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Plus, I change my mind a lot. On this week’s unpublished meal plan, I had my vegan butternut squash enchiladas. Once at the grocery store, however, I just wasn’t feeling it. I saw that sweet potatoes were on sale and my whole plan changed in an instant. And I’m glad it did because this new recipe is a keeper. The sweet potatoes and smoky chipotle sauce are a perfect match. I’m getting a little sick of the adjective delicious, so I will just say these enchiladas were fantasic.
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Sweet Potato Enchiladas with Chipotle and Spinach Sauce
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 8 Enchiladas 1x
Description
A tasty meal for meat free Monday
Ingredients
- 1 extra large sweet potato
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
- 1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1 cup shredded organic cheese, such as mild cheddar or Monterey Jack
- 8 multi-grain tortillas
For the sauce
- 1 (15 ounce) can tomato sauce (preferably no salt added)
- 1 chipotle chile in adobe sauce, finely chopped (use 2 if you like things really spicy!)
- 1 1/2 tablespoons dried cilantro (if you have fresh use 1/8 cup)
- 1 tablespoon molasses
- 1 teaspoon sweet paprika
- generous amount freshly ground black pepper
- 2 cups fresh baby spinach leaves, coarsely chopped
Instructions
- Peel and chop your sweet potato into small chunks. Steam until it is very tender, about 15 minutes. {You can also just boil it whole if you prefer, but steaming retains more nutrients} While the sweet potato is steaming, start your sauce. Here’s all you need to get started:
- Put all of the sauce ingredients except the spinach into a small sauce pan. Bring to a gentle simmer over medium heat, stirring frequently. Turn the heat to low. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
- Transfer your cooked sweet potatoes to a bowl. Add cumin, salt, and pepper and mash the potatoes.
- Add the chopped spinach to the sauce and stir until the spinach is wilted.
- Taste the sauce and add salt if you think it needs it {I didn’t}. Spread about 1/4 cup of the sauce to the bottom of a casserole dish. To assemble the tortillas, spread a layer of sauce on the bottom of a tortilla. Top with a glob of the mashed sweet potato and add 1-2 tablespoons of cheese.
- Roll it up and place it in the dish seam side down. Repeat with remaining tortillas and then top them all with the remaining sauce and cheese.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 15 minutes.
- While I don’t ever cook a completely separate meal for Meghan, I am more than willing to make her meals more kid-friendly. You might have noticed in the picture above that there’s only seven enchiladas in the pan. I knew Meghan wouldn’t want this sauce on hers. It’s not really the spice I was worried about because she has eaten and liked some spicy foods, but she tends to not like tomato-based sauces at all. I hope it’s something she outgrows, but for now I knew I would up my chances of her eating this meal by leaving the sauce off for her. So I made one separate enchilada for her with just the sweet potatoes and cheese.
- Her plate looked like this:
- A few pieces of the sweet potato enchilada, some organic cheese pieces, the crispy cheese from her enchilada dish, and some shelled edamame. She gobbled up everything except the enchilada. She would not try it. I hate that more than anything. If she were to try it and not like it, well, okay. But it’s frustrating for me when she won’t even try it. Someday I will implement the you-must-at-least-try-everything rule, but she’s not old enough for that yet. For dessert, she had her favorite “chocolate pudding”, so in the end she did eat some sweet potatoes, even they weren’t in enchilada form. 🙂 I just steamed some extra sweet potatoes and whipped up the pudding while the enchiladas were in the oven. Easy peasy.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Category: main meal
- Cuisine: Mexican
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 enchilada
- Calories: 188
- Sugar: 5.25g
- Sodium: 695mg
- Fat: 4.8g
- Carbohydrates: 25.1g
- Protein: 7g
By the way, I think these would be equally delicious without the cheese, so if you are feeling a vegan meal, totally skip it. The sauce and sweet potatoes are what make this dish great, not the cheese!
I have made these twice. They were really tasty and surprisingly filling. One chipotle adds just enough kick to the sauce. The second time I made it with butternut squash since I had 2 cups to use up and it was just as enjoyable as using sweet potato. A little plain greek yogurt on top finished it off nicely for me. Thanks for this recipe!
Thanks for letting me know, Chris!
They became even better than I imagined! I served the enchiladas with some avocados, a simple salad and a black bean hoummus to give the meal some extra protein and I will definately make these again soon. Thanks for a wonderful recipe.
You are welcome! Black bean hummus sounds like a wonderful addition to the meal!
I’ve been looking forward to trying this recipe for weeks and tonight I’m finally gonna give it a go. The enchiladas look soooo good, so I can’t wait! 🙂
I hope you enjoyed it! This is one of my faves! 🙂
I made these last night. The sauce is delicious, but I only added 1/2 of the chipotle pepper to keep it mild for my kids and I wish I had put the whole thing in to better balance the super sweetness of the sweet potato. I will make this again with more chipotle and I agree that the cheese is optional.
Thanks for the great recipe!
Thanks for coming back and letting me know you tried it. I’m glad you enjoyed it!
These look so amazing! <3
Oh WOW! Those look really great. My kids aren’t a big spicy food fan, but maybe the combination of sweet potato and spice would sway them. In any case, I can’t wait to try these.
I have some sweet potatoes on my counter just begging to be transformed into this meal. YUM!!
I was in a mexican mood yesterday, too, and actually came to your blog shortly before you posted this to see if you had any burrito recipes. I ended up making black bean burritos. Next time, I’m trying these!
You have just made my day so much better! I love sweet potatoes, I love mexican, I know I will love sweet potato enchiladas 🙂 Can’t wait to try these.
I seriously JUST made sweet potato enchilada type dish. It was sooo good. Can’t believe I never did it before. I’ll have to try yours. Yum!
My kids don’t do spice at all. I would have served it exactly the same way you did. 🙂 I’ve got my daughter on the ‘taking one bite and then deciding if you like it’ plan, but it took a while (she’s 5). I think it takes them realizing that you will honor their tastebuds if they will honor your request to try it. If she doesn’t like it, I don’t make her eat it, nor do I make a big deal about it. Since she knows that, she’ll always try something.
My 2 year old, well, we aren’t there yet. At all. Luckily I am even more stubborn than him.
“I think it takes them realizing that you will honor their tastebuds if they will honor your request to try it.” Yes! This is exactly what I want Meghan to understand. I think we’ll get there eventually. There have been things that I’ve gotten her to try that she initially didn’t want to and ended up loving. It’s so cute to hear her say, “Oh, Meghan likes it!” 🙂
Maryea, I absolutely love this idea for a vegetarian enchilada, and I bet these taste incredibly deilcious… They sure look it! Great job, and thanks for sharing. 🙂 I’m so glad I found your blog and look forward to exploring your recipes! – Georgia
Thanks, Georgia! Welcome. 🙂
Thanks for the kind comment on my blog 🙂 I have made my own almond flour in the past. But I find it’s easiest and more cost effective to purchase it. I use Honeyville brand 🙂 Sweet potato enchiladas are a great idea!
Sweet potato enchiladas have been our biggest vegetarian hit for dinner thus far. We do sweet potato and black beans with a green sauce (recipe from Gluten Free Goddes site). The sauce is a little much for the kids, so I make them a sweet potato and black bean quesadilla. We’ve made it so many times though that I’m thrilled to have your version too! Can’t wait to try it.
I’ve made sweet potato enchiladas before, but the chipotle sauce was a new addition. I loved it! I’ll have to check out the Gluten Free Goddess’ recipe, that sounds really good, too.
I have to do the same thing for my kid! He likes to eat all of one thing, then all of another thing, then all of another thing… He freaks if things are mixed together. (typical kid, I think)
Oh my, yum! These look absolutely divine. Thanks for posting. Can’t wait to give them a try. It’s definitely something my husband will love and that’s always a plus.