Un-chiladas!
I’ve talked before about substitution, re-invention, and conjuration, and we’ve picked up a bit of alchemy along the way. Today’s recipe, though, is a different breed of magic. We’re working with fusion.
I love black beans and salsa. Any excuse to have one or both of those makes me very happy. I also really like enchilada sauce. Somewhat unsurprisingly, I’m fond of enchiladas- but my biggest problem is actually getting around to make them. Corn tortillas are hard to find in the right size or quantity. With the amount of work and frustration that goes into casting “make enchiladas,” I could have summoned an army of Daedra, which I would need to eat the leftover corn tortillas that sit around my kitchen until they go stale!
Despite finding it difficult and frustrating to make enchiladas, not eating them was not an option. So, instead, I cast a fusion! I combined enchiladas with another favorite spell: “pasta bake,” a rather unceremonious and obvious label for stuff and noodles and oven. Once I got a recipe I liked together, a friend of mine (who, admittedly, made this with ground turkey and cheese, not TVP and nutritional yeast) summoned it for her family, and a week or so later, asked for it by the name I’d jokingly put on the top of the recipe. Since then, Un-Chiladas have stuck!
This dish has all the flavors you’ve come to associate with enchiladas without most of the labor. Using one large roasting pan instead of individual shells means it’s easy to add whatever veggies you’ve got around without changing cook times considerably!
Un-chiladas! (+4 mana, +4 health, +5 stamina)
Ingredients
- 1 box (or 12 oz) rotini or other pasta
- 1 can (1 ½ c cooked) black beans, drained & rinsed
- 2 cans enchilada sauce
- 1 bell pepper
- 1 medium zucchini, diced
- ¾ cup nutritional yeast (or 1 cup cheddar cheese)
- 1 cup frozen corn
- ¾ cup TVP prepared in veggie broth (or other protein of choice!)
- Mexican seasonings- to taste (a little bit of garlic and cumin, chili powder, maybe a touch of oregano, or red pepper flakes and cayenne if you want some heat! The enchilada sauce carries the flavor, though!)
**Additional veg: diced yellow squash, frozen spinach, kale, olives, mushrooms**
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350*
- Prepare pasta according to box- you can do this while dicing/prepping veggies and letting the TVP re-hydrate. Drain pasta and return to pot.
- Immediately add enchilada sauce mixture to noodles and stir to prevent noodles from burning and sticking to the pot. Add veggies, beans, and TVP, as well as most of the nutritional yeast (reserve ~2 Tablespoons) and any desired seasonings. Combine with pasta and sauce over low heat until frozen corn has thawed and peppers start to soften.
- Pour evenly into a large baking dish, top with remaining nutritional yeast/cheese and bake for 30-40 minutes.
**Regarding extra veg- we tend to do all or most of these each time we make this dish!
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