Meatless Monday: Layered Veggie Enchiladas

Alright, tonight's dinner may look like a big pile of rubbish, but I swear, it was a total success. I turned to my Whole Foods app once again for this week for our vegetarian dinner and was quite pleased to find a recipe the husband and I both enjoyed. About half-way through cooking the meal I started to worry the husband wasn't going to be impressed. I had to mash the black beans and as soon as I did that, our black beans began to look like refried beans. And the husband hates refried beans. So, I naturally tried to hide this fact from him; I thought I'd get away with it until he walked into the kitchen and saw the bowl. One quick look and he said: "Ew! What is that?!" But I told him they were just black beans and they wouldn't kill him. I promised they were refried beans.

The recipe was rather easy. I threw the corn, pepper, tomatoes and a little chili powder into a pan to simmer for about 15-20 minutes. The only issue I had with this step was that the recipe said the liquid would evaporate after about 15 minutes, but my mixture was quite soupy. I ended up spooning off a little of the liquid and still had to be careful to scoop vegetables - and not tomato soupiness - onto the tortillas when assembling the "enchiladas." (Aren't enchiladas supposed to be filled and rolled? I don't know, but Whole Foods called the recipe enchiladas.)

A tortilla, a little of the bean mixture, about 1/2 cup of veggies, cheese, another tortilla, more veggies and a little more cheese, and dinner was ready to go into the oven. Because the meal didn't really need to cook, we took ours out after 10 minutes - instead of the full 15, as instructed by the recipe. I'm sure an extra five minutes would have helped the tortillas firm up a bit more, but I don't think we missed much. 

When I told the husband I was pretty excited that my Whole Foods app was two for two when it comes to good vegetarian meals, he couldn't hide his confusion. "What do you mean?" He frowned. "Last week's dinner was awful! This was good. It might look like poop, but it's good." Whatever. Maybe I wouldn't win any home ec awards for presentation with this one, but I definitely scored points with the husband on taste.

Layered Veggie Enchiladas

Adapted From Whole Foods

1 (15 1/4 ounce) can corn
1 cup green pepper, chopped
2 tablespoons lime juice
2 1/2 tablespoons chili powder
1 (14 1/2 ounce) can diced tomatoes (no-salt-added tomatoes, preferably)
1 (15 ounce) can reduced-sodium black beans, rinsed and drained
8 corn tortillas
3/4 cup part-skim mozzarella cheese, shredded

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Mix the corn, green pepper, lime juice, 1 1/2 TBSP chili powder and tomatoes; cook over medium-high heat. Simmer the mixture until liquid is almost evaporated, about 10 minutes or more.

In a bowl, mash the beans with 1/2 TBSP chili powder.

Lay four tortillas on a lightly sprayed baking pan. Spread the bean mixture on the tortillas, then 1/2 cup of the vegetable mixture and a little cheese. Add another tortilla, about 1/4 cup more of the veggies and any leftover cheese.

Bake for 15 minutes or until heated through and browned to your liking.


This recipe made four filling servings. Whole Foods calculated the nutritional info (as per the Whole Foods recipe) to be 380 calories, 5 g fat, 6 g carbs, 14 g fiber and 18 g protein per serving. When I plugged the info into Food.com, though, it said the recipe was 417 calories, 10.5 g fat, 63 g carbs, 13 g fiber and 23.9 g protein. Either way, I'm counting this as a rather healthy dinner!