Today I made tasty vegetarian baked feta enchiladas. From time to time I enjoy vegan Mexican and it’s easy to get tacos, tortillas and enchiladas confused.
They are all made with tortillas, similar to flatbreads, and not always corn-based — another myth to dispel. They can also be made with whole durum wheat flour, to be clear.
The taco is the typical Tex-Mex street food and consists of a warm filled tortilla folded in two. It’s eaten standing up, quickly, always hot otherwise the tortilla becomes gummy — like our flatbread which is best hot.
Tacos are often made with meat, fish, or vegetables. The Mexican taco has a handmade tortilla then placed in the sauce of the filling. We are often used to the American taco, where the tortilla is industrial and sometimes fried for crispiness. It’s often served with guacamole and sour cream. Its name comes from Spanish and means “heel”.
Then we have burritos, in Mexico made with wheat flour. The tortilla is heated before filling so it rolls better. The filling is similar to the enchilada — stewed onions, meat or fish and often enchilada sauce. Folded like a little package and served standing like a taco.
Finally we get to enchiladas, which are prepared with tortillas lightly fried in a little oil, sometimes filled with potatoes, black beans (like mine), vegetables, rolled and baked with enchilada sauce (spicy tomato) and cheese (queso). These are therefore the “baked casserole” version of burritos.
The differences between the three are minimal; the tortilla and the spicy sauces are always the stars.
Let’s look at some other recipes with tortillas, flatbreads,
- Difficulty: Very easy
- Cost: Very economical
- Preparation time: 10 Minutes
- Cooking time: 20 Minutes
- Portions: 4
- Cooking methods: Stovetop
- Cuisine: Mexican
- Seasonality: Spring, Summer
Ingredients for the enchiladas with feta
For this dish you should prepare the enchilada sauce in advance — the true star of the dish. Then prepare the filling for the tortillas; in this case they are already ready, but you can easily make them following the flatbread recipe. Of course, if you find white cornmeal, make them with that.
- 2 shallots
- 1 clove garlic
- 1 pinch hot chili peppers
- 2/3 cup tomato passata (tomato purée)
- 1 1/2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tbsp cornstarch
- 1 pinch cumin
- 1 tsp sweet paprika
- 1 tsp oregano
- 1 pinch sea salt
- 1 pinch black pepper
- 2 1/2 tsp brown sugar
- as needed water
- 1 1/2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 2 shallots
- 2 zucchinis
- 2 carrots
- 1 3/4 cups black beans (cooked)
- 1 pinch sea salt
- 1 pinch black pepper
- 1 tsp paprika
- 10 cherry tomatoes
- 5 flour tortillas
- 1/2 cup feta (crumbled)
- as needed enchilada sauce (enchilada)
- 1 avocado
- 1 lime
- 1 bunch cilantro
Tools
- Bowls
- 1 Colander
Steps for the baked feta enchiladas
You can make this sauce the day before.
Chop the shallot and garlic. In a small saucepan pour a drizzle of oil and gently soften the shallot and garlic. Add the other ingredients: the chili, the oregano, the cumin, the sweet paprika and the sugar, stir briefly. Add the tomato passata, sugar, salt, pepper, and about half a glass of water. Stir again and also add the cornstarch. Bring to a boil over low heat and stir so it doesn’t stick for about ten minutes until it thickens a little. Blend with an immersion blender to make the sauce velvety. Set aside to use with the baked feta enchiladas.
This time for the baked feta enchiladas I used precooked black beans, but if you want to use dried black beans, soak them overnight in water with a piece of kombu seaweed and in the morning cook them in a pressure cooker covered with water, a bay leaf, and without salt. Cook for about 30 minutes from the whistle.
Wash and peel the carrots and grate them, set aside. Wash and grate the zucchinis as well. Chop the shallots. In a pan pour a drizzle of oil and soften the shallot. Add the carrots and zucchinis, a few cherry tomatoes, salt, pepper, paprika, cover and let soften for 10 minutes. Add the black beans to flavor for another 5 minutes. Adjust seasoning and turn off the heat.
Crumble the feta into a small bowl. Pour a tablespoon of sauce into a baking dish and spread it well on the bottom. Warm the tortillas for a few minutes in a pan with a splash of oil until hot. On each tortilla place 3 spoonfuls of the bean filling in the center, a spoonful of enchilada sauce and plenty of crumbled feta. Roll the enchilada fairly tightly and place them side by side in the baking dish.
Pour all of your enchilada sauce over and between the tortillas, sprinkle more feta on top and bake under the grill/broiler at 68°F for 15 minutes until nicely golden.
Serve the baked feta enchiladas immediately with slices of avocado, a squeeze of lime and fresh cilantro.
Tips from Timo e Lenticchie
The secret to great baked feta enchiladas is to warm the pre-cooked tortillas for a couple of minutes in a pan with a drizzle of oil. This will make them crispier in the oven and make it easier to roll them tightly with the filling without tearing.
Instead of feta you can use cheddar as in Tex-Mex cooking, but personally I don’t like it — they are much better this way.
If you have leftover sauce you can dress vegetables, rice or other dishes with it.
I think the secret of baked enchiladas is the use of fresh cilantro, which gives the whole dish an extra boost.
