Vegetarian Enchiladas in Creamy Poblano Sauce
A great variation on vegetarian enchiladas with a green sauce. There are different types of sauces you can make, Tomatillos, chili verde, or poblano sauce. This recipe is inspired from our travel to Cape Cod last year around same time where I tried these corn, mushroom, and goat cheese enchiladas. They were so tasty. Since then, I wanted to recreate a recipe with them. However, I changed things up a little bit from what we had.
This sauce is so versatile, if you want to make some extra. We had some in this recipe and used some leftover with fried eggs. So good. You will absolutely love it. It’s creamy and herby goes well with so many dishes – poach eggs in the sauce, make fried eggs on tortilla and add the sauce, make quesadilla, and use this sauce, pasta bake etc. If you do not want to char the poblanos at home, which hardly takes time substitute it with store-bought diced peppers or poblanos.
You can also char them in oven at high heat just like eggplant for baigan bharta or baba ghanouj.
Vegetarian enchiladas are so easy to make at home and a very pleasing dinner mains if you are having people over. I love trying different variations of vegetarian enchiladas when we dine at Mexican restaurants.
I also love preparing them at home, as its easy. I make the sauce also at home, it really takes few ingredients you probably have at home and you just toss everything together.
Don’t skip on the sauce.
What can you add in the enchiladas?
I am sharing a vegetarian recipe, so I have used onions, bell peppers, portobella mushrooms, onions, corn and spinach. You can add so many more things like olives, beans, vegetarian protein etc.
I will highly recommend you sauté the vegetables before adding them to the tortillas. It’s important as they get cooked slightly and develop nice flavor, rather than being added raw. By cooking them down, you also take away extra water from some of the vegetables.
Lightly frying the tortillas is also important in terms of flavors, and flexibility in folding them.
I have tried it both ways, I prefer to lightly fry the tortillas. Assembly is quick once you have all the elements ready and prepared.
If you wish to try the red sauce enchiladas – click here!
Vegetarian Enchiladas in Creamy Poblano Sauce
Ingredients
Poblano Sauce
- 4-5 poblanos
- 1 jalapeno chopped and divided (half for the sauce and half for filling)
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 tsp roasted cumin seed powder
- 1 tbsp. taco seasoning
- 1 tsp oregano
- ½ bunch cilantro
- ¾ cup heavy cream
- ¼ cup cotija cheese
- 1 onion chopped and divided (half for sauce and half for filling)
Vegetable filling
- 2-3 tbsp olive oil
- 1 green bell pepper
- 1 cup mushroom chopped
- 1 cup corn
- 1.5 cup spinach
- Salt to taste
- 6 Corn or flour tortilla
- 1 -2 cups cheese blend
- Cilantro, avocado slices, scallions etc to garnish
Instructions
Poblano Sauce
- On high flame, place whole poblanos and cook them until charred on both sides (please use tongs to turn them) They should turn soft while charring. Remove them in heat safe bowl and cover it for few minutes. Open the seal, peel off the charred skin, seeds and stem on the top. Give it a rough chop and leave them aside.
- Mix poblanos with ½ cup water, half of the chopped jalapeno, chopped garlic, cumin powder, taco seasoning, ½ bunch cilantro in a blender and blend everything until smooth. In a medium sized pot on medium heat, sauté half of the onions and once the onions turn translucent, add the sauce. Let it simmer for few minutes 4-5 approximately and then add heavy cream and oregano. Mix and turn off the heat. Stir in the cotija cheese. Leave it aside.
Vegetable filling
- In a skillet on medium heat, add 1 tbsp olive oil and rest of the onions, half of the chopped jalapeno and cook them until they are slightly translucent, then add mushrooms, bell pepper, corn, and finally spinach. Toss everything and add salt to taste. Sprinkle some of oregano too. Leave it aside.
Assembly
- Pre heat oven to 400 F.
- Brush tortillas with some oil on both sides and lightly roast them on the stove in a skillet. Finish doing all and then take one tortilla on a surface. Brush some poblano sauce on them, fill them with the vegetable filling, add some shredded cheese and fold them. Finish doing all tortillas same way.
- In a baking pan, drizzle 1 tsp of oil on the bottom and ¼ cup poblano sauce. Then place all wrapped up tortilla and pour some more sauce on top. Leave some if you have extra sauce. Layer with shredded cheese.
- Cover it with a foil and bake it in a preheated oven for 20-25 minutes or until all the cheese is bubbly and enchiladas are baked. (Tip- Spray the foil with some oil to avoid it sticking to the cheese on top)
- Serve it with avocado, radish, jalapeno slices and garnish it with scallions and cilantro. You can also add the reserved sauce if anyone wants extra.
XO, Devangi