Ahahahaha, so this one time, I had a blog that I used to write in? Oops. Anyway, a few housemates asked for this recipe, and facebook has character limits on notes, so this seemed like the most logical posting place. And so, without further ado, a (very bastardized version of a) time-honored dish in the Best household: Spinach Enchiladas.
1. Heat the oven to 350.
2. For the sauce:
Drain and puree a large can of diced tomatoes. (As always, the caveat: if you can find canned crushed tomatoes--the good, pulpy stuff, not the weirdly concentrated paste GFS hawks, use that instead. Way faster, better texture. Available at any grocery store. Somehow not available in bulk.)
Chop and sauté a goodly amount of garlic in like a tablespoon of oil. I don't really know how much garlic. A lot, let's say. If your garlic is old, you should probably remove the little sproutling inside each clove, THEN chop it up. Add dried basil (I mean, or fresh if you've got it, but let's be realistic, this is a co-op) and some onion powder and let it all sizzle a bit, then stir this into the tomatoes.
3. For the filling:
Peel and cut up some sweet potatoes. Steam them until very soft.
As they're steaming, pour about a tablespoon of oil into a pan. Add crushed red pepper, salt, pepper, and chipotle chile powder. Turn on the heat, and stir it around for a bit. Add (rinsed and drained) canned black beans, stir until it's evenly mixed and the beans look softer.
When a fork sinks right through the sweet potato chunks with no resistance, remove them from the steam and mash them. In another pot, melt some Earth Balance. Add cinnamon and cumin, and then the mashed potatoes. Stir this around--it will be very thick. Add enough soy milk for the mixture to be creamy. (It shouldn't take more than a bit.) Stir until well-mixed.
Wash some spinach, and shake out as much water as you can. Add the beans and the spinach to the pot with the sweet potato mixture. Add some chopped green onions. (If you don't have chopped green onions, then chop a small amount of raw regular-type onion into tiny pieces. Close enough for government work!) Stir until well-combined.
4. Assembly:
Kind of what you'd expect. Pour some sauce on the bottom of your baking dish and spread it around as best you can. Spoon a decent amount of filling onto each tortilla, wrap the whole thing tightly and crowd them into the baking dish. Spread the rest of the sauce on top of them, making sure that no part of the tortillas are dry--especially not the edges. You may need to do two layers to fit them all; this shouldn't be a problem, as long as your dish is deep enough.
5. Baking:
About 25 minutes, or until the tortillas are kind of golden under the sauce.
(For the non-vegan version, omit all the business with the sweet potatoes. Do the beans as written here, then add the spinach, the green onions, and a bunch of shredded cheddar. Knead it around with your hands til well-mixed, and proceed with the recipe. If you really wanted to get crazy, I suppose you could make a version with sweet potatoes AND cheese. I have never done this! I can't promise it would work, but it might be worth a try.)
NOTES: Cooking for 29 people on a student co-op budget is an exercise in adaptation and substitution. Back home, when my mom made this recipe for the four of us, it was pretty different. Some suggestions if you have either more money, or fewer mouths to feed:
-Use finely finely chopped fresh jalapeno instead of red pepper flakes.
-When you're sauteing the garlic for the sauce, add a bunch of chopped up onion, and cook the whole thing until the onion is translucent.
-In the cheese version of the recipe, add fresh chopped cilantro and sliced black olives to the filling.
-You can also consider throwing some chopped up raw bell peppers on top? Not sure if I've ever done it, but my brother says they add a nice crunch.
-When they're done baking, you can also slice avocados very thinly and use them as a topping or garnish. Or both. Man, I love avocados.
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