Frugal Food Friday: Vegetarian Enchiladas

Did you freeze your beans last week?  No?  Well, you should.  So should I, actually.  But Hubby cooked a fresh crockpot full of beans today, so I could make these and take pictures for you.  Then he mashed them up into our refried beans before I could freeze any...so we need to cook another pot of beans.

We are not vegetarian, but we find that we like a lot of vegetarian recipes because they are often cheaper than meat recipes and packed with healthy vegetables.  In fact, there are a lot of weeks when we only eat meat 2 or 3 times total (including all three meals).

Anyway...this is an awesome recipe. I hope you all try it. Boy's (our two-year old)'s aunt served this to us once when we were visiting, and we asked her for the recipe because they were so good.

Ingredients:

2 t. olive oil

1 small zucchini, diced

1 medium onion, chopped
1 medium pepper, chopped
1 can white kidney (cannellini) beans, drained
1 can black beans, drained
1/2 cup vegetable or chicken broth
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 cup loosely packed fresh cilantro leaves and stems, chopped
8 (8 inch) flour tortillas
1 jar (15 1/2 oz) mild salsa
1/3 cup shredded Monterrey Jack cheese
Instructions:
In 12-inch skillet, heat oil over medium heat.  Add zucchini, onion, and pepper; cook, stirring frequently until veggies are tender and golden (10-15 minutes).  Meanwhile, puree half of the beans (half of both the white and the black) in the blender with the broth until smooth.  Transfer bean mash to large bowl, stir in whole beans and set aside.  Add garlic to veggies in skillet, cook 1 minute longer.  Stir in the following and cook 2 more minutes. Transfer vegetable mixture to bowl with beans; stir in cilantro until mixed.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Spoon 3/4 cup bean mix to each tortilla, roll tortilla.  Spoon 1/2 cup salsa into bottom of 13x9 baking dish (not metal).  Place enchiladas, seam side down on top of salsa.  Spoon remaining salsa over enchiladas; sprinkle with cheese.  Bake until heated through, 20 minutes.

So now that you've got the recipe, let me tell you what I will often change.  I used my own fresh cooked or frozen (and defrosted) beans.  I also usually double the zucchini and pepper, which means I also cook it in a slightly larger pan.  (We love left-overs around here.)  Something you can also do to make it even healthier (or gluten-free if that's an issue for you) is use corn tortillas instead of flour.  We had corn tortillas on hand and not flour tortillas, so that's what's pictured.  When I use corn tortillas, instead of rolling them up like enchiladas, I layer it.  First salsa on the bottom, then a layer of the veggie-bean filling, then a layer of torn up corn tortillas, then another layer of filling, another layer of the veggie-bean filling, and then the cheese on top.  Of course you can also switch out regular cheese for a low-fat cheese option.  Salsa can be a bit expensive to buy by the bottle at the regular grocery store, but you can get a huge bottle at Costco for $5 or $6 (which would make this recipe about 6 or so times) so that makes it a little more affordable.