Sweet Potatoes!!

Mrs. Sara Moncayo, this one’s for you ;) Sweet Pototato Enchiladas - a perfect mix of comfort, spice, and pure deliciousness.  I can’t remember how I came up with this recipe, but this dish has been a go-to dish in my repertoire for a couple of years now. It’s best when you make your own refried beans and sauce, but if need be, there are definitely some shortcuts. 

Sweet Potato Enchiladas

Serves 6-8 (serves 2-3 in the Biber-Brewer household)

10 whole-wheat flour tortillas

2 cups refried black beans (recipe to follow) – or 1 can refried black beans

1 lb fresh spinach - steamed and well drained

            -frozen spinach works as well, just make sure that it’s thawed and drained

1-2 medium sweet potatoes – peeled and diced into bite size pieces

1 TB Cumin

2 tsp Coriander

3 poblano peppers

8 oz shredded monterey jack cheese

3 cups Roasted Tomato Sauce with Adobo seasoning (recipe to follow) – or 1, 28 oz can Muir Glenn Diced Adobe Fire Roasted Tomatoes

Optional Toppings: chopped cilantro, sliced avocados, yogurt or sour cream

1) Toss your diced sweet potatoes with olive oil, a pinch of salt, and the coriander and cumin.  Place them on a baking sheet and roast at 400 for about 15 minutes, until they are “al-dente” or slightly tender when pierced with a knife (they’ll cook further when the finished enchiladas bake in the oven).  Once the potatoes are tender, remove them from the oven and set aside.

2)  Now it’s time to roast your poblanos.  You can do this several ways – the easiest way is just to toss them on your grill, turning the peppers every few minutes or so, until each side is sufficiently blackened.  Remove them from the grill and let cool.  Once the peppers are cooled, peel the blackened skin off and dice the peppers into bite size pieces.  Don’t drive yourself crazy trying to remove all the seeds – they add heat, but they’re pretty mild. Toss the peppers in a bowl with your roasted sweet potatoes – you’ve got your enchilada filling!

-You can also roast your poblanos under the broiler in your oven.  The process is exactly the same as grilling them.  You place the peppers directly under the broiler (putting them on aluminum foil is easiest) and just keep flipping them until each side of the pepper is entirely blackened.

4) Enchilada Assembly!!  Lightly grease 2 8x8 pyrex dishes with olive oil.  Place a flour tortilla on a large workspace and spread a good amount of refried beans on it with a rubber scraper.  Next, toss on a handful of the spinach, and then about ¼ cup of the sweet potato/poblano mixture.  Finally, toss in some shredded monterey jack cheese, roll up the tortilla, and place (seam side down) in the pyrex dish.  An 8x8 dish should fit 4-5 rolled tortillas in it.

5) To serve the enchiladas, place one of the rolled tortillas (or 2!!) on a plate and top with a ladle full of the hot sauce.  Top with extra cheese and any of the additional toppings and of course enjoy!

Roasted Tomato Sauce with Adobe Seasoning

12 Roma Tomatoes (the bigger the better)

6 hefty sized garlic cloves – skins peeled

olive oil

salt

1 7 oz can Chipotle Chiles in Adobo Sauce (found in the Mexican aisle of your grocery store)

1) Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Slice the Roma tomatoes in half and lay skin side down on a baking sheet.  Situate your garlic cloves in between the tomatoes and top with a glug of olive oil and a sprinkle of salt.  Roast the tomatoes (shaking your baking sheet every so often) and garlic until the tomatoes are crinkly and blackened, about 30-40 minutes.

2) Let the tomatoes cool and then toss the garlic and tomatoes into a medium size sauce pan.  Pull out one or two of the chipotle chilis from the 4 oz can and deseed them (or don’t deseed if you like it HOT!) – place them in the sauce pan, along with 2 heaping tablespoons of the sauce from the can.  Blend the sauce with an immersion blender or in batches in a food processor.  YUM.

Garlicky Refried Black Beans

½ lb dry black beans

4 cloves garlic – peeled

1 bay leaf

salt

olive oil

1) Soak the black beans for at least 4 hours or overnight.  Once they’ve soaked, drain the beans and pour them, along with enough water to cover them, into a large soup pot.  Place the garlic, salt, and bay leaf in the pot as well and bring it to a boil.  Once the water is boiling, reduce the heat to a simmer, partially cover the pot, and let the beans cook for about an hour to an hour and a half, or until the beans are tender.

2) Drain the cooked beans (remove the bay leaf) and RESERVE the cooking liquid.  In the same pot, heat 2 TB olive oil.  Add the beans and cook until the beans really begin to sizzle.  Once they are sizzling, add about a cup of the reserved cooking liquid.  Stir the beans until the cooking liquid is almost evaporated – repeat this process 3 times.

3) Add another cup of the reserved liquid and remove the pot from the heat.  Pulse the mixture with an immersion blender.  If you want the mixture to be silky smooth, keep adding the reserved liquid until you reach your desired consistency.  These beans are super, super tasty.