Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Spinach, Black Bean, & Rice Enchiladas with Authentic Red Sauce

I really wanted to enter Susan V's Vegetable Love contest this year. But with family staying with us from out of town, I forgot and now might be too late! 11 hours to be exact. I'm going to enter anyways but I don't think she'll put it in...we'll see. (Please, oh, please!) There. I thought a little begging might help.

Update: She did add my recipe to the bottom of the post. I'm not in the contest, but my recipe is there for all to see! (Thanks Susan!!)

This enchilada sauce recipe comes from my friend, G. Valdez' great grandmother. It is authentic baby!! So if you love enchilada sauce (which I do), then you will love this recipe. It is incredibly easy! This is what the chiles look like that you need to purchase. One bag makes one recipe.


Spinach, Black Bean & Rice Enchiladas with Authentic Red Sauce


Authentic Red Enchilada Sauce

1 bag of dried California Chiles (about 10 in bag)
cooking liquid from chiles (enough to equal 5 cups when all ingredients are added)
1 3/4 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon cocoa
5 cloves garlic
1/2 teaspoon sugar (not in the original recipe, but added for good measure)

1. Break off the stems of the chiles and remove all seeds.
2. Place chiles in pot and fill the pot with water.
3. Bring water to boil and cook for 20 minutes, until chilies are tender.
4. Strain out chilies, but reserve the water.
5. Place chilies in blender (or Vitamix : )) along with the rest of the ingredients, then add enough cooking liquid to equal 5 cups total sauce.

Assembling Enchiladas:

1. Dip corn, low-fat flour or low-fat whole wheat tortillas in sauce -
2. Lay fresh spinach leaves down first. Followed by your favorite Mexican Rice (or use my recipe), then top with a spoonful of canned black beans (liquid drained)
3. Roll up and place in a 9 X 13 pan. You can cover and refrigerate at this point. Saving the last step until right before you eat.
4. Ladle additional sauce over enchiladas and bake at 350 degrees for 20 min.

Added Tip: Because you don't fry the tortillas in oil, they tend to soak up a lot of sauce when you bake them. Next time, I will bake them with very little sauce, reserving the rest. Then before I serve them, ladle the warm sauce over the enchiladas resulting in a moister enchilada with more sauce on top instead of baked in. They were still delicious, however - I just like it more saucy!



Jenn's Mexican Rice

1 yellow onion, chopped
6 cloves garlic, crushed
1 red bell pepper, chopped fine
2 cups short grain brown rice (or your favorite rice)
4 cups vegetable broth
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon sugar
1/4 cup fresh cilantro
1 cup frozen corn
1/2 cup salsa (fresh is fine)

1. Saute onion and garlic in a few teaspoons of water or a quick shot of non-stick spray - until golden.
2. Add the red bell pepper and saute till soft.
3. Add the rice and stir until rice begins to brown.
4. Add liquid, cumin, sugar, and salsa.
5. Bring to a boil, then lower heat and cook for 25 minutes or until all liquid is absorbed.
6. Add corn and cilantro. Season with additional salt and pepper, if needed.




Happy Valentine's Day!

12 comments:

potatolicious said...

I would have voted for you! These look absolutely delicious. I just found your blog through Susan's contest - I can't wait to go through and read more. Keep up the good cooking!

Chris said...

Umm. Enchiladas! I can't wait to try the enchilada sauce and your rice recipe sounds really tasty too.

Jen Treehugger said...

This looks so amazing - just my kinda food.
Sorry you were too late to enter but with getting to eat that meal I can't feel sorry for you!
I mean that in the nicest way possible.
Happy Valentine's Day.
:)

Unknown said...

Looks delicious! I also would have voted for you if I could. Am looking forward to giving this a try. Thank you for sharing. :)

Jenn said...

Those look delicious! I love enchiladas.

Peake said...

Hi-
The recipe looks yummy. I have a question: Do the torn tortillas break when they are rolled. I'd like to try this soon!

Lindsay (Happy Herbivore) said...

I found you via susan's blog and my husband insisted i make them for lunch. I halved the recipe because its just the two of us... I thought it was a really easy recipe to make (and i had everything on hand which was great) but I had to double the broth -- 1 cup of rice in 2 cups a broth left "crunchy" uncooked rice, but 2 more cups of water got them softer... plus we both found the dish a little bland... maybe because I halved the recipe? or maybe we just want a lot of spices in our mexican food! :P

We ended up covering the enchiladas with hot sauce and that worked wonders... it is a GREAT GREAT idea - I never would have thought to dip tortillas IN the red sauce & I loved the idea of including spinach -- makes it so much more well rounded!!

Jen said...

Peake - I used flour tortillas (whole wheat & white 96% fat free ones) and they didn't break. Corn tortillas probably would, so you might want to soften them first in a saute pan with a quick shot of non-stick spray. I definitely think corn tortillas become more delicate when moist. Let me know how yours turn out! Thanks for visiting my site!

Jen said...

happyherbivore - Thanks for your comments! I have 4 kids and so I keep my dishes pretty mild. Thanks for reminding me that I need to add a note to the recipe to add cayenne if you want it spicy - because it's just not a spicy recipe. You always have to tweak recipes a bit to your liking. :)

I always use 1 cup of rice to 2 cups liquid, even with my short grain brown rice. Did you cover the rice when it came to a boil and let it simmer on low?

The Mudmom said...

We had these tonite and they were delish and I followed the directions exactly. My 7 & 5 year old couldn't get enough and even my 18 month old had 5 bites and that's good for her. Thanks for the recipe and I bet your yummy homemade salsa would have been super yummy with these. Next time!!!

Anonymous said...

Wow! I just came over here from Happy Herbivore's page and am so excited about your blog! It looks great and I love the recipes! I will def. be trying this out! Thanks for posting it!
Abbie

Anonymous said...

Those look SO good! I'm going to have to make them!


 

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