I've been wanting to experiment with vegan enchiladas for awhile now, and happy to say that my experiment turned out really well. My carnivore dad wanted to eat these!
The best part is that there was minimal cooking. Everything was pre-made. I just assembled and baked. You can use whatever brands you want. These are the brands I chose while shopping at a Whole Foods. If you want vegan chicken that shreds almost like the real thing, Beyond Meat is the best.
For the vegetables, there is plenty of room to be playful. I used kale and pasilla pepper because that is what I had in the fridge. Chopped chard or spinach would be good with poblano or yellow pepper too.
Ingredients (makes 4 - 7" enchiladas)
- 1 cup shredded pieces of Beyond Meat vegan chicken
- 1 cup of Daiya Pepperjack shreds
- 1/4 piece shredded Daiya Cheddar Wedge
- 1 8oz bag Frontera Red Chile Enchilada Sauce
- 4 La Tortilla Factory Sonoma 7" Organic Corn Tortillas
- 1/3 cup tomato sauce
- 1 cup chopped kale
- 1 medium roasted pasilla pepper
- 1/4 chopped white or red onion
- Chopped green onion for topping
- olive oil
- sea salt
Cooking
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
Slice a 1/4 piece of the Daiya Cheddar wedge and put it in the freezer. This will harden the cheese a bit so it is easier to shred in a grater. You'll take the wedge out of the freezer toward the end of this recipe.
Cut the pasilla pepper into quarter pieces, coat the pepper pieces with olive oil and some sea salt, and roast on a baking pan in the oven for 15 minutes at 375 degrees.
While the pepper is roasting, shred pieces of the Beyond Meat chicken until you have about 1 cup, or more if you want meatier enchiladas.
Remove roasted pasilla pepper from the oven, cool down for about 5 minutes and then chop into bite-size pieces. Keep the oven on and raise temperature to 400 degrees for the baking of the enchiladas.
Heat about one tablespoon of olive oil in a medium sauce pan. Saute the chopped red onion until the onion starts to soften.
Toss in the pan with the onion, the shredded chicken, the chopped kale, and the chopped roasted pasilla pepper. Cook everything together until the kale starts to wilt.
Take the pan off the hot burner. Let thechicken mixture settle for a bit.
In a small mixing bowl, mix the enchilada sauce and tomato sauce together.
To bake the enchiladas, use a glass baking pan and coat the bottom of the pan with some olive oil.
Take one of the corn tortillas and fill it with some of the chicken, kale, pasilla mixture. Add in 1/4 cup of the Daiya Pepperjack cheese, roll the tortilla shut, and place folded sided down onto the pan. Repeat this for the other three tortillas. Line the enchiladas next to each other side by side.
Pour the enchilada sauce over your enchiladas, generously coating each enchilada.
Cover the baking pan with aluminum foil and bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.
When the enchiladas are done, pull the baking pan out of the oven. Remove the aluminum foil. Get a cheese grater and the piece of the Daiya cheddar wedge in the freezer. Shred the cheese over the enchiladas.
Put the baking pan back into the oven, this time putting the oven on broil leaving the enchiladas in until the cheese melts which takes about 1-2 minutes depending on your over. Carefully watch the cheese because it can burn pretty fast.
Let the enchiladas cool down 10-15 minutes before serving. Top with chopped green onion.
To make my plate lower in carbs, instead of spanish rice, I coupled my enchiladas wih an arugula salad topped radish flowers, and black beans topped with chopped tomato and chopped green onion.
Enjoy!
