Green Enchiladas with Spinach and Arugula {vegetarian}

Emerald and sparkling with oh-yes spicy heat–these vegetarian green chile enchiladas with spinach and arugula make a fabulous Mexican meal!

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For the filling, you sauté perfectly tender bitter spinach with arugula, and aromatize with onion, garlic and green chiles. Stir in herby chopped cilantro and parsley.

Tuck that veggie filling and some melty cheese into soft corn tortillas and bathe liberally in a tangy green enchilada sauce.

For the last five years, we’ve been visiting a dusty Baja Mexico town, Los Barriles. It’s on the Gulf of California, the east cape of the bottom of the peninsula.

Every day, a parade of vendors meanders through the neighborhoods and campgrounds, bells ringing, horns tooting, and microphones calling out recorded alerts.

You can get steaming warm tamales out of a brown sedan, today’s catch of fish from ice chests weighing down the back of an old white Toyota pickup, and 5 gallon bottles of purified water or propane gas delivered right to your door. You hardly need a car.

You’ll find street vendors offering watermelon, fresh-squeezed orange juice, and empanadas, and hawkers shouldering flats of strawberries brought from the agricultural towns a couple hours north. On Wednesdays and Saturdays Oscar comes withs an array of organic veggies, mostly greens, under his pop-up shade tent.

I made these green enchiladas with Oscar’s piquant arugula, leafy parsley, cilantro and spinach.

The sauce is a simple homemade green enchilada sauce made with tomatillos and cilantro.

Idea*** For color contrast, serve your green enchiladas with achiote red rice pilaf.

Have you ever noticed how a lot of Mexican food incorporates the colors of their national flag?

Make it a fabulous week–get in the kitchen and cook something spicy, colorful, healthy and delicious!

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Print Recipe

4.58 from 7 votes

Vegetarian Green Enchiladas with Spinach and Arugula

Green enchiladas filled with spinach and arugula. Makes 6 servings.

Prep Time40 minutes mins

Cook Time30 minutes mins

Total Time1 hour hr 10 minutes mins

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Mexican, Vegetarian

Keyword: enchiladas, green enchiladas, spinach enchiladas, arugula enchiladas, green enchilada sauce

Servings: 6 servings.

Author: Letty | @lettyskitchen

Ingredients

• 1 bunch spinach, or 5 ounces of baby spinach and arugula mix
• 1 bunch arugula, or 5 ounces of baby spinach and arugula mix
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1 medium onion , diced in 1/4-inch pieces
• 1 or 2 cloves garlic , minced
• 2 serrano chiles , seeds removed, minced, optional (see note)
• ¼ cup chopped cilantro leaves
• ¼ cup chopped parsley
• 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar or lime juice
• fine sea salt , as needed
• 12 corn tortillas
• 6 to 8 ounces grated Monterey jack cheese (see note)
• About 2 cups green enchilada sauce , purchased or homemade

Instructions

• Wash the spinach well. Cut the leaves away from the stems, discarding the stems, and chop the leaves into 1-inch strips. Wash the arugula and discard the stems. If the arugula leaves are large, chop them as well. If you're using baby spinach and arugula, you can skip this step.
• Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat. Stir and cook the onion, garlic and chile, if using, for 5 to 10 minutes, until the onion is translucent. Add the spinach and arugula, continuing to cook and stir until the leaves are wilted and shrunk. Stir in the cilantro. Season with vinegar and salt.
• Lightly oil in a 9 x 13-inch baking dish. Spread about 1/2 cup of green enchilada sauce in the bottom.
• Pre-heat oven to 350°. Place tortillas on baking sheets, 4 to 6 tortillas to a pan. Lightly brush or spray both sides of the tortillas with oil. Bake about 5 minutes, until pliable. (see note)
• Spread a heaping tablespoon of the greens in a tortilla. Sprinkle about the same amount of cheese on top. Roll the tortilla around the filling and place it seam side down in the baking dish. Repeat with the rest of the tortillas. You can cover the pan at this point and refrigerate overnight.
• Pour green sauce over the rolled tortillas, making sure to coat the ends. Sprinkle with more cheese, if you wish.
• Bake until heated through, about 20 minutes. Sprinkle with some chopped cilantro and parsley.

Notes

• You won't need the real green chile if you use pepper jack or habanero cheddar cheese to create flavorful “picante” spicy heat.
• Mexican cooks fry their tortillas in oil to make them pliable and so they don’t absorb the sauce. I prefer this oven-warming method for more ease, less mess and ultimately less calories.

Nutrition

Serving: 2g | Calories: 215kcal | Carbohydrates: 29g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 9g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Sodium: 290mg | Potassium: 129mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 1g | Vitamin A: 80IU | Vitamin C: 2.6mg | Calcium: 54mg | Iron: 0.7mg

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