Outstanding Spinach and Black Bean Enchiladas
Go all out with cooked-from-scratch beans, garden spinach, and homemade sauce, or make it super easy with canned black beans, baby spinach, and purchased enchilada sauce. Bathe your enchiladas in either red or green sauce, or both, like in the photos. Serve with a crisp green salad with cumin lime dressing. Makes one large casserole, serves 6.
Servings: 12 enchiladas.
Calories: 214kcal
Ingredients
- 5 ounces baby spinach, or 1 bunch fresh spinach, washed well and coarsely chopped
- 1 tablespoon olive, avocado, or grapeseed oil
- 1 medium onion, diced in 1/4-inch pieces
- 1 or 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 jalapeño chile, seeds removed, minced
- ¼ cup chopped cilantro leaves, some stems ok
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 ½ cups black beans, one (15-ounce can, drained) (see note)
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
- 12 corn tortillas
- Cooking spray, as needed
- 3 cups grated Monterey Jack cheese, about 8 ounces
- 1 cup red enchilada sauce (see notes)
- 1 cup green enchilada sauce (see notes)
- Plain whole milk Greek yogurt or sour cream, as needed
Instructions
- Heat the oil in the largest skillet you have over medium heat. Stir and cook the onion, garlic and chile until the onion is translucent, about 8 minutes. Add the spinach, stirring occasionally until the spinach has wilted. (In a smaller diameter skillet, you may need to add a portion at a time until all of the spinach has wilted.)
- Add the cilantro, oregano, and salt; cook and stir a few more minutes. Stir in the black beans. Season with the vinegar. Taste, adding more salt if you think it’s needed.
- Pre-heat oven to 350° F. Spray or rub a small amount of oil in a 9 x 13-inch baking dish. Spread about ¼ cup enchilada sauce on the oiled dish.
- Place tortillas on baking sheets, 6 tortillas to a pan. Lightly spray both sides of the tortillas with cooking spray. Bake about 5 minutes, until pliable.
- Sprinkle 3 to 4 tablespoons of the spinach and bean mixture down the middle a softened 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 the enchilada sauce over the rolled tortillas, making sure to cover the ends. You can use all red or all green, or give your enchiladas the Mexican flag color with both, one sauce on each side. Sprinkle with more cheese. Cover and bake until heated through, 20 to 25 minutes.
- Spread the Greek yogurt down the center of the pan and sprinkle with chopped cilantro leaves. (I used a pastry bag to squiggle on the yogurt.
Notes
- Canned black beans or home-cooked—it doesn’t matter. That said, I’m a huge proponent of cooking beans from scratch—especially using a pressure cooker.
- You can bathe your enchiladas in either red or green sauce, or both, like in the photo.
- Enchilada sauces can be homemade or store-bought. For many years, I used canned red enchilada sauce, but since I’ve become more of a label reader, I can hardly bring myself to use buy it. Not that I don’t on occasion. ;-) Looking around, I did find a cleaner ingredient red enchilada sauce online.
- The same for green enchilada sauce, use homemade or storebought.
- Tip: For the photo, I cooked 2 small cans of green salsa in a saucepan until the liquid reduced to a sauce about as thick as the red enchilada sauce.
- If you like this recipe or find it useful, I’d so appreciate a 4 or 5 star rating. Rating is done by clicking on the stars above.
Nutrition
Calories: 214kcal | Carbohydrates: 19g | Protein: 10g | Fat: 10g | Saturated Fat: 5g | Cholesterol: 25mg | Sodium: 699mg | Potassium: 216mg | Fiber: 4g | Sugar: 3g | Vitamin A: 1590IU | Vitamin C: 5.4mg | Calcium: 253mg | Iron: 1.5mg