These vegetarian skillet enchiladas are made with a red enchilada sauce, and can be completely made in ONE pan in about 30 minutes. This dish will become your new family favorite dinner!
There's very little prepping with this dish except dicing an onion and red pepper. So it qualifies as a no-fuss vegetarian dinner!
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- ๐คทโโ๏ธ What are skillet enchiladas?
- โค๏ธ Why you'll love this recipe
- ๐ง Main Ingredients + Notes
- ๐ช Recommended Equipment
- ๐ Instructions Overview
- โฐ Tips to Simplify and Save Time
- ๐ฉโ๐ณ Preparation Tips
- ๐กIdeas for Possible Variations
- ๐ฅฉ For the Meat Eaters at the Table
- ๐ฝ Side Dish Ideas
- ๐คทโโ๏ธ FAQ
- ๐ More Mexican Casseroles You Might Like
- 30-Minute Skillet Enchiladas (Vegetarian)
Who doesn't love Mexican food? Seriously. I'm all in for Tamale Pie, like any night of the week. Ditto for these Cheesy Mexican Stuffed Sweet Potatoes. And now I feel that way about these skillet enchiladas.
🤷♀️ What are skillet enchiladas?
Skillet enchiladas are like this Mexican stuffed peppers casserole. They're both deconstructed dishes. All the ingredients are the same, but the things that hold the ingredients, like peppers or tortillas, are cut up and included in the dish.
If you prefer a more traditional vegetarian enchiladas dish, check out these vegetarian enchiladas made with beer.
❤️ Why you'll love this recipe
- Easy and quick. The only prepping is chopping the onion and red bell pepper.
- There are ways to make it super low carb, if that's the diet you follow.
- Easy to add chicken for meat eaters at the table.
- You can make this dish is around 30 minutes!!
- It's family friendly and a crowd pleaser.
🧅 Main Ingredients + Notes
For the all of the ingredients, measurements and directions, go to the Recipe Card at the bottom of this post ⬇️ .
This might seem like a LOT of ingredients, but the only prepping you'll need to do is to dice the onion, red bell pepper, and any garnishes you add.
- Yellow onion - white onion is fine too, but red onion is too sweet for this recipe.
- Red bell pepper
- Small can of green peppers - I like the product from Hatch, or use a poblano pepper.
- Garlic - either garlic cloves or garlic paste in a tube.
- Corn - either fresh or frozen.
- Black beans - either cook your own Instant Pot black beans or use canned black beans. Or if you prefer, you can use pinto beans.
- Mexican spice blend - use your favorite (this is mine) or make your own mix using cumin, chili powder, dried oregano and garlic powder.
- Dried oregano (I like a little extra oregano in this dish)
- Lime juice - either freshly squeezed or from a squeeze bottle.
- Chipotle chiles in adobo sauce
- Mexican blend cheese - I buy it already grated, in small plastic bags.
- Tortillas - either corn or flour is fine. I use Mr. Tortilla 2 Net Carb Tortilla Wraps, and highly recommend them.
- Red enchilada Sauce - make your own red enchilada sauce or purchase it. Not all enchilada sauces are equal by a long shot. My favorite is Hatch Green Chili Enchilada Sauce.
- Garnishes - any combination of sliced scallions, avocado slices, radishes, cilantro, jalapeño thin slices, chopped tomatoes, sour cream, guacamole and roasted pumpkin seeds. (Don't use them all - just choose 3 or 4.)
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links to products and foods I use in my kitchen. This means that at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase. To view my entire storefront of recommended kitchen tools and equipment, check out my shop on Amazon.
🔪 Recommended Equipment
- Chef's knife
- Cast iron skillet or other skillet that's oven-safe.
📝 Instructions Overview
Detailed instructions for making this broccoli cheese casserole are in the recipe card below, but here's a brief overview.
Step 1
Sauté. Add diced onion, red peppers and green chiles to a skillet with a little olive oil. Cook until softened. Add the garlic and cook a little longer.
Step 2
Simmer. Stir in the corn, black beans, spices, chipotle pepper and lime juice. Add half of both the cheeses and enchilada sauce and stir. Punch in the tortilla strips, and pour the remaining enchilada sauce over the top. Simmer.
Step 3
Bake. Top with the remaining cheese and slide into the oven to melt the cheese.
Step 4
Serve. Serve topped with optional garnishes.
⏰ Tips to Simplify and Save Time
- The only prepping required in making these skillet enchiladas is dicing the red pepper and onion. Some markets sell both of these already diced, in plastic containers.
- You can use a poblano pepper, and dice it yourself, if that's your preference. Or purchase a 4 ounce can of diced green chiles.
👩🍳 Preparation Tips
This is a one-pan dish, meaning the entire dish is made using only one pan. So be sure it's large enough to accommodate the entire dish. My 12-inch cast iron skillet is the perfect size.
The cheese on top is melted in the oven, so be sure to use a skillet that you can move from the stovetop directly into the oven.
My skillet fits into my toaster oven, so that's what I use to melt the cheese on top. It only needs about 5 minutes, so it's not worth heating up a regular oven just for that, unless you need the oven for something else.
💡Ideas for Possible Variations
Pinto beans work great in the recipe too.
🥩 For the Meat Eaters at the Table
Add 1 ยฝ cups of roast chicken to the casserole or serve it on the side. If you add the chicken to the casserole, you'll need more enchilada sauce, tortillas and a larger skillet.
Unfortunately, I haven't yet made it this way, so I don't have specific adjustments you'd need to make.
🍽 Side Dish Ideas
In keeping with the Mexican theme, this Mexican Sweet Cornbread (Tomalito) would be perfect with this dish.
For a vegetable side, consider Spiced Sweet Potato Fries (Roasted), a Skillet-Baked Corn Pudding, or some Blistered Shishito Peppers with Cheese.
🤷♀️ FAQ
Can I make this dish ahead?
This dish is best served as soon as it's done, but you could make it earlier in the day, cover and refrigerate it.
Can I freeze this dish?
I haven't tried this. If you do try it, let me know how it turned out!
Does it matter what kind of tortillas I use?
No. I've used both corn and wheat tortillas in this dish, and both have worked great. I've also used Mr. Tortilla 2 Gram Tortillas, and they've been wonderful in this.
📇 More Mexican Casseroles You Might Like
Mexican Stuffed Pepper Casserole (Vegetarian)
Healthy Mexican Casserole with Quinoa
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30-Minute Skillet Enchiladas (Vegetarian)
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1 cup chopped yellow onion (ยฝ large onion)
- 1 red bell pepper stemmed, seeded and chopped
- 4 ounce can of chopped green chilis
- 1 cup corn fresh or frozen
- 15 ounces black beans canned or 2 cups cooked from dried beans
- 1 ½ tablespoons Mexican spice blend
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 chipotle pepper in adobo sauce minced
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 teaspoons lime juice
- 2 cups grated Mexican blend cheeses
- 15 ounce can of Red Enchilada Sauce or make your own enchilada sauce
- 6 small tortillas either corn or wheat
- 1 scallion sliced (garnish)
- 4 cherry tomatoes halved (garnish)
- ยผ cup chopped cilantro (garnish)
- 1 avocado sliced (garnish)
- ยผ cup sour cream (garnish)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven (I use my toaster oven) to 400˚ F.
- Warm the olive oil in a 12-inch oven proof skillet over medium - high heat, and add the onion, red pepper and green chilis. Sauté until slightly softened, about 5 minutes. Reduce the heat to medium, and add the garlic.
- Stir in the corn, black beans and the spices. Mince one chipotle pepper in adobo sauce, and add it to the sauce. Stir in the salt and lime juice.
- Add 1 cup of the Mexican cheeses and half of the enchilada sauce, and continue to warm the sauce until the cheese melts.
- Stack the tortillas on top of each other, and slice into 8 triangles. Arrange half of them on the sauce. Using a wooden spoon, push them into the sauce. Repeat with the remaining tortilla triangles.
- Pour the remaining enchilada sauce over everything, and gently mix into the casserole with a wooden spoon. Spread the remaining cup of shredded Mexican cheeses on top.
- Slide the enchilada casserole into the oven for 5 minutes to melt the cheese.
- Top with garnishes before serving, or alongside the casserole.
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