I've decided that starting a blog post is the most difficult part of the food blogging process. Cooking is obviously no problem since I love to do it anyway. Logging all of the ingredients into a calorie tracking website to get the nutritional info can be mildly annoying, but I often have someone on standby that I shout ingredients at from the kitchen to do that job for me. Photography is another thing I enjoy, though admittedly food styling and presentation is a new world for me and I have a lot to learn (as the photos from this particular recipe will prove). Filling out the post with random details of how I made the dish, submitting my recipes to the various food blogger sites, updating my Gouda Monster facebook page... all things that I can manage to do alright. Actually starting the post though? Writing those first few lines and figuring out how to get things rolling? That's tough.
Well I guess I got that out of the way... this time.
This enchilada bake is something I whipped up for lunch last week when I knew I had some corn tortillas in the fridge to use up. My first attempt was tasty, but not something that I felt was good enough to warrant posting about. More specifically, the dish was a little bit runny and not all that attractive to look at. It had nice flavor but it wasn't enough to leave you wanting it again. I picked apart the flaws, readjusted the recipe, and made it again for dinner a few nights later. I'm giddy to report that the revised version is fantastic! It's definitely something I look forward to making again.
You know what else makes me giddy about this enchilada bake? It's under 350 calories. Actually it's 349 calories, but I love being able to - with good conscience - say "under 350". To any of my readers that aren't vegetarian, just use cooked, shredded chicken in place of the Quorn. Also, I used Neufchâtel cheese in the chicken layer but using cream cheese (or any other soft cheese) would be a perfect substitution. I only used Neufchâtel because it's what I had in my fridge at the time. I baked this in a round ramekin that was the perfect diameter for the corn tortillas. Everything stacked up neatly in the center which made assembling a breeze. If you don't have a small, round baking dish you may want to double up the recipe so that you can layer the tortillas side by side in a larger dish.
Oh and in case you wanted to see how this stuff looks like when it's turned inside out in a poor attempt at plating, here you go... I have no shame.
Veggie Chicken Enchilada Bake
Summary: Zesty, creamy, cheesy, and filling.
Ingredients
- 1 teaspoon olive oil
- 1 jalapeno, diced (remove seeds for less heat if you prefer)
- 1/2 onion, diced
- 1 can diced tomatoes, drained
- 1 4oz can green chiles, drained
- 1/2 cup canned black beans, drained
- 1/2 cup salsa, drained
- 2 cups Quorn tenders, shredded or diced (free free to sub shredded, cooked chicken if you're not vegetarian)
- 2 tablespoons soft cheese, such as Neufchâtel or cream cheese
- 3 corn tortillas
- 2 tablespoons fresh cilantro, chopped
- 1 tablespoon chili powder
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1/2 cup shredded monterrey jack cheese
- 1/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375F.
- In a nonstick skillet heat one teaspoon of olive oil and cook the jalapeno and onion until translucent. Remove from heat.
- Combine salsa, soft cheese, 1/3 of the onion mixture, 1 tablespoon of the cilantro, half of the chili powder, and a dash of salt in a bowl. When the sauce is blended stir in your cooked Quorn tenders.
- In another bowl stir together black beans, 1/3 of the onion mixture, remaining chili powder, and ground cumin. If you're using a low sodium variety of canned beans you may want to add a little salt to taste.
- In your food processor pulse together the canned tomatoes, canned green chiles, remaining onion mixture, and last tablespoon of cilantro. Salt to taste.
- In a round baking dish spoon a small amount of the canned tomato mixture into the bottom, just enough to create a thin layer. Assemble the remaining layers in the following order: 1 corn tortilla, black beans, 1/4 cup of monterrey jack cheese, 1 corn tortilla, all of the chicken, 1 corn tortilla, several tablespoons of the canned tomato mixture (there will be some leftover).
- Scatter the remaining 1/4 cup of monterrey jack cheese and the 1/4 cup of mozzarella cheese over the top and bake for 30 minutes.
Quick notes
I had some of the canned tomato salsa mixture leftover and didn't take that into account when calculating the calories, so it's actually a little less than is shown here.
Preparation time: 15 minute(s)
Cooking time: 40 minute(s)
Number of servings (yield): 3
Calories: 349
