3 WW Blue Points per enchilada.
It’s always good when a friend comes to visit, especially one that you haven’t seen for a long time. My good friend and veggie lover Kiersten came to visit us in the fall and insisted on making us dinner one night since we had her as a house guest. While Randy and I obviously big foodies and cooks ourselves, we insisted that she didn’t have to. But were both intrigued to try a vegetarian dinner. Kiersten made us her Sweet Potato & Black Bean Enchiladas, which we gobbled up and enjoyed. While we were chatting about it, she told me how she sometimes adds other veggies but decided to just stick to the black beans and sweet potatoes. I said I would love to bulk this up and put my own twist on it. A few months went by and it kept getting put on the back burner. Now that January has rolled up and we have been trying to get our weight back in line, the time has finally come.
Kiersten hasn’t always been a vegetarian and had made the switch over in recent years as she finds it benefits her more in her fitness goals. During culinary school, I learned that I enjoyed several vegetarian options and would be happy partaking in some at different times. Now after educating myself more, being more aware of my health and um, ahem, getting older, I’ve realized that my vegetable intake needs to go up. Randy and I both committed to trying to up our vegetable game and made the goal of one meal a week being meat free. After truly enjoying our trips to our local farmers market in the summer time, we joined Misfits Market and started ordering some different veggies to try.
Our first order gave us some new options of purple sweet potatoes, organic avocados, spaghetti squash and fresh spinach. Over the last few weeks, swiss chard, cauliflower, asian pears and butternut squash have made their way into the mix. This truly seemed like the perfect time to create this twist on Vegetable Enchiladas.
So for those who aren’t familiar, you may be asking, what is an Enchilada anyway? An enchilada is a flour or corn tortilla rolled up with a filling and then covered with a savory sauce. Originating from Mexico, enchiladas can be filled with numerous ingredients but traditionally include meats, cheeses, vegetables, potatoes or a combination of these. It’s Mexico’s answer to stuffed manicotti. Truth be told, it’s my go to order at Mexican restaurants. I’m generally a shrimp and crab enchilada lover but am happy with chicken and cheese as well. This was one dish though that I hadn’t made a lot at home.
During many healthy recipe searches, zucchini enchiladas showed up often but I never got around to making it. These can easily be made with thinly sliced, long zucchini ribbons but I opted to go old school with actual tortillas. If you are gluten free, that option will work as well as using corn tortillas. If that is not a concern, then flour tortillas will work well.
Let’s start with making our filling. Our vegetable representatives today will be butternut squash, spinach, cauliflower and yellow squash. We’re going to dice our squash, cut down our cauliflower and saute our spinach. I’m seasoning mine with Everything But the Elote Seasoning from Trader Joe’s, but you can use any taco or Spanish themed seasoning you’d like. If you don’t follow me on social media, you might not know about our extensive spice collection. We love seasoning and spices in our food. If you are trying to lose weight and think that you have to sacrifice flavor while doing so, then you aren’t doing it right. Implementing spices and herbs into your cooking is a sure fire and no calorie way of loading up that flavor.
I’m using a minimum amount of oil with this and incorporating a bit of steam to really soften all these vegetables. Make sure to give your squash and cauliflower more time to cook as they are a tough vegetable. Squash can be added in mid way through. The spinach can be thrown in last minute to maintain the most flavor and keeping the nutritional integrity at a high.
While the vegetables are cooling, let’s get our sauce ready. I’m using green enchilada sauce because it’s not as spicy as red enchilada sauce. I’m also watching my spice and acid levels because of some digestive issues but I digress. You can use this simply as is or even use red enchilada sauce if you prefer. But I like amping things up. Pour your green enchilada sauce into a food processor, lime juice and 1 half of a ripe green avocado. This is going to make the sauce smoother, add healthy fats and a richer flavor. I add some lime juice as well to give it some more kick. Run the processor until everything is smooth. If you don’t have a food processor, you can use a blender or a hand blender.
Once everything is cooked nicely, remove it from the heat and allow it to cool a bit. At this point, you are gonna get ready to roll! Whether you are using corn or flour tortillas, you are going to lay them out. On each tortilla, sprinkle a little bit of the cheese mixture. Then take 2 tablespoons of your vegetable mixture and place it on the first third of the tortilla, closest to you.
Place a little bit of your sauce on the bottom of your casserole dish. Then place your rolled up enchiladas one by one into your casserole dish.
Pour the remaining sauce over the top of the enchiladas.
Then sprinkle your cheese over the top and place in the oven at 415 degrees until the cheese is melted and bubbly.
I made up a simple pico de gallo of tomatoes, red onion, fresh chopped cilantro and lime juice to place on top of the enchiladas. This adds more flavor as well as color to the dish but isn’t necessary. If you are trying to get more veggies in, it is a great additive.
Once the enchiladas are pulled out of the oven, serve warm. These can be served with rice or with a salad but we ate them on their own. For my WW readers, each corn tortilla enchilada was 3 Blue WW points each. It’s a filling and delicious option! Randy even commented that he didn’t even miss the meat. Of course, if you want to add meat to this, you can. However, it stands up on it’s own without it.
If you prefer to use flour tortillas, feel free, just adjust your points in the WW app. This is definitely a trend we want to continue past January. We have so many amazing vegetable options in our reach, let’s use them!
Green Goodness Cheesy Vegetable Enchiladas
Serves 8
3 WW Blue Points per Enchilada
1 tsp olive oil
2 cups Butternut Squash, peeled and cubed
2 cups Cauliflower Florets, chopped
1/4 cup Vegetable Stock
1 1/4 yellow Squash, diced
1 tbsp Taco seasoning
1 cup canned Black Beans, rinsed and drained
2 cups fresh Spinach leaves
1 1/4 Green Enchilada sauce
1/2 ripe Avocado, pit removed
1 tsp lime juice
8 Corn Tortillas, warmed
3/4 cup lite shredded 3 cheese blend with mozzarella, monterey jack and cheddar
Lime wedges for garnish
Pico de Gallo
1 cup grape tomatoes, diced
1/4 cup red onion diced
1 Tbsp fresh cilantro, chopped
2 tsp lime juice
Salt and Pepper to taste
Preheat oven to 415 degrees.
Heat oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add in butternut squash and cauliflower. Once veggies start to sizzle, lower heat and pour in vegetable stock and cover. Cook for 10 minutes.
Remove lid, add in squash, seasoning and black beans. Cook for another 5 minutes, stirring mixture to incorporate heat and seasoning. Add in spinach and cover pan again, cook until just wilted.
Remove lid and remove pan from heat. Allow mixture to cool for 5 minutes.
In a food processor, add in green enchilada sauce, avocado and lime juice. Blend until sauce is incorporated. Spread 2 tablespoons of sauce into an 11″by 13″ casserole dish.
Warm corn tortillas in a small pan over low heat. This will make them more flexible to roll. Lay tortilla down on a clean surface. Place two tablespoons of vegetable mixture on the tortilla 1/3 of the way of the tortilla, close to you. Spread out vegetables and then roll tortilla up, moving it away from you. Carefully lift enchilada into casserole dish and press down.
Repeat with remaining tortillas. Pour remaining sauce across the enchiladas and sprinkle with cheese. Place in oven and cook until cheese is melted and bubbly.
For the pico de gallo, mix tomatoes, red onion, cilantro and lime juice in a small bowl. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Sprinkle pico de gallo over the top of the enchiladas and serve warm!