Vegetarian Enchilada Casserole is a fun and easy Mexican-inspired recipe that the whole family will love.
Whenever we have dinner at our favorite local Mexican restaurant, my husband frequently orders enchiladas. His love of them has rubbed off on our kids, evidenced by how they spend most of the meal going between what they’ve ordered and (much to hubby’s chagrin) taking repeated bites off of his plate. Given that my family’s appetite for enchiladas is greater than how often we eat out, I decided to learn how to make them. And then I came up with the Enchilada Casserole. A total game-changer.
I love making Vegetarian Enchilada Casserole because you save time by not having to roll up enchiladas. Layering the tortillas with the fillings gives you the same satisfying bite without the extra time it takes to perfectly roll up the tortillas. It makes it a little more kid friendly so they can help you layer the filling with the tortillas. Getting kids involved in the kitchen is always a huge goal for me.
If you’re not used to preparing enchiladas at home, making homemade enchilada sauce might seem a bit intimidating, but it’s actually quite easy (or at least my version is simple!). The list of ingredients may seem long, but they are all very likely things you already have in your pantry, spice drawer, refrigerator and freezer.
Mexican-inspired dishes are one of the easiest to make vegetarian, which is great for our family since Kenya is vegetarian, and the rest of us try to eat as much plant based food as possible. There are several recipes on Weelicious that are great for families that have a mixture of vegetarians or meat eaters like Vegetarian Baked Taquitos, Vegetarian Chimichangas and Vegetarian Sheet Pan Nachos.
If you’re like me and have a house full of enchilada lovers but want to save a few bucks by making dinner at home, you’ll be happy to discover how easy it is to do — and you can make enough so that no one has to pick off of anyone else’s plate!
Vegetarian Enchilada Casserole
Ingredients
Enchilada Sauce:
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 small onion, diced
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 tablespoon ground cumin
- 1 tablespoon chili powder
- 1 teaspoon honey
- 1 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes
- 1 cup water
Filling:
- 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon cumin powder
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 1 large egg
- 1 cup corn kernels
- 1-15 ounce can black beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 red bell pepper, diced
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
- 2 1/2 cups shredded mexican blend cheese, divided
- 6 corn tortillas
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 F.
- Heat 1 tbsp of oil in a small saucepan over medium heat and sauté the onions for 4 minutes. Add the garlic, salt, cumin and chili powder and sauté an additional minute.
- Add the honey, diced tomatoes and water. Stir, bring to a boil, cover and simmer for 10 minutes.
- Allow mixture to cool for 10 minutes then place in a blender, puree and set aside.
- In a large bowl, whisk the onion, garlic, cumin powder, salt, sour cream and egg.
- Stir in the corn, black beans, bell pepper, cilantro and 2 cups of cheese to combine.
- Pour 3/4 cup of the enchilada sauce on the bottom of a 7×11 baking dish. Cover with 2 corn tortillas.
- Spread half of the mixture on top of the tortillas and top with another ½ cup of sauce followed by 2 more tortillas.
- Spread the remaining mixture on top of the tortillas, top with the remaining 2 tortillas, sauce and cheese.*
- Bake for 40 minutes uncovered.
- Serve.
- *At this point the casserole can be covered and frozen. When ready to serve, bake in a 350 degree oven for 45 minutes.
I make corn tortillas. There are recipes online to make them. Its very easy.
Serves 12?? Umm… not to sure about that… In a 7X11 pan, you might feed 4 – 6 with rice and beans side dishes. Is this incorrect?
This was delicious! They don’t have corn tortillas or black beans where I live so used flour tortillas and red kidney beans instead. And also layered some cilantro lime rice into the mix! Very hearty and filling meal, will be making again and again!
Definitely cook it fully before adding to the layers!
Hi Catherine, how would you suggest incorporating ground turkey into this meal? i..e. should it be fully browned before sprinkling in as a layer? Thanks in advance!
I tired this last night as well as the sweet potato enchilada recipe. The sweet potato black bean enchiladas won over everyone, hands down. I made this exactly to recipe except that I rolled them into enchiladas. They were good, but not as easy or special as the sweet potato ones. I do recommend the enchilada SAUCE recipe here. It was very nice, as I don’t like many canned versions. Thanks for a new dinner option!
I prefer to freeze before cooking, but I bet it would be okay to freeze after as well!
Can you freeze this after cooking?
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