Give your enchiladas some extra special love–instead of red or green enchilada sauce, give them mole! Here’s a casserole of corn tortillas stacked with vegetables and cheese, all coated with rich dark reddish-brown chocolate chile sauce–mole enchiladas with spinach, potatoes and carrots. 

You could call stacked enchiladas Mexican lasagna.  Layering the tortillas and fillings for stacked enchiladas is much easier compared to rolling the fillings up inside the tortillas.

A little mole goes in the layering and then a generous ladle of sauce is poured on top before baking. You will love how the earthy chile-forward mole balances the spinach bitterness and potato and carrot sweetness.

Make your own chile chocolate mole sauce or purchase a good quality concentrated mole paste and dilute it. The ratio is usually 1 part mole paste to 4 parts water or broth.

Day of the Dead Altar

Oaxaca, Mexico is one of the best cities in Mexico to celebrate the Day of the Dead. Many Mexican families gather for the November 2 holiday, to honor their deceased ancestors, relatives and friends. Day of the Dead, Dia de Los Muertos, is not a morbid celebration, but an all-night party, with huge feasts of tamales and chocolate and mole and flowers and incense and tequila!

This Mexican holiday brings out the best mole sauces. Each family has their own recipe or they order a custom mole paste from the noisy-busy specialty market where “homemade” chocolate and/or mole are ground while you wait.

Mexican cooks usually drape turkey or chicken with mole, though on occasion the unique sauce will show up in enchiladas, like these.

Make it a fabulous week–get in the kitchen and cook something uniquely delicious!

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4.63 from 8 votes

Mole Enchiladas with Spinach, Potatoes and Carrots

You could call these stacked enchiladas Mexican lasagna--enchilada flavors and fillings layered with tortillas instead of pasta. Serves about 8 persons.

Prep Time40 minutes mins

Cook Time30 minutes mins

Total Time1 hour hr 10 minutes mins

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Mexican, Vegetarian

Keyword: mole, enchiladas, stacked enchiladas

Servings: 8 servings.

Author: Letty | @lettyskitchen

Ingredients

• 2 to 3 cups homemade chile chocolate mole, or good quality purchased mole
• 3 cups chopped potatoes (1/2-inch dice)
• 1 cup chopped carrots (1/2-inch dice)
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 1 large onion , chopped
• 2 cloves garlic , minced
• 1 bunch spinach or arugula , stems removed and discarded, leaves coarsely chopped, about 10 ounces
• 8 corn tortillas
• 3/4 cup crumbled cotija or feta cheese
• sea salt and freshly ground pepper

Instructions

• Steam the potatoes and carrots separately until they are just tender to the bite, but not too soft, about 10 minutes.
• Heat the oil in a large skillet. Cook and stir the onions until they are translucent, about 10 minutes. Add the garlic and cook and stir another minute or so. Stir in the potatoes and carrots and the spinach. Cover the pan and let the arugula wilt a few minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Brush some oil in a deep casserole dish. Ladle about 1/2 cup of sauce in the bottom.
• Lay a tortilla down, sprinkle a little about 1/3 cup of the vegetable mixture on top and then about a tablespoon of the cotija cheese. Spread with a few tablespoons of sauce. Lay down another tortilla, follow with vegetables and cheese and sauce, continuing this stacking and layering until you are out of filling. End with a tortilla dipped in the sauce. Sprinkle with more cheese.
• If there are leftover vegetables, toss them with some of the mole, and spoon them around the sides of the stack.
• Bake until the sauce begins to bubble around the edges, about 30 minutes.

This week we roast the first of Ranui Garden garlic in the same casserole as the beets we also find in our CSA box. The garlic roasts into buttery goo and at the same time subtly infuses the beets with garlic essence. This recipe for roasted golden beets and their greens with garlic orange dressing features both the beets and their greens in one delicious dish.

Mellow roasted garlic orange vinaigrette seasons both the bed of warm sautéed beet greens underneath and the sliced roasted beets nestled on top. Sweet roasted beets juxtaposed with their barely bitter greens and tangy salty feta cheese, all in the same bite–sweet, sour, salty and bitter–yum!

Make this recipe as soon as you get the beets, because beet greens deteriorate more quickly than other greens. The cheapatarian in me hates to see them go to waste.

Some of the roasted garlic goes in the garlic orange dressing–the extra cloves are great spread on crackers or crostini.

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4.06 from 17 votes

Roasted Golden Beets and their Greens with Garlic Orange Dressing

Two vegetables in one--beets and their greens. Wilted beet greens become the bed for roasted beets--all are dressed with a delicious roasted garlic and orange dressing.

Author: Letty | @lettyskitchen

Ingredients

• 1 pound golden beets
• 1 head garlic
• 3 tablespoons plus 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• ¼ teaspoon Real Salt , or to taste
• 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• 2 tablespoons fresh squeezed orange juice
• 1 tablespoon minced onion
• Pinch cayenne pepper
• ¼ cup feta cheese , optional

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Trim the beet tops, leaving a 1-inch tail, reserving the top greens. Scrub the beets.
• Break the garlic up into individual cloves, but don’t peel them. Put the beets and the garlic cloves in a small casserole, add about ½ cup of water and cover with a lid or foil.
• Bake until a knife slips easily into the largest beet, about 1 hour; the time will vary depending on the size of the beets.
• Meanwhile tear the beet greens off their stems, discarding any yellowed or wilted greens. Cut them into 1-inch ribbons. Set aside.
• When the beets are tender, let them cool enough so you can slip off the skins. Trim the tips and tails and cut the beets in wedges or slices.
• Squeeze about half the cloves of cooked garlic into a bowl and mash it well with a fork. Add the first 3 tablespoons of olive oil, the balsamic vinegar, orange juice, minced onion, salt and cayenne, and whisk together well. Toss the beets with half of this dressing.
• Heat the remaining olive oil in a skillet. Add the beet green ribbons. Cook and stir until the greens are wilted and tender. Toss in the remaining dressing. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
• Transfer the greens to a serving plate. Arrange the dressed beets over the greens. If desired, sprinkle with crumbled feta cheese, .

This post is about the process of baking and transporting a wedding cake, with recipes converted down for home cooks. The recipes are for are 9-inch versions of the original lemon and chocolate truffle wedding cakes, both flavors, including recipes for the fillings and the frosting! 

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