Vegan Hatch Pumpkin Veggie Enchiladas

Ingredients

• Yellow Onion
• Baby bell mushrooms
• Garlic
• Hatch chili peppers
• Sweet peppers
• Black beans
• Cilantro
• Baby spinach
• Vegetable Broth or Water
• Whole Foods 365 Corn + Flour Tortillas
• Hatch Pumpkin Sauce
• Seasoning: salt, pepper, cumin, red chili powder
• Optional: vegan cheese

Steps

1. Heat oven to 375ºF
2. Heat 2 Tbsp olive oil in a pan over medium heat
3. Saute 1 chopped onion until translucent. Add 1 c chopped mushrooms. Cook another 3 minutes. Add 2 minced garlic cloves. Mix and cook another minute.
4. Rub olive oil all over 8 sweet peppers and 1-2 large hatch chili peppers. Place on a baking pan. Bake for 6 minutes. Turn. Bake another 4 minutes.
5. Add 1 can black beans to the mushroom/onion mix. Mix through.
6. Season vegetable mix with 1/4 tsp pepper, 1/8 tsp salt (large pinch), 1/8 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp cumin, pinch of red chili powder, 2 Tbsp nutritional yeast (can be omitted if you do not have any).
7. Add 4 c chopped spinach. Mix through. Add 1/2 c broth or water. Allow to simmer. Then add 3/4 c hatch pumpkin sauce. Heat on medium-low. Allow mix to thicken but do not allow it to dry out (if it does dry out, simply add more water/broth 1 Tbsp at a time to loosen the consistency)
8. Add coarsely chopped hatch chili peppers and roasted sweet peppers (simply pop off the stems and cut peppers into quarters — the larger chunks taste amazing in the cooked enchilada and add texture since the rest of the mixture is pretty creamy). Add 1/4c chopped cilantro. Mix. Remove from heat.
9. Warm tortillas on a pan until they are soft and pliable — this prevents breaking/cracking of the tortilla when rolling the enchiladas
10. Spoon 2/3 c mix off center down each tortillas and then roll them up tightly
11. Lightly oil a baking dish (I use a basting brush to brush on oil)
12. Mix 1/4 c marinara sauce or red enchilada sauce with 1/2 c hatch pumpkin sauce — this step can be skipped but if marinara sauce is available, this adds a a good tomato undertone which can also be added with some tomato puree or crushed canned tomatoes. I simply had no tomatoes to puree into this but the taste was a happy discovery.
13. Spoon 2 Tbsp sauce mix onto the bottom of the baking dish.
14. Place rolled enchiladas onto the sauce in the baking dish. Spoon the rest of the sauce mix generously over the enchiladas so they fall over the sides of the enchiladas to coat them.
15. Bake at 375ºF for 8 minutes.
16. Sprinkle shredded vegan cheese over enchiladas (can be omitted and these will still taste amazing). I sprinkled about 1 Tbsp water onto them at this point so the water could boil off as the cheese melted instead of the enchiladas drying out. Bake another 4 minutes.

TIPS

Instead of black beans, a mixture of veggies such as zucchini, mushroom, yellow squash, or other squashes can be used instead – make sure to roast or stir fry prior to adding it to the sauce mix. Squashes can be cooked alongside the peppers in the oven.

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