Autumn and I have gone back to basics. Yes, this time it will work. When I first moved to Macon, I was 165 pounds; now I’m hovering around 200. I need to get back to a comfortable weight, and the only way to do this is to eat right and exercise regularly for the rest of my life. I know that diets do not work, so I must change my lifestyle.
We’ve adopted our favorite plan, once again: The McDougall Program: 12 Days to Dynamic Health. I’m sure I’ve blogged about this before, so I won’t go into detail here; suffice it to say: no animal products and no added fat. We’ve only been doing it since the start of the semester, but I already feel better.
So, I’m going to try to post recipes, at least one a week. We’ve made soup, chickpea stew, and an impromptu lentil concoction, but today’s recipe is Vegan Enchiladas.
Vegan Enchiladas fresh out of the oven.
This recipe is in the McDougall Program book (linked above), but I modified it to my own tastes. There are three elements to this recipe: the tomato sauce, the filling, and the “cheese” sauce.
Leftover tomato sauce.
For the tomato sauce, I just used what I had in the fridge: about three-quarters of a jar of left-over Trader Joe’s marinara sauce. I put this in a pan and added a bit of hot sauce, some ground cumin, a squeeze of honey, and about a cup of spicy V8. I reduced it by about half for a slightly runny enchilada sauce. I know the V8 is salty, so I watched my addition of salt in the other ingredients.
Vegan Enchilada filling.
Here’s what you need for the filling.
- 1 yellow onion, chopped
- 1 celery stalk, finely chopped
- 1 carrot, shredded
- 1 poblano chile, chopped (jalapeno would work well, too)
- 1 cup cooked brown rice (I used short grain because it’s what I had cooked)
- 2 cans pinto beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 cup vegetable broth
- 2 tablespoons garlic, chopped (I like garlic)
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- fresh ground pepper to taste
- tortillas (I think I used 7 for this recipe)
Put enough water in the bottom of a pot to barely cover the bottom; put it on medium-high heat. Add the onions, celery, carrot, poblano, and garlic and cook until soft, about 10 minutes. Add the vegetable broth, rice, beans, and cumin and cook another ten minutes. I wanted the mixture to have a filling consistency, so I cooked off a bit of the broth.
Add a bit of tomato sauce to the bottom of your favorite lasagna pan. McDougall suggests dipping each tortilla in the tomato sauce to soften, but I found this only destroys them. Mine were soft enough to fill without dipping. Add enough filling to each tortilla (about 2-3 tablespoons), roll them as tightly as you can, and line them in the lasagna pan. Top with remaining tomato sauce.
Vegan "Cheese" Sauce.
Heat your oven to 350.
OK, this is gonna sound a bit weird, but the taste is surprisingly good. And it will satisfy that desire your body has for a bit of creamy fat. Here’s what you need:
- 1 cup raw cashews
- 3 tablespoons of lemon juice (I squeezed half a lemon into the processor)
- 2 teaspoons of onion powder
- 1 teaspoon of garlic powder
- 1.5 roasted red peppers (I bought them in a brine)
- 1 cup water
Combine all ingredients in a food processor until smooth. McDougall’s recipe calls for salt, but the red peppers were already pretty salty, so I didn’t add any. I did, however, add a bit of fresh ground pepper to the mix. Spread some of it over your enchiladas.
Bake them for 30 minutes. I covered them with foil about half-way through to keep them from drying out too much. They were very tasty, but they fell apart coming out of the pan. I think next time I will make it like I would a lasagna: just layer the stuffing with the cheese sauce and tortillas. This would likely work better. Then, you can serve a slice, rather than a mound.
If you try it, let me know what you think.
