Do you ever cut corners when you’re following a recipe? I do—all the time—and I’m always learning from my mistakes.
Take these black bean sweet potato enchiladas, for example. I blundered through Gluten Free Goddess’ recipe, made it my own, and came out a better cook in the end.
Lessons learned:
- Substitutions can be ok: I subbed Target’s salsa verde for the Karina’s green chile sauce, which worked out fine.
- Skipping steps is usually not ok: I ignored her recommendation to warm up the corn tortillas first, so they broke to pieces when I tried to wrap the tortillas around the inside ingredients. As a result, my enchiladas weren’t as pretty as they could have been, but it didn’t affect the flavor. I need to trust that my fellow cooks will not recommend additional steps if they are not integral to the dish’s success!
- Additions are just fine: I love spicy food, so I knew adding a jalapeño and a Fresno chili pepper was a good idea. And it was.
- Pay more for high quality ingredients: Packaged breads, including tortillas, tend to be full of preservatives and unnecessary ingredients. I paid more for these sprouted grain corn tortillas at my local health food store, and go figure, they taste better than the rest!
- Some flavors are so good together, you can’t go wrong: Black beans and sweet potatoes are a delicious combination. Even with all my mistakes, I ended up with a mighty delicious meal.
Scroll down for my recipe.
Vegetarian Black Bean Sweet Potato Enchiladas
Author: Cookie and Kate
Recipe type: Main
Serves: 4
Ingredients
Filling
- 1 15-oz can black beans, rinsed and drained
- 2 teaspoons minced garlic
- One lime’s worth of fresh lime juice
- 2 cups cubed, baked sweet potatoes (one extra-large or two smallish sweet potatoes)
- 1/3 cup crumbled goat cheese (optional)
- 1/2 cup chopped roasted green chiles
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
- 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper, if you like spicy food like me
- 1 jalapeño, diced
- 1 Fresno pepper, diced
- Sea salt and black pepper, to taste
Remaining Ingredients
- 1 jar of salsa verde
- 8 organic corn tortillas
- Monterey Jack cheese
- Chopped fresh cilantro
- Sliced avocado
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Pour enough salsa verde into your baking dish to lightly cover the bottom.
- Mix together the filling ingredients in one bowl.
- Warm up your tortillas, one by one in a skillet, or all at once in a microwave so they don’t break when you bend them. Add 1/8 of the filling to each tortilla, sprinkle with cheese, wrap and place it in your baking dish. Repeat for all of the tortillas.
- Top with more salsa verde and cheese. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until sauce is bubbling and tortillas look slightly golden.
- Sprinkle with fresh cilantro and serve with freshly sliced avocado. Enjoy!
Notes
- Adapted from Gluten Free Goddess. Also see Kathleen’s similar recipe for lasagna.
- Yields 8 enchiladas.
What have you learned from your cooking endeavors?
21 Comments
YUM. I’ve been making a really simple black bean and sweet (mashed) potato quesadilla using the same sprouted tortillas and just a tiny little bit of goat cheese. Then I smother it in hot sauce. It’s perfection and the goat cheese is the just right.
Woah there, your quesadilla sounds amazing! Does the mashed sweet potato hold the tortillas together?
Wow, how good do these look?! I’d love for you to submit this to the M&T Spotlight at http://www.makeandtakes.com/spotlight
These look amazing! I’m totally going to be trying these ASAP.
xo
Jean
Wow these look excellent! Thank you for sharing :)
These look so good! I may just make these tonight.
I made these for my boyfriend tonight and he practically inhaled them! I also added a little corn into the mix (I’m rather obsessed with the stuff) and it was a nice addition. I couldn’t find Fresno peppers, so I diced up an Anaheim. I have a great tortilla soup recipe that calls for those, so I figured they would be a good substitution.
So glad to hear it! Corn and an Anaheim pepper sound like great additions. Now I’m craving Mexican food…
These may be the best enchiladas I have ever had! So simple and delicious. I am so glad I found your blog. Our entire month of dinners are recipes from your website and not once have we been dissapointed!
I am so glad you enjoy my recipes, Amanda, and I’m astonished you’ve made a month of dinners with my recipes! If you have any feedback or suggestions, I’d love to hear it!
Hi Kate,
I just wanted to let you know I tried making this today and it turned out great. Even my fiance who’s a carnivore, liked them and was satisfied with his meatless dinner!!
Thanks for posting this!!
should I pre-cook the sweet potato?
Yes, the recipe calls for a baked sweet potato. Just use a fork to poke some holes in it, and toss it in the oven at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for around 45 minutes.
Just made these and OMG they are amazing! I did change it up a bit, using ingredients I already had (red salsa, cheddar cheese). Somehow I ended up with twice as much. :D
Those sound like great substitutions! Glad you loved the enchiladas!
Can you use canned sweet potatos?
I’m sure you could, yes! Freshly baked would probably taste better, but canned would be more convenient, I’m sure.
I made these for my family tonight! Generally, I have a very hard time cooking for my family because I am a vegetarian and I love spicy food wheras my family is afraid of non-italian food and I have two teenage brothers that are obsessed with meat. I made a few adjustments, given all the picky eaters I was cooking for. I left out the goat cheese and replaced the jalepeno and fresno peppers with a milder poblano pepper. I thought it came out great and 3/4 of my family agreed(the other one is my teenage brother who does not like any form of vegetable or vaguely healthy food.) The only comment I would have in the negative is that they came out a little dry and look drier than most enchiladas in the picture. I will probably add more liquid on top and in between them next time
I’m glad you and your family enjoyed the enchiladas—I have a picky brother, too, so I hear you on that! I’m sorry they turned out a little drier than pictured—hope you added more salsa at the end to make up for it!
I have been on a quest to search out recipes that call for at least 1 item from my weekly CSA basket. I was a bit leery when I came across this one, but i am so glad I tried it anyway!
This was fantastic. I used 2 finely diced serrano peppers, a handful of feta crumbles, and a 4 oz can of diced green chilies in place of the peppers, chilies, and goat cheese.
This is a keeper!
Glad to hear you enjoyed the enchiladas, Tammie!
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