ENFRIJOLADAS – TORTILLAS IN BLACK BEAN SAUCE
Last week, fellow Budget Byter Becky sent me a link to this fantastic recipe for Enfrijoladas from New WindowMexicanPlease.com. The dish immediately enthralled me. I thought it appeared similar to Enchiladas but with a simple black bean sauce instead of Enchilada sauce. I decided to try making these!
The Enfrijoladas I made were bare, with cheese, a sweet onion, and a cilantro relish. If you want to kick the flavor, consider other topping and filling ingredients like avocado, chorizo, radishes, diced tomatoes, or a bit of refreshing lime crema to offset the spicy black bean sauce.
ABOUT THAT SPICY BLACK BEAN SAUCE…
The black bean sauce I prepared utilizes chipotle peppers from the adobo sauce as the primary ingredient, meaning the sauce can be described as spicy. Unfortunately, I’m unable to find an easy replacement for this ingredient as it’s one of the sauce’s ingredients. Making a version that isn’t spicy requires reworking the sauce completely. If you’ve got a non-spicy version of the Enfrijoladas recipe that you would like to cook at home, please leave it in the comments section for other readers!
INGREDIENTS
2 15oz. cans of black beans that have been drained ($1.98)
Two chipotle peppers in adobo sauce (1 Tbsp sauce) ($0.95)
One small, sweet onion that is divided ($0.50)
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin ($0.05)
14 tsp NEW WINDOWSgarlic powder ($0.02)
2 cups of chicken or veggie soup* ($0.26)
12 corn tortillas ($0.60)
1/4 bunch cilantro ($0.25)
Four oz. cheese** ($1.79)
INSTRUCTIONS
To prepare the sauce with black beans, blend the drained black beans, chipotle peppers, and one Tbsp from the sauce adobo and 1/4 of the sweet onion (diced) and cumin and garlic in the blender or food processor. Beginning with one cup, add the broth and mix until you have a silky, rich sauce. Check the salt and adjust it as necessary (this will be based on the salt content in the broth you choose to use).
Preheat the oven to 350oF. Warm the tortillas by microwave-waving them for 30 seconds, then toasting them in a pan and directly on a stove until they are lightly brown. The warmed tortillas are covered with foil to keep the steam and heat.
Finely chop the rest of the sweet onion. Chop the cilantro leaves in a finely chopped manner and add them with the diced onions and a pinch of salt. Stir to mix. Set the cilantro and onion mixture aside to let them marinate.
Put a small portion of Black Bean Sauce into a dish, then put it in a word to cover the entire bottom. Pour additional sauce into a large shallow dish or bowl to dip the tortillas.
Each time, Dip the tortillas one at a time in the sauce of black beans until they are covered in the rich sauce. Sprinkle a bit of cheese and a small amount of the onion-cilantro mixture over the top half of the tortilla. Then, fold it in half and then fold it into half again to form the shape of a triangle. The dipped and filled tortillas into the prepared casserole dish. Ensure you only put a tiny amount of filling inside the tortillas to allow them to fold easily. Additional filling is placed over the top of the tortillas after baking.
After the tortillas have been coated and filled with a fold, put them inside the casserole dish and drizzle the remaining black bean sauce over the top. Cook the tortillas in the oven for around 15 minutes or until heated. Serve with the rest of the onion and cheese mixture once baked, and serve.
