You see, there was this bottle of rum...
And the next day, there was a hungover and hungry Sylvan who wanted something warm and comforting, but is trying very hard to cut the dairy out of her diet (and didn't have anything cheesy in the house anyway), and so, after standing and staring into her fridge for fifteen minutes, she threw together a rather tasty casserole.
My mom used to make stuff like this when I was a kid--in fact casseroles are such a big part of Southern cuisine that it's hard to imagine a pantry that isn't stocked with at least three cans of cream of mushroom soup, the major player in nearly every casserole I grew up with. Cream of mushroom, cream of chicken, cream of celery...yuck. All that fat and sodium! Between that and the standard topping of Velveeta cheese, it's amazing anyone in the South lives past 40 without bypass surgery.
I haven't tried that many vegan casseroles, but it's getting to be that time of year when baked and stewed foods are exactly what you want at the end of the day. So I took the basic idea of my standby enchilada chili, a pack of tortillas, and turned it into a sort of Mexican lasagna.
Actually, the original version of enchiladas wasn't a rolled dish, but a stacked one like this; layers of tortillas, cheese, sauce, and usually beef.
This isn't exactly rocket science or haute cuisine, but it's good for what ails you.
Hangover Enchilada Casserole
What You Need, More or Less
1 can mild enchilada sauce
1 can refried beans
1 can black beans (drained)
1 can diced tomatoes with green chiles (also mild, also drained)
8 or so corn tortillas
about half a bag of frozen bell pepper/onion stir fry, or one green and one red bell pepper and about half an onion
Let's Get it On (Quietly, Please, oy my head)
1 ~ Sautee the onions and peppers in a teeny bit of oil, or use a nonstick pan, until softened.
2 ~ Pour a bit of enchilada sauce into the bottom of an 8x8 Pyrex baking dish (that you've sprayed with nonstick spray). Break a couple of the tortillas into quarters and cover the sauce, overlapping the edges slightly.
3 ~ Spread half the refried beans over the tortillas. Scatter half the onions/peppers, half the tomatoes, half the black beans over that. Cover with another layer of tortillas and repeat.
4 ~ Add one more layer of tortillas and pour the rest of the enchilada sauce over the whole thing. Cover with foil and bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes or until hot all the way through. It's best to let the whole thing sit for about 15 minutes before serving, to give the layers time to bind up.
You could also add black olives, frozen corn, or whatever else you like to the layers. Traditionally this sort of thing has cheese in, so if you like fakey cheese feel free to throw some of that in there too. In place of the black beans you could cook up some veggie crumbles as well.
Hopefully I'll have some weekend cupcake pics tomorrow. :)
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