Sweet Potato and Black Bean Enchiladas
Jun. 24th, 2011 08:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bluesgardenSo about a week ago or so, I realized that I'd been feeling really crappy for a while and it seemed like everything I ate or drank was making my stomach hurt or my digestive system cramp up. Then I thought about what I'd been eating and it really wasn't much of a surprise. :P Long story short, I'm not drinking coffee right now (it seems to be stressing an already stressed system) and I haven't eaten cereal in a week which is sending me into withdrawal. I'm eating primarily fruits and vegetables with some whole grains thrown in and limiting my dairy. By 'limiting dairy' I mean 'only 3 - 4 glasses of milk a day' versus, say, half a gallon plus cheese and yogurt, so it's very relative. Meat is, as typical for me these days, usually an after thought and I'm meeting my protein needs more with nuts and beans than anything else.
I am feeling better (albeit very slowly) and my stomach has stopped hurting - except for when I ate a chocolate chip cookie yesterday and then it reminded me that it hadn't been that long and what the hell did I think I was doing?! Ouch. On the bright side, this all led to me discovering a recipe for sweet potato and black bean enchiladas that I tried today for the first time and it is gooooood. The original recipe was from cookieandkate.com, but I feel like I changed it enough that I should share my version, which will be easier than listing everything I changed!
(Sorry, I do realize that this is written with American measurements and temps.)
Sweet Potato and Black Bean Enchiladas
Filling Mix
2 cups of peeled, cubed, roasted sweet potato
1 15oz. can of black beans, rinsed
3 cloves garlic, squished (or diced fine, whatever)
1 cup of poblano peppers, diced and toasted in a dry skillet
1/2 tsp. cumin
Juice of 1 lime
Other Ingredients
Melty cheese - I used 8 oz of Queso Blanco
Jar of salsa - I used Roasted Tomato Chipotle Corn salsa
8 flour tortillas
Instructions
1. Peel and cube the sweet potatoes. These are going into the filling mix, so size accordingly - maybe 1/2 - 1 inch? Toss with a bit of olive oil and salt, then roast at 400°F for 40 - 45 minutes. I used the dish I was ultimately going to use for the enchiladas, so there was one less to wash, and baked some extra for snacking on and to stick in the fridge. You'll need to scoot them around in the pan once or twice while they're baking.
2. While they're roasting, drain and rinse the beans, squish the garlic, juice the lime, and add them all to a bowl with the cumin. The poblano peppers I had in the freezer, diced but not roasted, so I dumped them in a skillet to toast a bit and get the excess water out. Once that was done, I let them cool, then diced them a bit finer before adding to the filling mix.
3. If your cheese came as block like mine did, then shred it, open the jar of salsa, break out the tortillas (and make sure you can pry them apart - warm them up in the microwave a bit if they stick together), and by now the sweet potatoes may even be done. If they are, pull them out of the oven, add about 2 cups or so to the filling mix and toss it all together, then put the rest of the sweet potatoes in another dish to cool and go in the fridge because you're gonna need the first one in a minute. Turn the oven down to 350°F while you're at it.
4. Put a skillet on the stove top over medium low heat. Take one flour tortilla, put it in the skillet, and let it sit for about a minute. Lift the tortilla out with a spatula or whatnot and drop another one in. Put about 1/8 the filling mix and a generous sprinkle of cheese down the middle of the warm tortilla, fold the two edges in, and place, seam side down, in the pan. Proceed the same way for the rest. The filling might want to fall out a bit and tortillas don't want to stay wrapped up nice and tight, but it's all okay! It will still be tasty! Just tuck each enchilada up snug to the others and you'll be fine. I used a 9 x 13 (inches) casserole dish and it all seemed to fit just right.
5. Once all 8 enchiladas are in place, spoon the jar of salsa evenly over them and (if you're me) sprinkle the rest of the cheese over the top. I was admittedly generous with the cheese. Stick it in the (350°) oven and bake for 20 - 25 minutes. No need to cover it. I didn't get any tortilla browning like the original recipe mentions, but the cheese around the edges was pretty brown and I didn't think I wanted that part any darker, so I pulled it out. It turned out to be just right. :)
Apparently I can't write a short recipe. The cheese and salsa that I chose kept this from being an inexpensive recipe, but it was worth it. You could easily make some different choices and make it for much less. I didn't use the cilantro simply because I don't have any in the garden and the stuff in the store was in remarkably bad shape - like, turning to slime kind of bad shape. Ew. Obviously I cut way back on the heat by leaving out a lot of the peppers and chile powder.
I've run across a lot of other sweet potato and black bean enchilada recipes on the web since I found this one, some of which have you boil the sweet potato cubes, but I'm going to have to say the roasting bit makes a big difference. The flavor is awesome! I kept snacking on the extras while the enchilada dish was in the oven and I could definitely taste them in the final result.
NOM NOM NOM
I am feeling better (albeit very slowly) and my stomach has stopped hurting - except for when I ate a chocolate chip cookie yesterday and then it reminded me that it hadn't been that long and what the hell did I think I was doing?! Ouch. On the bright side, this all led to me discovering a recipe for sweet potato and black bean enchiladas that I tried today for the first time and it is gooooood. The original recipe was from cookieandkate.com, but I feel like I changed it enough that I should share my version, which will be easier than listing everything I changed!
(Sorry, I do realize that this is written with American measurements and temps.)
Sweet Potato and Black Bean Enchiladas
Filling Mix
2 cups of peeled, cubed, roasted sweet potato
1 15oz. can of black beans, rinsed
3 cloves garlic, squished (or diced fine, whatever)
1 cup of poblano peppers, diced and toasted in a dry skillet
1/2 tsp. cumin
Juice of 1 lime
Other Ingredients
Melty cheese - I used 8 oz of Queso Blanco
Jar of salsa - I used Roasted Tomato Chipotle Corn salsa
8 flour tortillas
Instructions
1. Peel and cube the sweet potatoes. These are going into the filling mix, so size accordingly - maybe 1/2 - 1 inch? Toss with a bit of olive oil and salt, then roast at 400°F for 40 - 45 minutes. I used the dish I was ultimately going to use for the enchiladas, so there was one less to wash, and baked some extra for snacking on and to stick in the fridge. You'll need to scoot them around in the pan once or twice while they're baking.
2. While they're roasting, drain and rinse the beans, squish the garlic, juice the lime, and add them all to a bowl with the cumin. The poblano peppers I had in the freezer, diced but not roasted, so I dumped them in a skillet to toast a bit and get the excess water out. Once that was done, I let them cool, then diced them a bit finer before adding to the filling mix.
3. If your cheese came as block like mine did, then shred it, open the jar of salsa, break out the tortillas (and make sure you can pry them apart - warm them up in the microwave a bit if they stick together), and by now the sweet potatoes may even be done. If they are, pull them out of the oven, add about 2 cups or so to the filling mix and toss it all together, then put the rest of the sweet potatoes in another dish to cool and go in the fridge because you're gonna need the first one in a minute. Turn the oven down to 350°F while you're at it.
4. Put a skillet on the stove top over medium low heat. Take one flour tortilla, put it in the skillet, and let it sit for about a minute. Lift the tortilla out with a spatula or whatnot and drop another one in. Put about 1/8 the filling mix and a generous sprinkle of cheese down the middle of the warm tortilla, fold the two edges in, and place, seam side down, in the pan. Proceed the same way for the rest. The filling might want to fall out a bit and tortillas don't want to stay wrapped up nice and tight, but it's all okay! It will still be tasty! Just tuck each enchilada up snug to the others and you'll be fine. I used a 9 x 13 (inches) casserole dish and it all seemed to fit just right.
5. Once all 8 enchiladas are in place, spoon the jar of salsa evenly over them and (if you're me) sprinkle the rest of the cheese over the top. I was admittedly generous with the cheese. Stick it in the (350°) oven and bake for 20 - 25 minutes. No need to cover it. I didn't get any tortilla browning like the original recipe mentions, but the cheese around the edges was pretty brown and I didn't think I wanted that part any darker, so I pulled it out. It turned out to be just right. :)
Apparently I can't write a short recipe. The cheese and salsa that I chose kept this from being an inexpensive recipe, but it was worth it. You could easily make some different choices and make it for much less. I didn't use the cilantro simply because I don't have any in the garden and the stuff in the store was in remarkably bad shape - like, turning to slime kind of bad shape. Ew. Obviously I cut way back on the heat by leaving out a lot of the peppers and chile powder.
I've run across a lot of other sweet potato and black bean enchilada recipes on the web since I found this one, some of which have you boil the sweet potato cubes, but I'm going to have to say the roasting bit makes a big difference. The flavor is awesome! I kept snacking on the extras while the enchilada dish was in the oven and I could definitely taste them in the final result.
NOM NOM NOM
