in the kitchen: sweet potato & black bean enchilada bake

Last night I decided to chef it up and make sweet potato and black bean enchiladas using the left over corn tortillas that my brother had from his (excellent!) Mexican night. Sadly, the tortillas were not behaving when I tried rolling them to make the enchiladas, so I quickly changed the plan and decided to make an enchilada bake...or casserole if you will. I think the results weren't too bad at all and actually a lot easier than the doing the whole enchilada process....a win-win! So if you are looking for a Tuesday night dinner idea or feel like planning ahead for tomorrow, you should try this one out!

Sweet Potato & Black Bean Enchilada Bake

serves 4-5 (depending on how hungry you are!)

Ingredients

2 medium sweet potatoes, diced

1 medium red onion

2 cans black beans, washed & drained

2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

1 can adobo chipotle peppers

2 cans red enchilada sauce

15-18 small corn tortillas

-9x13 pan

Optional: 1 cup sour cream + ½ creamed corn + cilantro, blend for a fresh crema sauce topping!

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Chop sweet potatoes. Once the oven reaches 400, place sweet potatoes on a pan and bake for 30 mins the oven.
2. Chop red onion. Mix 1 cup shredded cheese, red onion, black beans in a large mixing bowl. Add sweet potatoes to this mixture once they are cooked.
3. In separate mixing bowl, mix enchilada sauce with 2 tablespoons of the sauce from the adobo chipotle peppers. Feel free to cut up a few of these peppers and put them into the sweet potato, black bean and red onion mix for even more of a smoky flavoring!
4. Pour some enchilada sauce to coat the bottom your pan. Put one layer of corn tortillas on top, then add first layer of sweet potato mixture.
5. Add next layer of tortillas and lightly coat with enchilada mix; add sweet potato mixture. Repeat this until you have filled your pan, finishing with a tortilla layer on top.
6. Spread generous amount of enchilada sauce on your final layer of tortillas and top with remaining cheese.
7. Bake for 30 minutes. Let cool for 5 minutes…top with crema sauce if you’d like or just dig in!

Bon appetit!