PUMPKIN BLACK BEAN ENCHILADAS

While out surfing through some of my favorite blogs recently, I found this very intriguing recipe over at Tri to Cook. 

Pumpkin Black Bean Enchiladas....

 I've been reading a lot of savory pumpkin recipes this year in the blogosphere and have wanted to try my hand at making something savory using pumpkin for quite some time.  Since we are huuuuge mexican food fans here, this seemed like the perfect recipe to try first.  I've tried enchiladas just about every way possible and love them so much.  This, however, was something completely different than anything that I've ever experienced before and I knew it was going to something that I simply must try out.  

As I have shared with you already here,  I was on a cooking frenzy last weekend and one of the things that I made was a huge pot of black beans.  I wish I could give you the exact recipe of how I made these beans.  I wish I knew how I made them too because I would definitely recreate them again and again.  They turned out soooo good.  I had been already the Italian Sausage, White Bean and Kale Soup when I started the black beans and by this time I was pretty tired.  I had leftover scallions, bell pepper, celery, carrots and garlic that were already cut from making the soup so I threw those in a stock pot with olive oil and minced fresh jalapeno....

And some chopped up bacon....

And some spices that definitely included cumin, garlic powder, onion powder and I'm not sure what else at this point...

And some petite cut tomatoes....

And black beans that had been soaked overnight Friday night....and all day on Saturday.  You don't have to soak them that long.  I was just so busy with other stuff that it took me that long to get around to cooking them.

And chicken broth....

And bay leaves....

And a little trick that my mom taught me because she's the "bean queen", I added some honey....

I brought this to a boil and reduced the heat to simmer it for a couple of hours.  It takes black beans quite a while to cook and I was getting sleepy so I dumped them in the crockpot and set the timer for 10 hours and went to bed.  I was up and down all night.  Every time I woke up, I went by the crockpot and shook some more seasonings in the pot and gave it stir and a quick taste....in the dark....by night light.  The next morning I woke up to find all of this in front of the crockpot....

And all of this inside of it...

I had the pumpkin black bean enchiladas on my mind as one of the recipes that I wanted to try with the black beans this last week.

I showed the recipe to David and he was a little skeptical; but after years with me, he is finally learning to trust me a little bit.  He was agreeable to giving it a try.  I almost backed out of using the pumpkin sauce at the last minute.  He had offered some to the Daughter and Chef Son-in-Law for their dinner since they were both working that night so the pressure was on to make something that was tasty. I just wasn't so sure about the pumpkin sauce.  I'm so glad that I went ahead with it.  It was fabulous.

Here is the recipe as given by Shannon at Tri to Cook....

Pumpkin Black Bean Enchiladas

Adapted from Bob & Everyday Food

Serves 4-6

1 15oz can pumpkin puree

2 1/2c water

2 lg garlic cloves, minced

2t salt

1/4t black pepper

1/8t ground cayenne pepper (more or less to taste)

1t chili powder

1 can black beans, rinsed and drained

1/2c 2% greek yogurt

1 chipotle w/1-2t adobo sauce

1/4c chopped baby leeks (or scallions)

10-12 6" corn tortillas

grated sharp cheddar cheese for the top (3/4c or so)

Add pumpkin, water, garlic and spices (salt, pepper, cayenne and chili powder) to a blender and puree until smooth.

Add 1c black beans to the bowl of a food processor, along with the yogurt and chipotle and adobo. Process until smooth and transfer to a bowl. Add in the rest of beans and leeks/scallions and stir to combine.

Pour 1c pumpkin sauce into baking dish (either a 9x13 dish or 1/2c into 2 smaller ones), you really just need to coat the bottom of the dish. Wrap corn tortillas in a damp paper towel and microwave for ~1min to soften. Mound filling on tortillas (3-4T), one at a time, and roll up. Place, seam side down in the baking dish.

If you're going to freeze the enchiladas to serve at a later date, cover surface with saran wrap and a layer of foil. Pour the rest of the pumpkin sauce in a freezer-safe container and place the enchiladas and sauce in the freezer. Don't forget to label them!

To bake unfrozen enchiladas, pour pumpkin sauce over enchiladas and top with shredded cheese. Bake in preheated 400deg oven and bake for 25-30 min, until cheese has melted and sauce is bubbly. Let cool a bit before serving.

To bake frozen enchiladas, thaw the pumpkin sauce in the refrigerator the night before (or thereabouts) you want the enchiladas. When ready to cook, preheat the oven to 400deg. Remove the enchiladas from the freezer and remove plastic wrap. pour thawed pumpkin sauce over enchiladas, cover with foil and bake for 30min. Remove foil, top with shredded cheese and bake uncovered for another 30min, or until bubbly and cooked through. Let cool a few minutes before serving.

I made the pumpkin sauce just as the recipe is listed.

Since I had the black beans already prepared, I used those and ignored the recipe directions for the filling.  My beans were already spicy enough so I didn't worry about doing a thing to them. 

I didn't have corn tortillas so I used flour.  I haven't been able to find decent corn tortillas since I moved.  Not that the flour choices are real great here but they are better than the corn choices. 

I placed some of the sauce in the bottom of the casserole dish.  I filled the tortillas with the beans....added a little grated Cabot Sharp Cheddar cheese...rolled them up and placed them in the baking dish on top of the sauce.  Once I had the pan filled, I spread some of the sauce on top of the rolled enchiladas to cover.....topped with more grated sharp cheddar cheese.  I baked them in my little convection toaster oven and they turned out fabulous.  We like our cheese a little well done and the oven does that perfectly.

Because I made such a small pan of these enchiladas, I had plenty of the sauce left.  I divided it up into plastic storage bags and placed them in the freezer for future enchiladas. 

I have one more container of black beans left in the sub-zero.  I had it designated for chili; however, it just might become more enchiladas this week or maybe some more of those black bean burgers that turned out so delicious.  It's a big container of beans so maybe I can squeeze two meals out of it.  It's definitely worth a try.

This post is linked up with Seasonal Sundays.

Thanks so much for stopping by!