Instant enchilada casserole

I have been promising Kyle enchiladas for so long now and I finally made good on my promise!

Last summer our CSA was throwing peppers and tomatoes and tomatillos at me faster than I could even manage to process.

I was so overwhelmed and had no clue what to do with them. We aren’t big fans of heat in this house so it’s a bit nerve wracking to get bags (and bags and then more bags) of unidentified peppers of all shapes and colors and sizes. I ended up deciding to make enchilada sauce with them because that way if it was accidentally super spicy, it would be mellowed out by the other ingredients (rice, beans, tortilla, etc).

Last week I thawed one of the jars of home-made enchilada sauce in anticipation of making this.

The only “prep” I had to do other than that was make white rice. For that reason, I planned out a dinner with rice so I could just make it once and use the leftovers in the enchiladas. [Remember this tofu stir fry with white rice?]

I’m sorry to say the photos of this didn’t do it justice.

Kyle LOVED it and happily had it for lunch five days in a row. But for me the best part is that it was SO EASY to make. I will make it again and again now that I know how quick it is, until I have no more enchilada sauce left! He also said it wasn’t spicy at all so maybe next time I will make it for the whole family.

FYI I got the recipe from the Just Add Sauce cookbook by America’s Test Kitchen.

Here’s a rough approximation of what I did (it’s a casserole, so it is pretty forgiving).

• add oil to coat the bottom and sides of the pan
• mix half a can of black beans (~1 1/2 cups) with 2 cups cooked rice and add to the bottom of the pot
• add 1/2 cup corn kernels
• add 1 1/2 – 2 cups enchilada sauce
• add 1 cup shredded cheese
• add a layer of ripped corn tortillas
• repeat again with all the ingredients (but swap the last two so that the cheese is the final topping after the tortilla layer)
• cook on high pressure for 15 minutes

Enjoy!

[Note that you could take this in a million different directions based on your allergy needs. It’s naturally gluten free depending on if your enchilada sauce is home-made or store bought. It could be vegan if you use daiya (or another non-dairy) cheese. You could also use pinto beans instead of black or even add in a layer of ground meat.]

As you can see, the pics are not the most flattering, but it’s an instant pot casserole, not a Michelin star entree. It is what it is.