Sweet Potato and Black Bean Enchiladas

IMG_0481

It’s, like, really cold and snowy in Milwaukee right now. Which automatically prompts me to dive feet first into some baggy sweatpants, have a Bravo TV marathon, and eat lots of comfort food (ahem, easily re-heatable comfort food.)

These enchiladas are all about everything that goes along with comfort food.  Made on a Sunday afternoon when I had a little bit of extra time to chop and prep the vegetables, these little guys were great to bring in to work as leftovers throughout the week. I even froze a few for random weeknight dinners when I didn’t want to do much work (see above.)

Now, I have this nasty habit of only wanting enchiladas filled with onions and cheese. Well, mostly just cheese, if I am completely honest.  But, those aren’t so waistline-friendly, so I thought I would dabble in another version, hoping that this one would satiate my over-cheesey tendencies. And so they did.  Full of flavor (and a little queso fresco..my new favorite cheese-craving fix), I didn’t miss my old version.  Feel free to play around with your veggie add-ins here.  Omit the cheese entirely for a vegan version.  And don’t forget to get your baggy sweatpants on.

 IMG_0441

Sweet Potato and Black Bean Enchiladas

Servings: about 16 enchiladas

 

Ingredients

For the sauce:

One 15 ounce can of tomato sauce

1 and 3/4 cups vegetable broth

1 teaspoon chili powder

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon onion powder

1 teaspoon oregano

1 teaspoon chipotle chili powder

 

For the filling:

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

1 onion, chopped

3 cups sweet potatoes, skinned and chopped (about 2 large sweet potatoes)

One 15-ounce can fire-roasted diced tomatoes, drained

One 16-ounce container prepared salsa

2 garlic cloves, minced

1/2 cup water

One 15-ounce can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 and 1/2 cups frozen corn, thawed

One 12-ounce round of queso fresco (or however much cheese you like)

 

16 6-inch corn tortillas

Avocados, sour cream (or Greek yogurt), black olives, limes, etc

 IMG_0470

Instructions

1. For the sauce:  In a medium saucepan, combine all of the ingredients for the sauce and bring to a simmer over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally.  Reduce the heat to low and let simmer for about 10 minutes.  Remove from the heat and set aside.

2. For the filling: Heat the olive oil in a deep sauté pan until the oil is shimmering. (You will be putting the rest of the ingredients into this pan later, so make sure that you have enough room.  Use a Dutch oven or large pot if you don’t have a deep pan.)

3. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions are softened and translucent, about 4-5 minutes.

4. Add the sweet potatoes, diced tomatoes, salsa, garlic, and water, stirring until combined.

5. Bring the mixture to a boil, and then reduce the heat to medium-low.  Let simmer for about 30-40 minutes, or until the sweet potatoes have softened.

6. Very carefully, using a potato masher, mash the sweet potatoes until they are smooth (or until they are your personal desired consistency-I liked mine a little chunky still.)

7. Add the black beans and the corn, mixing well, and cook for another 5 minutes.

8. Add about half of the round of cheese (or how much cheese you want), and stir until the cheese is melted.  Remove the filling from the heat and let cool slightly.

9. To make the enchiladas:  Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.

10. Lightly spray a 9 x 13-inch baking pan with cooking spray.

11.  Pour about 1/2-cup  of the sauce mixture into the pan and lightly brush to evenly coat the bottom of the pan.

12. Fill each tortilla with about 2-3 tablespoons (or more, depending on how you like them) with the filling mixture, roll each tortilla up tightly, and place each one, seam-side down, into the prepared pan.

13. Top with the remaining sauce and cheese, and bake the enchiladas for 15 minutes.

14. Once the 15 minutes has passed, turn the broiler on and broil the enchiladas for about 5 minutes or until the cheese is bubbling or lightly golden.

15. Garnish with whatever toppings you like.  Enjoy.

 IMG_0369

Source: Adapted from Vegetarian Times.

 

February 8, 2013 - 10:49 am

Maria Tadic - These look so yummy. Easy casseroles like this make cooking so easy! A little spiciness probably helps with the cold too!

February 8, 2013 - 11:28 am

ROR - All I could think of was “geez Napoleon, go make yourself a dang quesadilla!!”. 🙂 Cheesey goodness foods and cozy sweatpants nights are required to live in my house, so you just skip on over anytime and we’ll make these! Delish, thanks for the post!

February 8, 2013 - 11:31 am

Kim @ Soliloquy Of Foods & Such - Some dishes are woth making just for the leftovers….enchiladas are always better, to me, the next day.

February 8, 2013 - 11:34 am

Moira - These look delicious! We actually have pretty much everything in the pantry right now to make these…I think I know what we’re having for dinner tonight!

February 9, 2013 - 1:15 am

Annie - Oh my goodness these look amazing! I LOVE sweet potatoes! I will try these babies out for sure!

February 9, 2013 - 11:48 am

Peach - Beautiful Pictures! Beautiful Yummy enchiladas! I want to make these Ben would love them!

February 9, 2013 - 4:21 pm

Katrina @ Warm Vanilla Sugar - These look so tasty! Awesome recipe 🙂

February 10, 2013 - 12:05 pm

Nicole - Beautiful pictures, something tells me I might have to make these soon. Thanks!

February 10, 2013 - 7:44 pm

MaryAnn - These were absolutely divine! Followed recipe exactly as written but cut in half since it was only my husband and I eating them. (Still made a ton!) The sauce is amazing, don’t cut that in half, we were practically licking the casserole dish! 🙂 Thanks for sharing such an awesome recipe!

February 11, 2013 - 2:58 pm

Kelsey - What a great recipe. Gorgeous photos, too!

February 11, 2013 - 5:23 pm

Suzanne | kokocooks - What a great idea for a vegetarian enchilada dish! Always looking for new fillings.

February 13, 2013 - 8:47 pm

Lisa - Delicious! I split the recipe between two 8×8 pans … pyrex for tonight and foil for the freezer … and I still have enough leftover filling to eat with rice for two more day’s worth of lunches.

The enchilada sauce is fabulous and much healthier (lower sodium) than jarred sauce from the store. This recipe is definitely going into the rotation.

February 13, 2013 - 11:11 pm

begem - These look so yummy! What a great post!

February 15, 2013 - 12:07 pm

25 Lent Friendly Recipes - Tailor Made Momma - […] 16. Sweet Potato and Black Bean Enchiladas […]

February 15, 2013 - 6:08 pm

Julie-Ann S. - Made these last night on recommendation by a friend!

AMAZING!! My husband HATES sweet potato, I just didn’t even tell him it was in there and he ate 3 before asking what was in it!

We are Vegan, so to modify, rather than putting any cheese in the filling, I added 1.5 cups of nutritional yeast. Then, on the top I added just the smallest amount of Daiya Cheddar Cheese. Not much because it spreads really well. It was more than cheesy enough!

It was a wee bit spicy for our 18 month old, so next time I’ll set aside some sauce for her without any chili powder and more oregano or something, but she scarfed down the filling in a bowl to herself!

This will definitely be a regular routine recipe for our family! Thanks for posting it!

February 28, 2013 - 5:22 pm

Carole - Hi there. The current Food on Friday on Carole’s Chatter is collecting links to posts about Mexican dishes and flavours. I do hope you link this one in. This is the link . Please do pop back to check out some of the other links – there are a lot of good ones already. Have a great week.

March 1, 2013 - 8:08 pm

Sara Lahyani - Just made these for dinner. So good. Really tasty. Thanks so much for sharing this great recipe! Brilliant!

March 2, 2013 - 4:41 pm

Anne - I have the filling simmering on my stove right now! Smells wonderful and I can’t wait to taste it. I decided that, rather than roll up the enchiladas in the traditional style, I’m going to cut the corn tortillas in strips and layer the sauce/strips/filling in the casserole dish (like the old King Ranch Casserole) – am just thinking it’ll be easier to cut into squares and take for lunches that way. Have never made my own enchilada sauce before but yours was so easy. Thanks for a great lunch inspiration!!

March 10, 2013 - 7:56 pm

Kirsten - I was a little skeptical while cooking it but once we tasted it we loved it! We made just enough to eat for dinner and kept the extra filing for additional dinners this week. Thanks! And I hope you are growing to love Milwaukee, I thought I would only be here for 2 years and now it’s been 9 and I absolutely love it here!

April 4, 2013 - 1:11 pm

Sharon - How do I keep the corn tortillas from breaking when I am filling them? I ended up making this lasagna style since I couldn’t get any of the tortillas to stay whole. Otherwise, this recipe was easy to put together!

April 4, 2013 - 1:12 pm

srlacy - Hi Sharon-

Sometimes I find that heating the tortillas gently in a microwave or placing a warm damp towel on them before rolling can help. It’s best to use the freshest tortillas you can find-if I use older ones that I have had in the fridge for a while, the same thing happens to me.

April 30, 2013 - 3:08 pm

Sweet Potato and Black Bean Enchiladas - […] source:  thecurvycarrot.com […]

June 19, 2013 - 7:00 am

Black Bean and Sweet Potato Enchiladas - I Heart Vegetables - […] from this recipe by the Curvy […]

July 3, 2013 - 8:58 am

amberthenoid - I recently started feeding my family, young children included, only vegetarian meals. This was the first meal I tried out. The future success and duration of my new lifestyle was riding on whether on not my husband and 6-year-old would eat this meal; they are my picky eaters 🙂 . Everyone loved it! It is a fabulous dish. Thank you for posting it. I made the recipe exactly as posted. It makes a lot of filling; double what is needed for one meal for my family. And mine only needed to broil for 3 minutes.

July 3, 2013 - 2:48 pm

srlacy - Oh, and I so glad to hear that! Thanks for letting me know-I think other readers will appreciate your feedback!

August 26, 2013 - 11:16 am

Meatless Mondays | Healthy Options Buffalo Blog - […] meat and expand from there.  Try familiar foods that can become vegetarian options like lasagna, black bean enchiladas, simple mushroom pizzas, or veggie burgers.  If you’re looking to expand your family’s […]

August 28, 2013 - 2:21 am

Entertaining: A Mexican Fiesta - […] Traditional Taste:  Tortilla Cups with Tomato Salsa     |     Sweet Potato & Black Bean Enchiladas […]

August 28, 2013 - 2:23 am

Entertaining: Delicious Recipes For A Mexican Fiesta - […] Traditional Taste:  Tortilla Cups with Tomato Salsa     |     Sweet Potato & Black Bean Enchiladas […]

October 10, 2013 - 4:26 pm

35 Enchilada Recipes - I Wash You Dry - […] Sweet Potato and Black Bean Enchiladas […]

November 7, 2013 - 1:23 pm

#BEDN – 10 Healthy Vegetarian Recipes - […] 10. Sweet Potato & Black Bean Enchiladas […]

November 9, 2013 - 6:04 pm

The Daily Sampler | Small Plate Saturday With Actual Food - […] Sweet Potato and Black Bean Enchiladas (The Curvy Carrot) – Loved this recipe, except that I didn’t see any inclusion of seasonings for the enchilada filling… so of course I added salt and pepper to taste, plus some chili powder, a spicy salsa, and a salsa verde for the top.  I sprinkled some fresh cilantro spread out some avocado goodness, as well.  I could eat avocado with just about anything. […]

January 2, 2014 - 6:39 pm

Amazing List of Vegetarian/Vegan Recipes | For the Love of FIlling Tummies - […] Sweet Potato and Black Bean Enchiladas – Enchiladas are most definitely a crowd pleaser, and are usually made with chicken or beef. If you’re going veggie style on them you have to bring something to replace those ingredients. In this instance they’re using sweet potatoes, which bake up really nice, as well as black beans to give it a thick texture that’s pleasing to the tooth. […]

February 12, 2014 - 9:06 pm

Amy - I don’t like sweet potatoes at all, but we LOVE Mexican food and black beans, so I decided to go outside my comfort zone and give these a try. WOW! They are absolutely delicious!! I would never have known the sweet potatoes were in there if I hadn’t cooked it myself. Our 13 year-old scraped her plate clean! That sauce is to die for and I’ll be using it on other kinds of enchiladas. I used 6″ tortillas and got TWICE the amount of enchiladas the recipe said it would yield — enough to fill two 13 x 9 pans. I worried that there wouldn’t be enough sauce, but it’s got so much flavor that it worked just fine. Sticking that second pan in the freezer to enjoy again later!

March 25, 2014 - 11:34 am

Bevin - Do you think I could make these up ahead of time, stick in the fridge, and then have my fiancé throw them in the oven later?? We’re making them tonight and I can’t wait!

March 25, 2014 - 12:56 pm

srlacy - Hi Bevin-

I think that would be fine. I hope you like them! Enjoy! 🙂

May 17, 2014 - 12:15 am

Katie - These sound so yummy! I was curious if you’ve ever tried freezing these? Hubby’s not the biggest sweet potato fan so I’d need to freeze them to pull out when I make beef or cheese enchiladas for him.

May 17, 2014 - 7:24 am

srlacy - Hi Katie-I’m trying to remember if I did freeze these or not….everything is a blur 🙂 I don’t think I did, but I think you should be fine if you do. I feel like any kind of enchilada tends to freeze pretty well. Good luck 🙂

August 8, 2014 - 8:49 pm

Vanessa - I made these the night before last for my fiancé and 11 yr. old step-son and was blown away by the rave reviews!! Both of them had THIRDS and ate until they couldn’t possibly squeeze in one more bite! They said it was, hands-down, the most delicious dinner I had ever made and the most delicious enchiladas they had ever tasted, with the perfect balance between sweet and savory! You’d have thought I won a contest, they were so vocal and excited! I followed the recipe exactly and only for my own portion did I use vegan cheese! Thanks for such a point-scoring recipe!