These vegetarian enchiladas are filled with two kinds of beans for protein, veggies, spices and cheese. They're topped with salsa and cheese just before going into the oven.
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- 🧅 Main Ingredients + Notes
- 🔪 Recommended Equipment
- 📝 Instructions Overview
- 💡Ideas for Other Vegetarian Enchilada Fillings
- 👩🍳 Make Ahead Tips
- 🥩 For the Meat Eaters at the Table
- 📇 More Mexican Dishes You Might Like
- Vegetarian Enchiladas
- 🌱 Sign up for my emails, and get my 5 tips for easy vegetarian meals!
These Vegetarian Enchiladas are just the BEST. Add meat or shrimp if you really must, but consider going completely meatless with these babies for a Meatless Monday night dinner.
🧅 Main Ingredients + Notes
For the all of the ingredients, measurements and directions, go to the Recipe Card at the bottom of this post.
- Red onion - yellow or white onion is fine too, if that's what you have on hand.
- Peppers - both orange and red bell peppers brings some festive color to these enchiladas.
- Black beans - canned or cook from dried.
- Chickpeas - canned or cook from dried.
- Tomatoes - Roma tomatoes are great because they hold their shape when diced.
- Beer - any pale ale is perfect.
- Tortillas - you can use flour or corn, but I prefer flour in this recipe. Or go with these low-carb tortillas I purchase on-line.
- Melty cheese - Monterey Jack, Pepper Jack and Cheddar cheeses all work great in this recipe.
- Mild salsa - or spice it up a bit with hot salsa, if that's your preference.
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🔪 Recommended Equipment
- Chef's knife
- Large skillet
- Cheese grater
- 9" X 13" casserole dish
📝 Instructions Overview
Detailed instructions for making this vegetarian enchilada casserole are in the recipe card below, but here's a quick overview!
Step 1
Cook. Sauté the onions, garlic and peppers together in a skillet until softened. Add the black beans chickpeas, tomatoes, beer, and lime juice and simmer.
Step 2
Form the enchiladas. Spoon the bean filling down the middle of tortillas, gently wrap, and arrange in a baking dish. Cover with salsa and cheese.
Step 3
Bake and serve. Bake in the oven until the cheese is lightly browned, and the filling is bubbling. Serve hot with scallions, sour cream, guacamole, jalapeños and other fixings you like on the side.
I think I could eat Mexican food everyday and never tire of it. And it's the one common ground in the food arena I've found with my grandchildren. I still threaten to add kale to everything, but they know they can always count on fajitas the first night they're here to visit and sweet corn tomalito, a kind of corn bread.
But next time, I'm making these veggie enchiladas to sneak in more veggies to their tummies.
💡Ideas for Other Vegetarian Enchilada Fillings
- Add some roasted cauliflower florets, which can be cooked ahead. Either roast in the oven or in the air fryer.
- Fold fresh or frozen corn kernels into the skillet with the filling.
- Keep it simple with just beans and cheese.
- Add some greens like spinach.
- Dice up some sweet potatoes, and roast in the oven or air fryer. (This can be done ahead.)
- In autumn, roast up cubed butternut squash dusted with Mexican spices.
- Pour enchilada red sauce over the top with the cheese instead of salsa. You can purchase it, or make your own.
👩🍳 Make Ahead Tips
Prep the enchiladas and tuck them into a casserole dish. Cover and refrigerate for up to two days before baking off. Remove them from the refrigerator to bring them back to room temperature while the oven preheats. Add the salsa and cheese topping and bake.
If the enchiladas go directly into the oven from the refrigerator, add an additional 10 minutes to the baking time.
🥩 For the Meat Eaters at the Table
Buy a roasted chicken and shred the breast meat into long thin strips OR sauté some peeled and deveined shrimp with some lime juice, salt and pepper.
Add to the tortillas when building the enchiladas.
📇 More Mexican Dishes You Might Like
Mexican Stuffed Pepper Casserole (Vegetarian)
Mexican Green Spaghetti (Espagueti Verde)
Vegetarian Enchiladas
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 medium red onion, diced
- 2 large garlic cloves, minced
- 1 large red bell pepper, diced
- 1 large orange bell pepper diced
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon ground coriander
- 1 teaspoon paprika,
- 15 ounce can black beans, or 2 cups cooked from dried
- 15 ounce can chickpeas, or 2 cups cooked from dried
- 3 Roma tomatoes diced
- 6 ounces IPA beer,
- 2 tablespoons lime juice
- Salt and pepper, to taste
- 8 flour tortillas
- ¾ cup grated cheese, divided (I used a mixture of cheddar and pepper Jack)
- ½ cup mild salsa, or to taste
- 1 scallion, thinly sliced (optional garnish)
- ½ cup Low fat sour cream, (optional garnish)
- ½ cup guacamole (optional garnish)
- 1 jalapeño thinly sliced (optional garnish)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat and sauté the onion, garlic and peppers until soft (about 10 minutes). Add the cumin, coriander, and paprika and cook for another 2 minutes.
- Stir in the black beans, chickpeas, tomatoes, beer, and lime juice. Simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add salt and pepper to taste.
- Place spoonfuls of the filling down the middle of each tortilla, and top with 1 - 2 tablespoon cheese. Close the sides of the tortillas over the filling to form a roll, and place them fold-side-down in a baking dish. Spoon any remaining filling around the edges of the filled tortillas.
- Top with salsa, sprinkle with the remaining grated cheese, and bake for around 20 minutes or until the cheese is golden and bubbling. Sprinkle the scallions over the top, if using, and serve hot with any of the suggested garnishes you prefer.
SallyBR
Hello there! Guess who had your blog????
Me, Sally from Bewitching Kitchen!
Loved the recipe I picked, and have a ton more to cook from your site....
Have a wonderful Reveal Day!
The Wimpy Vegetarian
OMG!!! That's amazing. I'm so excited you enjoyed my blog and this recipe!!! So, so funny 🙂 I can't wait until I get yours 🙂
SallyBR
🙂
Karen @ Karen's Kitchen Stories
Gorgeous photo Susan! These sound delicious, even if I'm not a vegetarian =)
Susan
Yay I'm so glad you enjoyed these!! They're one of my faves. My husband thinks using beer instead of water was inspired. Gorgeous photo too 🙂
Eha
What a fun recipe I'll certainly copy and I am not a vegetarian either. Of course beer was part of the recipe: the mixture of the other ingredients already tells of the dish's multicultural origins and I would have picked it as Aussie pretty certainly!! . . . [sending you a big smile!]
Karen Burns-Booth
Bookmarked to make as I adore enchiladas, and if they are filled with veggies, even better! Great SRC pick, Karen
Lauren Everson
Great selection! Mexican is a staple in our house and these sound perfect during Lent.
Rebekah @ Making Miracles
Oh my goodness Susan - those look absolutely amazing! I am craving enchiladas at 8:00am in the morning... wonderful pick this month!
Norma Chang
Love beans so just know I will love this recipe. Vegetarian all the way for me.
Emily @ Life on Food
In the winter I have to try extra hard to get veggies into my diet as salads are not appealing whatsoever. This dinner looks fabulous. Warm, comforting and healthy!!
Debbi Smith
These sound amazing!! I'm going to make these without the cheese to make them vegan. There are so many flavors going on, that I doubt I'll even miss the cheese.
Traci
These look absolutely amazing. Haven't had veggie enchiladas in a long time. Going to have to try these. Great pick this month!
Melissa
I am absolutely with you on that. I could eat Mexican food everyday, too! These enchiladas look great. We are doing a meatless March challenge, and these would be the perfect addition to our menu! Great pick this month 🙂
cheri
Hi Susan, these look delicious, the that you used peppers.
stephanie
I always love seeing your vegetarian takes on these great recipes. Just stopping in from Group C to tell you how amazing these enchilada look. I could eat these every day.
Nicole
These look great! You used corn tortillas, right?
The Wimpy Vegetarian
I did, Nicole! But either corn or flour tortillas will work just fine.
Jess @ Flying on Jess Fuel
LOL, Vegiladas! I love the name! These sound delish, and I definitely think they'd be just fine without meat. Yum!!
Tara
This looks absolutely delicious! Great photo! I always have issues taking photos of things like enchiladas. I will definitely have to try these.
Amy @ Fearless Homemaker
I love enchiladas and I could eat Mexican food every day, too! These look SO good + I love that they're meat-free. YUM!
Oui, Chef
Always looking for tasty meatless meals, thanks so much for this one.
Sarah | Curious Cuisiniere
These look delicious! I love that there are make ahead options.
Christine
These do look amazing! And hearty enough that you could not notice the lack of meat. Great SRC pick!
Glad to know I'm not the only " I could eat Mexican food forever" person. 🙂
mjskitchen
I've never seen an enchiladas I didn't like and once again, that holds true. Fabulous!!!!
Suzanne
Love enchilada's have never made them. These look so good. Really love Mexican food and it's been a while since I've had it. This really make me want some now!!!
Dorothy at Shockingly Delicious
Best looking enchiladas...EVER! Heartily approve of the veg-centric style. Great SRC pick this month! (Sorry it took me so long to get here to comment.)
Mary @ Fit and Fed
Looks good, I like the idea of the bit of beer in it! My own veggie enchiladas involve potatoes, salsa verde, and sour cream. Having tried and failed to do it myself, I'm just gonna say that you did an amazing job of getting a good-looking photo of a baking dish full of enchiladas!