Vegetarian Enchiladas

I loathe canned food as a rule, but enchilada sauce is one of the few exceptions.  Embarrassing as it can be to admit, especially here on a food blog, I honestly think that whoever came up with the idea of putting enchilada sauce in a can deserves some kind of medal!  

Enchiladas are one of the easiest, cheapest, most filling meals you can make on a budget short on time and cash.  All you really need is a can of enchilada sauce, a package of tortillas, a can of refried beans, and some shredded cheese.  (Sour cream is technically optional, but personally I consider it mandatory.)  

Mix half of the sauce with the refried beans and half the cheese to make the filling.  Fill the enchiladas and lay them in a casserole dish, seam side down.  Pour the other half of the sauce and the cheese over the top, and bake for a little while to make it all bubbly.  Seriously, how great is that?  It barely even counts as a recipe.

The enchilada is an authentically Mexican dish.  Although it comes in a broader variety of forms there compared to our relatively limited deployment of the enchilada here in the States.  Reading the Wikipedia page I was startled to learn of enchiladas montada, which are topped (mounted - "montada" in Spanish) with a fried egg.  And of the enchilada as street food, which is just a tortilla that you roll up and dip in the sauce.

After making enchiladas (the usual way) for dinner last night, I decided to poke around and see how you make "real" enchiladas.  It turns out that most of the recipes I encountered include… a can of enchilada sauce!  I guess that IS how you make real enchiladas, at least in the United States.

I found a lot of recipes which omitted canned enchilada sauce (good) but then had you use a jar of Pace picante or green chili sauce (bad).  Frankly I think that if you are making enchiladas with salsa instead of enchilada sauce, all you're really doing is making burritos.  Oven-baked burritos, to be sure, but burritos nevertheless.

(For the love of all that is holy, I must steer you away from the enchilada recipes which include cream cheese.  I found several.  Please, do not use cream cheese.  That's disgusting.)

The real deal is going to use a tomato sauce which is thin enough to pour well, and which is flavored with roasted chili.  I found a Food Network recipe which has you make your own from scratch, using a Mexican spice blend and a can of tomato paste.  Personally I have never made anything using canned tomato paste that didn't have a distinct taste of "canned tomato paste."  You know the taste I mean.

If I were going to make enchiladas from scratch, I would start with this recipe, which has you simmer down tomatillos with Serrano peppers.  Check out the first comment on the recipe - THIS sounds both authentic and GOOD!

Creative Commons-licensed image courtesy of Flickr user pbev