Vegetarian Black Bean Enchilada Casserole

Last Wednesday, I drove straight from hot yoga, sweaty and all, to girls’ night. My girls love me, so they didn’t complain. Lately, girls’ night has turned from dinner together to a more casual snacks-and-wine-after-the-kids-go-to-bed affair, which is just as much fun, anyway.

Margaret poured us each a drink and we sat down around her dining table, which she had decked out with an impressive assortment of appetizers. Hummus, crackers, chocolate-covered almonds and a cheese plate were in attendance, and my offering of candied nuts fit right in.

The air conditioner has arrived!!!!!!!!!!!!! It. is. AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!! I can finally live life again aka I can finally cook again. First meal: easy peezy Vegetarian Black Bean Enchilada Casserole. Fast, simple, and delicious! Omit the cheese and you’ve got a vegan situation, but man do I love my cheese.

I make this dish at work but it’s just not quite the same. Why you ask? El Pato. That’s right. El Pato. This dish needs HEAT! And preschoolers may be iffy on that statement so I skip the El Pato addition. However, I’m a firm believer in spicy mexican food because come on. Mild? Please. Now I know not everyone agrees, which is why I separate the sauce and the spice.

We celebrated good news together and I showed Tessa how to use the puppy dog Snapchat filter. In between the laughs, I remembered how fun sharing food with loved ones can be. It fills in the pauses between conversations as we pass food around the table and comment on it.

I’ve been so caught up in the nitty-gritty cookbook details and making sure everything is just right that I’ve almost forgotten the point of it all.

Adding the heat in instead of buying a “medium” sauce allows you to control the heat in the dish. SO. If you’re not into spicy enchiladas, forgo any Jalapeño sauces, aka El Pato. But if you ARE, then feel free to add even more than I did. As is, the recipe has a fair amount of heat to it, but not enough to go WHEW need a glass of water (ps drink milk or eat bread by the way, water makes it worse – just sayin). So if fire level heat is your thing, go for it. Personally, I like it in between.

INGREDIENTS

• 12 flour tortillas... about 10 inches
• 1 batch homemade enchilada sauce (below)
• 3-4 cups shredded cheddar or mexican blend cheese
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 large zucchini, diced
• 2 bell peppers, cored and diced
• 4-5 big handfuls of baby spinach
• salt, to taste
• 1 13.5 ounce can black beans

Echilada sauce:

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 small onion, diced
• 3 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 jalapeno, deseeded, diced
• 2 TBSP chili powder
• 2.5 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp oregano
• ½-3/4 tsp salt (used ¾)
• ⅛ tsp ground cinnamon
• fresh black pepper
• 1 28 ounce can of whole tomatoes
• a squeeze of fresh lime juice

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350F
2. Heal olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the zucchini and bell peppers along with a good pinch of salt. Cook, stirring frequently until the veggies are tender but not mushy. Add the spinach and continue cooking/stirring until just wilted. Stir in the black beans.
3. Add salt, to taste. Remove veggies from skillet to a bowl and set aside.
4. For the sauce:
5. Heat the olive oil in the same skillet used for the veggies. Once hot, add the onion and jalapeno. Saute for 2-3 mins or until the onion is soft. Add the garlic and all the spices. Continue to cook for 1 more minute or until the spices are fragrant. Careful not to burn the spices or garlic.
6. Add onion mixture to a blender along with the can of tomatoes and blend on high until smooth. Add a good squeeze of lime juice and adjust salt/pepper to taste.
7. Assemble the casserole:
8. Add a layer of sauce to a 9x13inch dish OR two smaller 8x8inch dishes like I did. Add a layer of tortillas (you'll need to rip them to fit properly) then some veggies, cheese and more sauce.
9. Repeat layers until all the tortillas, veggies, cheese and sauce are used. Finishing with a layer of sauce/cheese on top.
10. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until hot and bubbly. Let rest for 10 minutes before slicing and serving.
11. Serve with sour cream/greek yogurt, green onions, salsa, guac, whatever you fancy.

NOTES

• I baked only one of my 8x8inch dishes, popped the other one in the fridge for 2 days and then baked the second one so that we'd have another fresh casserole instead of reheating constantly. It worked great! Bake for an additional 5-10 minutes if you do this.

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