I've shared these a few times on instagram and now I've finally put pen to paper to write the recipe. These sweet potato enchiladas are about the most comforting meal I cook, without an overload of cheese. The sweet potato and beans provide the filling while and easy homemade enchilada sauce brings it all together.
This recipe is involved, there’s no two ways around it. While I’ve tried to limit the amount of prep by relying heavily on pre-ground spices and garlic powder, this meal is heavy on components.
The great thing for you, however, is that all these components can be made ahead of time and used not only in this meal but meals across the week. For example:
Sweet potato puree, during the cooler months, is an automatic go-to. I make wraps, pasta dishes, risottos, and even my morning toast with a little help from a simple sweet potato puree. Make a couple-potatoes worth by simply roasting whole potatoes and scooping out the potato once cool. The sweet potato puree will last for up to 5 days.
Don’t want to use sweet potatoes? Any puree will do. Pumpkin or butternut squash would be my next two choices. You can also add in greens, sweet corn, or roasted tomatoes during the spring and summer months.
When it comes to beans, these are a riff on my spiced pinto beans (made a little easier in this enchilada recipe if you’re making the night-of). I love these beans as taco filling, as a toast topper, or as a topping to a creamy polenta bowl. I usually batch and use them twice in one week: once for these enchiladas and once in a grain bowl.
Similar to the beans, I make a much more involved enchilada sauce that uses dried chilis, toasted whole spices, and a slower cooking time. However, I wanted to keep this recipe as close to weeknight friendly as I could (I realize a 60-minute ordeal isn’t super weeknight friendly but these are so good!)
Enchilada sauce is a good batch and freeze project. Make triple of what I have here and freeze it in 2-cup increments. I love using this sauce to cook eggs in too.
Beyond the idea of prepping the components ahead of time, this is also one of my favorite meals to make for other people. Think new families! The entire dish freezes after assembly so the only thing left to do is bake (which will take about 20 minutes longer but other than that-everything stays the same!)
I liked the ease with which the recipe came together. Great combination of flavors. We like our enchiladas a little saucier than the recipe made, if we had made all 8 enchiladas. I made three large enchiladas for meal one, and then made bowls for the second meal, adding arroz verde as our base. Thanks!
Hi there! I just put this in the oven. The length of time in the oven isn't mentioned in the recipe. It just states until the cheese browns. Thankfully, the blog mentions the oven time as 20 minutes. Could you please update the recipe so that the timing shows up when it's printed? Looking forward to a yummy meal in a bit!
Thanks,
Beth K.
two of my favorites (sweet potato and pintos), thank you, great alternative to the default enchilada ingredients, much appreciated!
Can you use real tomatoes instead of canned?
Sure! I usually do a roasted tomato sauce or something similar.
I've never seen a recipe use the liquid of a can of beans, it's always drain and rinse. Are you finding good flavor in that liquid, or is a texture thing? The recipe looks great but I'm nervous about that part!
Yes! You think the beans are soaked in that liquid, it's much like a broth. I find the liquid in cans of beans are usually base-level flavor but beans from dried, the broth is really flavorful.
Super delicious. I made these this evening for dinner. I followed the recipe exactly with the only exception being I added roasted corn into the enchilada too (I was nervous they’d be too mushy without but in hindsight I don’t think it was necessary (although a great addition)). I also made homemade tortillas and use those in the enchiladas. My meat loving husband didn’t stop complimenting this dish. I accompanied it with Mexican rice and a roasted sweetcorn and red pepper salad.