Vegetarian Enchiladas w/ Pico de Gallo, Tortilla Chip Casserole, Beans on Marmite Toast

Vegetarian Enchiladas
Black beans, leftover rice and faux meat feature in these tasty beauties!

1 can Red or Green Enchilada Sauce
3-4 cups (or 2 cans) Black Beans rinsed/drained
1 can Roteltm Tomatoes with green chiles
1 Onion, diced
1 cup Faux Meat Crumbles -- your favorite brand.
1 cup leftover rice
Taco Seasoning packet
10" diameter Flour or Corn Tortillas
2 cups shredded Mexican Cheese blend
Diced Tomato, Salsa and Sour Cream or Siggi's Skyr to top

Saute the onion, then add the beans, tomatoes, rice, spice and faux meat simmer to thicken the filling.  Cool.

Nuke a tortilla of about 15 seconds. Add about 1/4 cup of filling and a good pinch of cheese to the now flexible tortilla, carefully roll up into a long tube about 1.5" diameter.  Place the roll-up seam-side-down in a 9x12 baking dish. Repeat until the baking dish is filled with  8 filled, rolled tortillas. 

Pour the enchilada sauce overall.  Top with the remaining cheese and bake @350F for about 30-45 minutes until the cheese is well melted and the enchiladas are heated through   Let rest before serving on a bed of shredded lettuce, topped with more cheese, salsa, yogurt or sour cream.  


Pico de Gallo
Pico de Gallo, a.k.a. salsa crude or salsa fresco, is the quintessential Mexican side "salad" served with practically every plate you order at a restaurante.

Simple and easy to make at home -- from diced onion, tomato, peppers, lime juice, a pinch of salt, and chopped cilantro if you like it.  I use equal amounts of diced white onion and diced peppers, and plenty of lime juice.   This batch included heirloom yellow tomato, red bell pepper, and a single red jalapeno por un poco caliente...  


Tortilla Chip Casserole
Think "baked nachos" here.   Make a "filling" of shredded chicken, diced onion, tomato and bell peppers and Chicken Taco Seasoning, simmered together with green chili enchilada sauce until nice and thick.  Of course if you're full vegetarian/vegan, you can use red or black beans and corn as a substitute for the chicken... 

Layer that with Tortilla Chips (I prefer White Corn, unflavored chips), and "Mexican blend" shredded cheese, and bake until melted and yummy.     Serve topped with shredded lettuce and a dollop of sour cream or Siggi's Skyr.

1 lb Shredded chicken
1  11oz bag low salt Tortilla Chips (I prefer white corn chips)
1 can Tomatoes with Green Chiles 
1 large Green Bell Pepper, diced
1 large Sweet Onion, diced
1 10oz can Green Chili Enchilada Sauce
2 packets, Chicken Taco Spice Blend
shredded lettuce and sour cream/skyr to serve

Saute the onion and bell pepper, adding one packet of spice blend and 1/2 cup water.  Add the chicken, tomatoes, enchilada sauce and second spice packet and simmer until 20-30 minutes until everything is heated through and the mixture thickened.

Crush some chips and lay them in the bottom of the dish.  Top with half of the filling.  Top that with flat chips and half of the cheese.  Repeat with the remaining ingredients.

Bake at 350F for 30 minutes until the cheese is nicely melted.  Rest the dish for 10-15 minutes. 

 Serve a porti0n atop a bed of shredded lettuce and top with a dollop of cream/skyr.

Beans On Marmite Toast
This one's for my UK and Oz readers, and others who know "a good thing" when they taste it.
Beans on Toast is a quintessential British dish.  Yep -- baked beans on toasted bread.   We eat it fairly regularly around here.   But someone posted this upscale version the other day and I just had to try it.

English "baked beans" are wimpy and unsweet by American standards, which is OK for BoT.  You really don't need that sugar!  We can get Heinz brand English Baked Beans (blue label can) in most megamart International aisles.  But boy are they expensive!   If you don't want to spend that much go down to the regular canned bean aisle and get some less sugary American baked beans.  Brand names like Bush's are 'way too tomatoey and sweet.  Also avoid the smokey, green chili "ranch" beans.

Put the beans in a pan and get them up to temperature.

Marmitetm is a love-it-or-hate-it kinda thing.  It's a thick brown paste made from the dregs of the brewing process -- very strong and very salty.  Down Under they make a similar paste called Vegemitetm which you may remember from the song Down Under by the group Men At Work.  Most people put just a thin schmear of Marmite or Vegemite on a piece of toast, with or without butter first. A little bit goes a looong way.  Taste the tiniest bit first and see just how strong it really is.   

So.  Make your toast.  One piece for lunch, two for dinner/supper.   I like mine thick cut,  middle dark, and a multigrain bread.  Butter the toast, then add a serious schmear of Marmite. Don't worry too much, we're gonna balance out that strong saltiness. in a minute.

Ladle a good scoop of hot beans on the toast.  Now crumble on top some nice sharp white or yellow Cheddar cheese, and dive in!

The transformation is magic.  The sweetness of the baked beans  balances  the strong saltiness of the Marmite, and the sharp cheese adds just the right finish.