Bean and Zucchini Enchiladas

Every time I make enchiladas my recipe is different.  I guess I use this meal like some people use vegetable soup — clean out that produce drawer.  This batch, as is every batch, was delicious.  Enchiladas can be made a day ahead, frozen uncooked, and work as wonderful leftovers.

Bean and Zucchini Enchiladas

4 flour tortillas

1 zucchini, cut to your preference

3/4 cup beans (your preference, black beans, pinto beans, or kidney beans are great)

1/2 onion, diced

1 clove garlic, minced

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp chili powder

1/4 cup frozen corn

3 oz. sour cream

1 jar salsa, pureed in food processor (or your favorite enchilada sauce, I just happened to have salsa leftover)

–if your salsa isn’t highly spiced, you might want to increase the spices in the recipe to your preference

shredded cheddar cheese, for topping

First, I think we should chat about this salsa, pureed in the food processor.  

Remember when you begged for this food processor.  You got up early to check out early-bird specials on Saturday mornings, searching for the perfect deal.  You promised you’d take care of it, wash it everyday, and give it plenty of exercise.  But you didn’t know that you didn’t have the counter space for it.  Maybe you should have gotten the 3-cup model, not the 9 cup model.  You might have been able to leave that baby out on the counter.  

But you can’t leave the full-figured gal that you begged for on the counter.  You just can’t.  So you stow it away.  And you begin to treat it like that old stand mixer you have.  Remember the mashed potatoes?   You promised you wouldn’t do this to your food processor.  

So, don’t complain about getting the old whirly-do-food processor out to puree the salsa.  Just make sure you freakin’ process everything possible while you’re at it.

This includes those hamburger buns your husband is insisting are stale but you insist on saving to re-purpose as breadcrumbs (Isn’t it funny how the whole-wheat-flour hamburger buns ‘go stale’ twice as fast as the white-flour hamburger buns?  I find this suspicious) :Toast those babies in the oven at 250 for 10 minutes and give ’em a whirl in the food processor.

This also should dicing include celery, onions, and green peppers for future batches of spaghetti sauce:

And go ahead and shred your zucchini for this meal while you’re at it as well:

And of course, puree the salsa:

Hmm, notice that plug on the left hand side of the photo.  *That* must be the source of all my processing trouble this evening.  Yep.  My my Kitchenaid that I begged for and justified the purchase of over and over again by gloating over the reliability and awesome KitchenAid warranty would never let me down.  User error, people, user error.

Ok.  Back to the recipe.  

Saute the onion, zucchini, and garlic in the cumin and chili powder.  Remove from heat and mix with beans and sour cream.  Apply 1/4 of the mixture to a 10 inch tortilla, warmed for 15 seconds in the microwave to improve pliability.  Spread a small amount of enchilada sauce (ehrm, pureed salsa) on the bottom of a baking dish to prevent sticking.  Arrange tortillas in pan and cover with remaining sauce.

Bake covered for 25 minutes at 350 degrees.  Remove cover and bake until cheese is deliciously gooey.

Notice these enchiladas have been arranged strategically (in a perpendicular fashion) so that the unsuspecting omnivore in the house does not bite into a zucchini-filled enchilada.  That would make the household omnivore very angry (but not nearly as angry as the household vegetarian).  Oh the horror.  

Also, I’d prefer to avoid the chicken and corn filled numbers myself.  I prepared for the husband (yes, I made two batches of filling.  I just didn’t blog the chicken batch.)

Glorious ribbons of zucchini and beans!

Ok, ok, here is an obligatory ingredient list for you omnivores.  The husband said “ooooh” and “aahhh” so many times that I decided to list his filling.  By the way, this recipe is being submitted to Joelen’s Tasty Tools event in Joelen’s Culinary Adventures.  Be sure to check out her roundup at the end of February.

1/2 cup of shredded chicken

1/3 cup frozen corn

1/4 cup sour cream

1/2 onion, sauteed

1/2 t cumin

1/2 t chili powder

3 T shredded cheddar cheese

Fill.