Veggie Enchilada

On Friday night I was challenged to work up something from the haul of a local produce run…and a pack of low carb tortillas, with the strong suggestion of a vegetarian dinner, and an allowance of ‘a little’ cheese.

Thus, a meat-free tasty enchilada was born. I had a pint of mushrooms in the fridge, so I decided this would be my meat substitute. Well before dinner, I diced these up and began cooking them down with avocado oil on a medium low heat. To this I added some Worcestershire sauce and liquid coconut aminos. Soy aminos would be fine, but I find it to be too salty. This mixture was seasoned with a little garlic powder, onion powder, smoked paprika, chili powder and black pepper and cooked down till almost dry and then set aside for a while.

The veggies were chopped and sauteed in avocado oil over a medium high heat to sear them quickly. These included red bell pepper, red onion, baby eggplant and squash. But anything would work.

The mushroom meat, the seared veggies, a spoonful of Cholula Salsa and a couple thin strips of cheddar cheese went onto the tortilla along with a couple leafs of fresh basil from the garden, rolled and placed in a glass baking dish. Once the dish was full, the rest of the jar of salsa was poured on top.

This was baked for 20 minutes at 350°. Everything was already cooked and hot, so this was really just about melding the ingredients.

The result was a very delightful enchilada without a heavy enchilada sauce, dense meat and gooey cheese. Not that there’s anything wrong with that!

Note: I had planned on a yogurt-lime crema on top, but we were rushed to get out on the water to catch the sunset on our paddleboards. I think it would have made this perfect. Also, next time I’ll make a home-made salsa.