Sweet Potato Black Bean Enchiladas are a quick, easy vegetarian meal that the whole family will love!
I may not condone sneaking vegetables into my kids’ food, but I have occasionally found myself at peace with resorting to bribery when trying to get them to eat a food they profess to detest. If this type of mealtime tactic is not your style you may want to skip reading the rest of the post and proceed directly to the bottom to get the recipe for these unbelievably easy and tasty vegetarian Sweet Potato Black Bean Enchiladas. However, if you can forgive my transgressions and are interested in hearing about one of my less admirable mealtime techniques, read on. I’ll give you a second to decide.
Still here?
OK, here goes… Kenya doesn’t like beans anymore. This development isn’t the easiest on me when it comes to cooking for my family since I love using beans and Chloe absolutely lives for them. In fact, she’s been know to eat up to three bowls of Pressure Cooker Beans in one sitting. On the other hand, Kenya, you can’t even mention beans to him, let alone offer him some.
The first time I made these Sweet Potato Black Bean Enchiladas they were a hit in my house. Well, sort of. Kenya had come home famished from an after school activity and so at dinner he voraciously dove right into his enchiladas since he pretty much loves anything wrapped in a tortilla. Three bites in though he paused for a beat before shrieking, you know I hate beans! He had been so hungry he didn’t notice the black beans until he had actually taken a second to look at what he was eating.
After a bit of protesting, Kenya’s hunger got the better of him and he resumed eating the enchilada, although he did so selectively, pushing the beans aside to form a little mountain at the edge of his plate. Watching this kinda bummed me out as I was excited about how my new vegetarian recipe turned out. However, he obviously still liked the enchiladas enough (minus the beans, of course) to polish off two of them, so I wasn’t ready to give up on getting him to eat the beans, too.
One of the major challenges with kids and food is when their aversion to a certain food is more psychological rather than on account of the taste. Kenya used to love beans when he was younger, but at some point something altered his opinion of them. Once Kenya makes his mind up about something it can be almost impossible to turn him around, but I made it my mission to convince him they were worth eating.
This is where the bribery comes in… ice cream. I promised Kenya that if he ate the entire heap of discarded beans that I would let him eat as much ice cream as he wanted. He looked at me quizzically and asked if I was serious. When it was clear to him that I was, he proceeded to eat all the beans within minutes flat.
The best part was that once he knew he could have as much ice cream as he wanted, he barely had any. One scoop later he was all done. And so were all of the beans 🙂
Sweet Potato Black Bean Enchiladas
Ingredients
- 2 large baked sweet potatoes, cooked and mashed
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 15-ounce can black beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 1/2 cups shredded mexican blend cheese
- 1 12-ounce can enchilada sauce
- 6 large flour tortillas, or 12 corn tortillas
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400F.
- Poke the sweet potatoes all over with a fork and place on a foil lined baking sheet in the oven until fork tender, about 1 hour. Turn the oven down to 350F.
- Remove from the oven, allow to cool slightly, then slice down the middle and scoop out all the pulp into a bowl.
- To the sweet potato pulp, add the garlic powder, onion powder, cumin, salt, black beans, and 1 cup of cheese. Stir to thoroughly combine.
- Pour half of the enchilada sauce into a 9×11 baking dish.
- Place about 1/2 cup mixture into the middle of each tortilla and roll up.
- Place the enchiladas, seam side down, into the baking dish. Pour the remaining enchilada sauce on top.
- Cover with foil and bake for 15 minutes.
- Remove foil and sprinkle with cheese and bake uncovered for an additional 15 minutes until cheese is melted and browned slightly
- Note: The sweet potatoes can be baked up to 2 days ahead of time and the pulp removed and stored in the fridge.
This has been a staple in our house for years now! I have a 9, 7 and 5 year old who gobble it up and it’s so easy to make! I love to eat the stuffing part on it’s on it’s so tasty 😊
So happy you love it! Thanks for the kind comment 🙂
On our weekly rotation! Delicious!
I made these today with corn tortillas and Trader Joe’s enchilada sauce. They were so delicious! The sweet potatoes added a sweetness that reminded me of a mole sauce.
There are lots of easy enchilada sauces out there. You basically put stuff in a pan and cook a bit and done. 🙂
How much cooked sweet potato should I yield from 2 large sweet potatoes?
Fresh garlic! Fresh onion!
Would Butternut Squash work as a replacement for Sweet Potatoes??
Made these tonight and they were a BIG hit with my family. My hubby said he’d pay $ in a restaurant for them!!! Love, love, love these!!!
This is a favorite in our household. Thank you!
This is a favorite in our household. Thank you!
So glad this recipe was a hit!
I finally made it tonight after wanting to for a while. It was a huge hit, absolutely delicious and so easy to make! I am sure I will be making it again very soon 🙂
Nice!
This recipe is in our family’s regular rotation…it’s just so good. The only thing I change is I may add a cup of shredded chicken if I have it on hand. Other than that, it’s just perfect.
I found this recipe on Pinterest, pinned it, and just made it tonight. It was awesome! The only thing I did different was, instead of the garlic and onion powders, I sautéed half an onion and a large clove of garlic (minced) before adding it to the filling. I have tried a different sweet potato/black bean enchilada recipe before, but this one is way better! This recipe is a keeper, thank you!
These can out sooo good
My kids wouldnt eat them but we loved it
Used homemade beans
This is still in the oven but the filling is delicious! Thanks for your healthful recipes.
Any ideas for a good sauce that does not have tomatoes? My LO can’t have them. I was thinking perhaps green enchilada sauce, but I wasn’t sure that would be too tasty. Has anyone tried any other sauce?
I would also like to know if they can be prepared in advance and frozen!
Has anyone tried freezing these? I would love to make these ahead of time for my husband to make for the kids on nights I’m not home.
my 3YO loves these! instead of garlic and onion powder, I drained the black beans and sautéed garlic and onion then added the beans. great recipe. thank you!
These are so delicious. I found a recipe for enchilada sauce by Emeril on foodnetwork.com because I didn’t have any at home. The whole dish with a dollop of plain yogurt on top was so nicely balanced. I highly recommend this dish! Thank you Catherine!
[…] will like it, or tolerate it even, and the other won’t touch it. Earlier this week we made black bean/sweet potato enchiladas (this website as a whole is totally amazing, I highly recommend it), but with a slightly spicy […]
This dish satisfied a vegetarian parent, a meat and potatoes parent, a picky toddler and a sensory processing plagued preschooler. What a relief for the chef! Thank you for this delicious and nutritious recipe!
[…] Sweet Potato Black Bean Enchiladas Recipe from Weelicious […]
Can you suggest anything else to replace the onion and garlic powder?
Christy, keep in mind that your body stores partial proteins for days until it finds a “match,” so there is no need to worry about complete proteins. A varied diet of nutritious food will do the trick. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protein_combining
You can totally add shredded chicken! The black beans are full of protein so they contribute to this being a full vegetarian meal! 🙂
Would shredded chicken be good to add inside to make a complete meal?
I’m curious about an enchilada sauce recipe too. Every time I buy it, I’m really not pleased with the tinny flavor.
Love the idea of sweet potato enchiladas. Do you think this would freeze well?
Do you have a good recipe for homemade enchilada sauce? Just curious if I could avoid an extra trip to the store.
This recipe is delish! If you like sweet and savory, then you will def be a fan of this recipe! I added corn and used the green enchilada sauce.
we don’t get enchilada sauce here. is there something else i can use or make instead of it.
I love the story behind this dish!! My girls love black beans it’s there dad who in front of the girls tells them how nasty they are but maybe I can get him to eat them this way! Thanks for the recipe!
Yes! Drain and rinse!
Do you drain the beans before adding?
These sound SO good! My kids have both gone through weird phases where they just decided they didn’t like something anymore too. Lately my son dislikes beans of all kinds and bananas. I tell him that if he eats them he will be big and strong like Spiderman…it’s funny that it works, almost every time!
I have a ton of homemade sweet potato puree….would this work?
Now that is an easy recipe!! Thanks!
My son calls black beans throw up beans because that is what happens when he eats them so the rest of us eat them and enjoy them!
Do you have a favorite brand for the enchilada sauce? Thanks!