Enchilada Recipe

This is my take on the enchilada. Some of these ingredients are canned. Fresh ingredients can be used for the sauce or the filling.

Ingredients

Corn Tortilla Shells*

1 12oz can garbanzo beans*

1 12oz can green enchilada sauce*

1 8oz pack tempeh, any flavor

1 small white onion

2 cloves garlic

1/2 bunch cilantro

1 1/2 cups green beans, I used french cut

1/2 peas

1/2 bag  fresh spinach

Earth balance margarine

1 cup vegan cheese, preferably rice cheese

Canned olives

Salt to taste


Method

1. In a sauce pan, place tempeh in water. Simmer in water until both sides are soft. When fully boiled, place tempeh in a bowl.

2. Drain, rinse and heat chickpeas until soft. Add into bowl with tempeh.

3. With a potato masher, roughly crumble tempeh and garbanzo beans.

4. In a pan on medium heat, add oil.

5. Add garlic, onion and cilantro. Cook until brown. Add tempeh-garbanzo bean mixture and heat until toasted. Add peas and green beans. Cook until slightly brown. Add cooked mixture into a bowl.

6. In a 9x13 baking dish, cover in foil.

7. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. On a microwavable plate, heat the corn tortilla shells, three shells at a time for 30 seconds or until soft.
Place in baking pan and add spinach and 1/4 teaspoon margarine to each shell and add bean filling. Roll each  filled shell. Repeat until baking dish is full.

8. Pour enchilada sauce over filled rolls. Add rice cheese and sliced black olives. Bake for 15-20 min or until cheese is melted and sauce is well incorporated into the enchiladas.

Serves 4-8 (Two tortilla rolls per serving)

* Fresh ingredients can be used in lieu of canned/frozen ingredients. I also recommend being adventurous with the corn tortilla shells. I tried some tortilla shells made from corn and cactus in a taco and they were amazing. Perhaps I will use them in this recipe as well.

* A friend of mine gave me a list of ingredients that goes in the green enchilada sauce. If I can find the list, I can make a variation of this sauce and the recipe.

Condiments and Sides for this dish:

I used vegan rice cheese and tofutti sour cream as toppings. I want to try this recipe with Tzatziki sauce made vegan, using some previous recipes that I posted. To make the sauce more like sour cream and less like soy or coconut yogurt, strain it overnight before serving.

A healthy side dish would be the Taquila Lime Rice recipe with cilantro, except substitute quinoa for rice and to make this dish more American vegan, add kale or a type of mild green like spinach. Rice can be boring at times. I really love brown rice, more so than white rice. This recipe can also be used with tabouli or couscous, depending on where you are going with the main dish.

The recipe can get a bit expensive, especially if the ingredients are from Whole Foods(inc.). There are only four items from Whole Foods: Tempeh, which  can be purchased at Trader Joe's (inc), Earth balance margarine, tofutti sour cream and vegan rice cheese. I recommend making items from scratch when possible.