You guys! This sauce is FABuloso! Seriously! I am already a fan of enchiladas and I've made my share of them using my authentic red enchilada sauce, but my honey and I agree, these were—hands down—THE BEST enchiladas we have ever consumed. We looked at each other and said, "WHY? Why can't we go out to eat at a Mexican restaurant and get THEEEESE?"
The filling is simply black beans, sautéed onions, red peppers, corn niblets and some chili spices. I did "cheat" a little and added some Daiya vegan cheese shreds (I don't normally eat anything that processed). Anyway, this filling is what I always use, so my determination is that it was the sauce that made them so ultra yummy.
Ingredients:
- 2 cups roasted butternut squash flesh, tightly packed (approx. one medium-sized butternut)
- 3-4 dried chile peppers (any kind you like, I used red New Mexico chiles)
- 1 cup chopped onion
- 3 cloves crushed garlic
- 2 cups water
- 1 TBS ground cumin
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- ½ tsp ground turmeric
- ¼ tsp ground cinnamon
- hot sauce to taste (depending on how hot your chile peppers are and how hot you like it)
Directions:
- To roast your butternut, remove the stem and slice in half lengthwise. Scoop out the seeds. Lightly grease a baking dish and place the butternut halves face down in the dish. Add about an inch of water. Bake at 375° for about one hour, until a fork easily pierces the squash. Set aside to cool and when you can handle them, scrape out the flesh. Alternatively, you can purchase pre-cut, frozen butternut squash and just roast the pieces for a shorter amount of time.
- Remove the stems and seeds from the chiles and soak them for about 3 hours to rehydrate.
- Place the butternut in a food processor and process until you have a smooth purée.
- Drain the peppers and rinse well. Add them to the food processor with the butternut and process well to combine. You will still see small bits of the peppers, that's fine.
- Add the purée and the rest of the ingredients to a sauce pan and simmer until the onions are tender.
- Blend the entire mixture until smooth. NOTE: don't over-blend or the squash will get too much air and be really fluffy. You just want to blend until the mixture is pretty smooth. In my Vitamix it took about 20 seconds on low.
- Return to the pot and keep warm until you're ready to use.
Makes enough for 8-10 enchiladas. Enjoy!
Healthy trails,
