Enchiladas Stuffed with Beans, Veggies and Rice and Fresh Veggie Salsa

Weekend dinners with the elderly omni parents are always tough. Needless to say they are not concerned about health, though they should be. It is always tough to figure out what to make that is healthy enough for Dan and me yet tasty enough for them. This is why typically I will make pasta or something else with flour. While it isn’t something we eat during the week it seems to be what my parents prefer. This dish is mostly other ingredients with a little whole wheat flour, in the form of a tortilla. I found that half of one of these enchiladas was enough with fresh salsa and a salad on the side. But the remainder of the family ate a whole enchilada. Here is what I made last night for dinner.

Enchiladas Stuffed with Beans, Veggies and Rice and Fresh Veggie Salsa
Serves 5

Enchilada Ingredients:

1 cup brown rice (I used sprouted short grain brown rice)
2 cups water
1 yellow onion, peeled and finely diced
4 carrots, finely diced
2 celery, finely diced
2 cloves garlic, peeled and finely minced
Water to sauté veggies (between ¼ and ½ cup)
1 teaspoon oregano, dried
2 teaspoons chili powder
2 teaspoons cumin seeds
1 teaspoon paprika
Salt and pepper to taste
5 large whole wheat tortillas
14 ounces tomato sauce
Cumin, oregano, paprika and pepper for topping

Fresh Salsa Ingredients:

½ cup cherry tomatoes, diced
1 yellow pepper, diced
2 stalks celery, thinly sliced on a diagonal
½ cup cucumber thinly sliced in 1/4’s
½ cup savoy cabbage, thinly julienned
1 lime, zested and juiced
1 hass avocado, finely diced
Oregano, salt and pepper to taste
Tofu and tahini sauce, for topping – optional
Cilantro, for topping - optional

Directions:

Cook the rice and water and cool to approximately room temperature so that you can work with it.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Sauté the onion, garlic, carrot and celery in water until tender. Add the spices, rice and bean and mix until thoroughly combined. Taste the filling and add salt and pepper as desired.

Fill each tortilla with 1 cup of the mixture and roll up. Place in a baking pan with the seam side down. Top the filled enchiladas with tomato sauce. Sprinkle the top with cumin, oregano, paprika and pepper. Cover the pan with aluminum foil and bake for 45 minutes, until the fillings are hot.

To make the salsa, combine all the ingredients and stir gently to not break up the avocado. Serve the salsa cold on the side of the enchiladas.

Top with tofu and tahini sauce and cilantro when serving, if desired.

Nutritional information (doesn’t include optional ingredients):

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 494.95
Calories From Fat (19%) - 92.92

Total Fat - 11.45g
Saturated Fat - 1.78g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium-  966.03mg
Potassium - 1348.76mg
Total Carbohydrates - 85.91g
Fiber - 23.15g
Sugar - 10.3g
Protein - 23.51g

Comments:

Since my mother isn’t tolerant of spicy food this is intentionally mild in terms of heat. If I were making this just for Dan and me there would be a chipotle pepper, Tabasco or crushed red peppers in this dish. I served this tonight with salsa on side and topped with tofu and tahini sauce. The sauce is always popular with my parents. My father slathered his enchilada in the tofu tahini sauce, and he knows it is tofu. I don’t think you can get a better endorsement for the sauce than that. Another thing that surprised me was that my father mentioned twice that he liked the fresh salsa. Since it didn’t include any oil this was a little out of the ordinary. I think the freshness and crunch of the salsa is important with the warmth and softness of the enchilada.

Each enchilada contains approximately 12,700IU of vitamin A, 78mg of vitamin C, 137mg of calcium, 6mg of iron, 200mcg of folate, 335mg of phosphorus, and 160mg of magnesium. Another very nutritious meal, even with the flour. I also like that this dish contains 23 grams of protein.

Unrelated note:

Today we have more to-do items to cross off our list. I probably won’t be back until dinner time. Today I will be playing around with combining panelle and polenta. I like making panelle, but haven’t made it since I stopped using oil so I wanted to make it again only a healthier version. I think it will make an interesting “cracker/bread” to hold toppings. The idea is to cook the mixture and then dehydrate it until it is crunchy. This may take longer than 8 hours, but the plan is to use it tonight. Since some of you don’t have a dehydrator I am baking part of this and dehydrating part. This idea came from our New Years Eve at the MiniBar at Cafe Atlantico a few months back. One of the dishes was a dehydrated cornbread. This recipe is my first attempt to play around with that concept. Wish me luck.

Talk to you guys later! I hope you are enjoying your weekend.