Vegetarian Enchiladas

So in the past, when I've made enchiladas, the filling has had sour cream, chicken stock, cream of mushroom soup, cheddar cheese, canned diced green chilies, and shredded chicken. It's a dairy, calorie overload of fantasticness!  Top it with some homemade guacamole and my eyes just kinda role back into my head.  However it doesn't fit into the veggie-filled goodness I've been trying to transform our dinner times into and was inspired to try something different when I received 6 green chilies in my bountiful basket this week!

I was so pleased with how these enchiladas turned out and hope you will give them a try!

Vegetarian Enchiladas

Ingredients:

Rice:

-1 cup brown rice

-2 cups vegetable or chicken broth

-1 Tablespoon lime juice*

-1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

-1/2 teaspoon cumin

-1/2 teaspoon onion powder

-1/4 teaspoon chili powder

-1/8 teaspoon salt

Sauce:

-6 chili peppers, stemmed, seeded, and chopped

-1 28 oz can diced tomatoes

-5 cloves garlic, minced

-3 cups vegetable or chicken broth -reserve 4-6 Tablespoons

-sea salt and pepper to taste

-1/4 teaspoon balsamic vinegar

-3 teaspoons sugar**

-2 Tablespoons corn starch -dissolved in reserved chicken broth

-2 cups shredded cheddar cheese (optional)

-3 peppers (green, red, yellow or orange), stemmed, seeded, and sliced

-2 medium onions, halved and sliced into slivers

-1 can black beans***

-12 flour tortillas****

-1 cup shredded cheddar cheese to top (optional)

Instructions:

1. To cook the rice, combine broth, garlic powder, cumin, onion powder, chili powder, and salt.  Pour over rice in cook in a rice cooker (If you don't have a rice cooker, saute the rice in couple tablespoons of melted butter in a large sauce pan. Add broth mixture, stir, cover and cook until water is mostly absorbed).

2. In a large saucepan, combine the chilies, tomatoes, garlic, broth, salt pepper, vinegar and sugar.  Bring to a simmer over medium-high heat.

3. Reduce the heat and maintain a gentle, constant low simmer for 10 minutes.

4. Stir in the cornstarch mixture and continue to cook 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

5. Taste test the sauce.  If it is too spicy, add small amounts of sugar until you reach the desired taste.

6. Remove from heat, stir in 2 cups cheddar cheese, and set aside.

6. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

7. Prepare 9x13" baking dish by spooning some of the sauce mixture into the pan and coating the bottom and edges.

8. Fill a tortilla with rice, beans, peppers, onions, and top with sauce.  Fold and overlap tortilla ends as best you can (I always end up with too much stuff and have only like, a 1/2" overlap!).  Repeat with all the tortillas and arrange in a row in the pan.

9. Pour remaining sauce over the top of the enchiladas and using a spoon, move sauce around so that all the tortilla edges have some of the liquid on it (keeps it from getting too crispy in the oven).

10. Top with 1 cup cheddar cheese and bake for 30 minutes.

*I was honestly planning on doing more, but my lime juice was empty :-(  Oh! And there's a cilantro allergy in our family so I don't cook with it, but I LOVE it and if I could, I would go NUTS with fresh cilantro right here in the rice!

**As soon as my sugar stash from my Christmas cookie baking is gone, THIS will become organic cane sugar :-D

***As always, my "can" of beans is actually beans I've soaked, cooked in a crock pot, measured with a 14.5 oz can and poured into a freezer bag.  Someday my tomatoes and broth will be this too... *sigh* hence the title of my blog containing the phrase "baby steps" ;-)

****Enough stars for you yet?? But really: I used whole grain.  If you wanted to go gluten-free you could use corn tortillas, but honestly, I'm not a fan of corn and it doesn't seem to be a taste I can manage to acquire.

Awe!! I just had the horrible realization I meant to serve these with avocado slices on top... DRAT!!

Well... even so. They were still really good.  There shall be fights over the leftovers!