I am so happy that you have landed in my little corner of cyberspace. If you join me here, you will, hopefully, get to know a little about me. You will read my thoughts, my hopes and dreams, and see some of my favorite things. I hope you will visit often. I will try to update it regularly and hopefully you will see an improvement in the blog along the way. Thank you for stopping in to see me as I travel on this journey called "life"!













Sunday, January 30, 2011

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!
 

17 comments:

  1. I'm so glad you told me about this recipe and that I found your blog. I look forward to following you! I absolutely love pumpkin and ALL Mexican food, so I'll enjoy making this enchilada!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Not sure if I'd love to eat either of them, but they sure are pretty regardless. Hope all is well in your neck of the woods! :O)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oh my goodness - seriously that looks amazing!! I can't wait for you to make the black bean avacado brownies. I'll come back and read what you say :-) Just clicked to follow ya!

    ReplyDelete
  4. This is such a lovely recipe. Love the pumpking and black bean combination. Thank you for stopping by my blog and leaving a comment.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Candace, it looks delicious, love all the flavors in there!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Looks yummy but I never tried such a dish before! Thanks for stopping by my site, so glad you like my recipes, do let me know once you've tried them...

    ReplyDelete
  7. glad you liked the enchiladas and thanks for the shout-out! i need to get to making my own beans... yours had my mouth watering :)

    ReplyDelete
  8. These look great! I am a bit slow to get on the savory pumpkin bandwagon, but this cooks gotta get our of her rut every now and again! Thanks for sharing the recipe and your thoughts on it, sometimes (for me) it is the notes about how a person liked the food that will push me to make it.

    ReplyDelete
  9. You know how much I love Mexican. I love the flavors you've used in these enchiladas. Very hearty and comforting!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Your recipes have proved to be great! I'm going to try this, but since I have both Hubbard and Butternut squash, rather than pumpkin, I will use that. Sounds so delicious!

    ReplyDelete
  11. I would never, ever have thought to combine pumpkin with enchiladas...Looks delicious...I love my SIL being the "Bean Queen"....lol...

    ReplyDelete
  12. I love you to death my dear friend, but you are killing me with all your posts of yummy food! I cannot eat...that is not fair! (JK) Seriously...everything seems and looks so delish!!!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Lordy that sounds and looks delish! I sure wish we were neighbors so I could pop over for taste tests often! LOL

    Hugs,
    Kat

    ReplyDelete
  14. Those look absolutely luscious! It's hard to go wrong with anything cheesy; that there's then a delicious and nutritious filling ... perfection!

    ReplyDelete
  15. Enchiladas!! I have not had one in ages!! Now that Daiya Cheese is on the market I have a reason to try making them again. And this recipe is awesome!! I LOVE that you used pumpkin Puree!

    Thanks SO much for sharing it at this weeks Seasonal Sunday!!
    xo, Brittany

    ReplyDelete
  16. Stop with the food! You're making me hungry again! :)

    ReplyDelete

Thanks so much for visiting me today! I hope you have enjoyed your time here and that you will return again. Please leave me a comment to let me know that you have stopped by! I respond to each and every comment by email, if possible, and by returning a visit to your blog. Have a great day!