Enchilada Casserole!

gluten-free

 

I love casseroles. There, I said it. It's probably the little old lady in me. Anyway, this is a dish I came up with a few weeks ago - I wrote down a few of the basic ingredients I'd used, but that's about it - sloppy recipe creation, I know :P  So I decided to make it again - properly documented this time. Corn tortilla's layered with enchilada sauce, quinoa-broccoli-pinto bean filling, vegan queso, etc. I think it turned out rather well, and mom and dad agreed (though my dad is not a vegan, he does eat most of the vegan dishes I prepare - and I take it as a good measure for how these recipes might go over with other carnivores).

It's not too spicy - because I just don't handle spicy terribly well, - anything over mild tends to elicit lots of "oh my god, oh my god, my taste buds are dying" antics- but you can kick the heat up a bit by using spicy salsa in the queso, or a spicy enchilada sauce, or by throwing a diced jalapeno in with the veggies! For example, my fiance/man-friend/life partner - let's just call him Andrew - LOVES the spicy! He'd put sriracha and red pepper flakes on everything if I let him :P So when I made these the first time - I made two batches - one with the jalapenos and a few dashes of hot sauce, and the other mild as can be. So may you're mouth blissfully burn if you so choose :)

This dish also uses one of my favorite recipe's for vegan cheese sauce, which I first discovered on vegweb.com (which I've just tried to link to, but my computer seems to believe it's an "attack page" at the moment, so I'll link that a bit later....) - a great resource for vegan recipe sharing! Anyway, this recipe is Dragonfly's Bulk Un-cheese Mix, and I always keep a batch on hand in the fridge, and it comes in handy for a last minute supper of mac and trees :) My version of this mix differs slightly from Dragonfly's, in that I do not add corn starch to my mixture - I honestly don't think it's necessary - the cashew mixture thickens up quite nicely without it.

Also, though I've been meaning to try my hand at homemade enchilada sauce, last night that simply wasn't going to happen. Too hungry. So I used a store bought version. I found this nifty little pouch of enchilada sauce the last time I was at the store - Frontera's Red Chile Enchilada Sauce with Roasted Tomato and Garlic - and was delighted when I looked at the ingredient list to find that there were no strange chemicals, or unpronounceable additives. It's fairly low in sodium, contains no high fructose corn syrup or gluten - and while it does contain sugar, it's listed pretty far down on the ingredient list which is usually a good sign. I also confirmed with the company, that it is vegan friendly. However, buyer beware - apparently Frontera's Enchilada sauce that comes in a jar is not vegan/vegetarian friendly. So look for the pouch. Or make your own! I intend to make my own next time, so that I can hopefully eliminate the sugar all together.

My nifty supermarket find

Enchilada Casserole 

1 cup/pouch enchilada sauce, mild

9-10 small corn tortillas (I used Food For Life's sprouted corn tortillas)

1tsp grapeseed, olive, or coconut oil

1 head broccoli, finely chopped, about 2 1/2 cups

1 medium onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 tsp dried oregano

1 TBS cumin powder

½ TBS chili powder

½ tsp onion powder

1 tsp garlic powder

black pepper to taste

1 15oz can pinto beans, drained and rinsed

juice of 1 lime

2 cups cooked quinoa

1/2 cup cashew cheese mix (recipe follows)

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup mild salsa/picante sauce

1 lime cut into wedges to garnish

Pre-heat oven to 375.

In a medium sized sauté pan, heat the oil over medium high heat. Add the onion, and cook for about 5 minutes until translucent.  Add the broccoli and garlic, and continue to cook about 10 minutes more, until the broccoli is very tender, and the onions are lightly browned.  Add the remaining ingredients, plus the quinoa and 1/2 of cashew queso sauce, and mix to incorporate. Set aside. 

Broccoli!

Yeah.... I forgot to add the pinto beans to mine.... oops!

Make the queso sauce: in a small sauce pan, whisk together the cashew cheese mix and water over medium heat until the sauce begins to thicken and bubble - about 2 minutes. When it's as thick as you'd like, remove from the heat and add the salsa. Whisk together, then set aside.

Cashew cheese sauce before I poured in the salsa

In a 9x11 casserole dish, spread about 1/3 cup of your enchilada sauce to coat the bottom. Use 3 tortillas to cover the bottom of the pan – I like to cut each tortilla into 4 triangles, then play a bit of tortilla Tetris in the pan. Spread on 1/2 of  your quinoa veggie mix. Top with tortilla’s, and another 1/3 cup of the enchilada sauce. Spread on the rest of your quinoa veggie mix, cover with another 3 tortillas, and end with the last of your enchilada sauce. Top everything off with the rest of your cashew queso, cover with tin foil, and place in the oven for 30 minutes, until the queso is bubbly. I like to remove the tin foil for the last 5 minutes of cooking, so that it can brown a bit on top. Serve with lime wedges.

Tortilla Tetris!

Second layer of tortilla's topped with enchilada sauce

I like how the enchilada sauce and the queso swirled together :)

Yum!

Cashew Cheese Mix

(Original Recipe by Dragonfly)

I usually make about 4 cups of this at a time, but I've scaled it back here. This makes about 1 cup of dry cheese mix.

1/2 cup raw cashews

1/2 cup nutritional yeast

1/2 TBS onion powder

1/2 TBS garlic powder

1 tsp seasoning salt

In a food processor or blender, pulse all ingredients until finely ground. Store in an airtight container, and place in the fridge for up to 3 weeks. 

Dry cashew cheese mix

To make cheese sauce, add 1 part cashew cheese mix and 1 part water in a small saucepan, and whisk together over medium heat, until thick and bubbly. Pour over pasta, veggies, etc. Or mix with salsa, and enjoy with some baked tortilla chips :)