Black Bean Quinoa Enchiladas

Back when I participated in Vegan MoFo, I asked my readers for recipe requests.  Dearest Christy asked for HolyLand Enchiladas.  It has taken me like 9 months to get around to it, but finally Enchiladas were made here in the Holy Land.

And man were they delicious!

 Black Bean Quinoa Enchiladas

1/2 cup quinoa, dry

1 cup water

2 onions, chopped

4 cloves garlic, pressed

oil for sauteeing

1 can black beans, rinsed and drained

2 veggie burgers (I used Teva Deli Aduki Bean Burgers), thawed

1 chiptole chili or1 tsp  chipotle chili powder (this is a smoked, dried jalapeno which adds an amazing smokey flavor, but if you don’t have it you can omit)

as much red pepper as you like (I used a dash)

1-2 tsp chili powder

1 small container tomato paste

1 cup tomato sauce (or homemade of course)

salt to taste

5 whole wheat tortillas

Cook the quinoa in the water, fluff and set aside to cool.  Saute the onion and garlic in the oil,  add the beans, spices and then tomato paste and sauce.  Cook for a few minutes to combine.  Toss in the quinoa.  Crumble the veggie burgers with your hands and stir those in too.  Mix well.  Mixture will be gloppy and thick, that’s how you want it.  If it’s runny, cook off some of the sauce.  Set aside while you make sauce.

Sauce:  Use store bought enchilada sauce, OR:

oil for sauteeing

4-6 garlic cloves, pressed

another small container tomato paste

1 cup tomato sauce

1 fresh tomato, chopped

1 fresh or dried hot pepper

more chiptole or red pepper to taste

1 cup of water

In the pot you made the quinoa in, saute the garlic in a bit of oil for 1 minute.  Add the tomato and cook for another 2 minutes.  Add remaining ingredients and cook 10-15 minutes, adding water as needed to keep a sauce-y consistency.  There will be about 1 1/2 cups sauce by the end.  Remove from the heat.

To assemble:

Preheat oven to 200C.  Spread about 1/2 cup sauce on the bottom of a 9×13 rectangle baking pan.  Lay one tortilla on the counter and spread about 1/2 cup quinoa-bean mixture down the center, as so:

Roll up and place seam-side down in the baking tray.  (If your family eats cheese, you could certainly sprinkle cheese inside each tortilla at this time, but add sparingly as there really is so much flavor even without cheese).  Repeat with each tortilla, lining the rolls up next to one another in the pan.

Spread the remaining sauce over the top, covering all exposed bits of tortilla.

Cover with foil and bake 20-30 minutes until bubbly and soft.  YUM!

P.S.  My family polished off the entire pan for dinner.  But there was some leftover filling which I used today to make quesadillas for lunch.  Cook once eat twice – yay!