vegetable enchiladas

 

I love enchiladas, especially vegetarian ones. Don't get me wrong. Meat enchiladas are great too, but there's something about vegetable enchiladas that just makes me sing. Literally. All day. I'm sure it's annoying.

For one, meat enchiladas can be very heavy and they leave you with both food baby and food coma, neither of which are good. Secondly, I find the vegetables to be more flavourful. Thirdly, well.. they're just healthier. For all of these reasons I was craving vegetarian enchiladas late last night. Early this morning I was at the grocery store loading up on peppers, zucchini, onions, jalapenos, eggplants...

This will make a lot of filling, so expect to be eating it for a while if you're not feeding a family. For this reason, I froze half of it before adding the peppers (peppers don't freeze spectacularly well).

vegetable enchiladas

1 medium onion, finely chopped (I used half a large white onion)

2 jalapenos, minced

2 medium cloves of garlic, minced

1 small eggplant, cut into rounds then strips (french fry style)

3 small zucchini, cut into strips

1/4 cup chili powder

2 tsp ground cumin

1/2 tsp cayenne

1 675 ml jar passata or 2 14oz cans of pureed tomatoes
1 medium red, green and yellow pepper, cut into strips
plenty of monterey jack cheese, grated
tortillas
sour cream and chopped green onions for garnish

In a heavy pot (preferably cast iron), sautee onion, jalapeno and garlic until transparent, about 7 minutes. Add eggplant along with approximately 2 tbsp water, just to help the eggplant cook down. The goal, for me, is to ultimately get the eggplants down to almost nothing (I'm not crazy about the texture of eggplant). When the eggplant is getting soft, add the zucchini with another 2 tbsp water. Sautee until soft.

Add chili powder, cumin and cayenne and toss with the veggies, then add the passata. If you're freezing half, now is the time to split the recipe before proceeding. Add your peppers to the pot. When they've softened, start filling your tortillas.

Using a slotted spoon, layer the veg with some cheese in a tortilla and roll it up, placing it in a baking dish. Once your dish is full of burritos, spoon some sauce (avoiding veg) over your burritos then cover with more grated cheese. Bake at 375ºF just long enough for the edges to get crispy and the cheese to melt.