
1/2 cup chopped black olives
10 flour tortillas, 10” size

Toppings, optional:  chopped fresh tomatoes, diced pickled jalapeno, diced avocado, cilantro leaves

Heat olive oil in a large skillet.  Add onion, garlic, and red bell pepper.   Sautee for about 8 minutes, or until crisp/tender.  Add chipotle pepper, adobo sauce, chili powder, and ancho chili powder.  Stir for about three minutes.  Add the beans, and using a potato masher, mash the beans up a bit to make a thick consistency.  If the beans seem too dry, add some of the reserved bean liquid, until the mixture is to the desired consistency. 

Add the corn, Hatch green chilies and chopped black olives and remove from the heat.

Spray a 9 by 13” baking pan with cooking spray.  Add enough of the enchilada sauce to shallowly cover the bottom of the pan.

 Fill each flour tortilla with about 2-3 Tbsp. of the bean mixture, then pull each side of the tortilla over the bean mixture, and place seam side down in the baking pan.  When all of the tortillas have been filled,   Using a spoon, make sure each tortilla has been covered with enchilada sauce. 
pour the remaining enchilada sauce over the enchiladas.

Bake in a 350 degree oven, covered with foil, for 25-30 minutes, or until bubbly. 

I thought I would miss the melted cheese over the top of them, but instead we had the chopped fresh tomatoes, picked jalapenos, and diced avocado.  I didn't miss the cheese one bit.

 This recipe did not take us long, as the vegetable broth and beans were already available in the freezer.  I really like cooking things "from scratch", but this recipe would be just fine using canned vegetable broth, canned beans, and bottled enchilada sauce.  That would make this a quick recipe.