Tempeh enchiladas verdes
Corn tortillas rolled around cumin-spiced tempeh and spinach, smothered in tangy green enchilada sauce and melted jack cheese and baked until bubbling, and they freeze well too.
- 55 min total
- 35 min hands-on
- Follow-a-recipe easy
- Serves 4
- About $3.06 a serving
- 520 calories
- Good the next day
- Vegetarian
- Gluten-free
Dolly says: Make the full amount. It’s just as good for lunch the next day.
Ingredients
For 4 servings.
- 1 yellow onion, diced
- 1 package tempeh, crumbled
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 cups baby spinach
- 2 cans green enchilada sauce, divided
- 8 corn tortillas
- 1½ cups Monterey Jack cheese, shredded, divided
- 2 tbsp cilantro, chopped (optional)
- ¼ cup sour cream (optional)
From your pantry
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- ½ tsp salt
- 1½ tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp dried oregano
Each serving has about 520 calories, 27 g protein, 41 g carbs and 29 g fat, and costs about $3.06 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No yellow onions? White onions or red onions work.
- No baby spinach? Kale or arugula works.
- No cilantro? Fresh parsley works.
- No sour cream? Plain Greek yogurt works.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
the oven to 400°F.
Preheat. Preheating means turning the oven on before you start, so it’s fully hot when the food goes in. Food that starts in a cold oven cooks unevenly and doesn’t brown the same.
How you’ll know: The oven beeps or its light clicks off, usually 10 to 15 minutes after you turn it on.
Heat the oil in a large over medium heat. Add the onion and cook about 5 minutes, until soft.
Skillet. A skillet is a frying pan: wide and flat with low, sloped sides. The shape lets steam escape, so food browns instead of stewing.
How you’ll know: It’s the pan you’d fry an egg in, and a 10 or 12 inch one handles most recipes.
Medium heatTimer: 5 min
Add the tempeh and salt and cook about 5 minutes, stirring, until lightly .
Brown. Browning means cooking until the outside turns brown, which is where a lot of savory flavor comes from. Give food room and time without stirring, or it steams and stays gray.
How you’ll know: The food looks brown rather than gray, and the kitchen smells toasty and savory.
Medium heatTimer: 5 min
Stir in the garlic, cumin and oregano for 1 minute, .
Fragrant. Fragrant means cooking until you can clearly smell it, usually garlic or spices, often in about 30 seconds. That’s the moment the flavor is ready, just before it can burn.
How you’ll know: You can smell it from a step back, and garlic is pale gold, not brown.
Medium heatTimer: 1 min
Add the spinach and ½ cup of the enchilada sauce and stir 1 to 2 minutes, until the spinach . Take the pan off the heat.
Wilt. Wilting means cooking leafy greens just until they go soft and collapse. Greens shrink a lot, so a big pile of spinach becomes a small handful, and that’s normal.
How you’ll know: The leaves turn soft and deep green and slump into the pan, usually within a minute or two.
Medium heatTimer: 1 min 30 sec
Spread ½ cup sauce over the bottom of a 9-by-13-inch baking dish. Wrap the tortillas in a damp paper towel and microwave 1 minute, until soft.
Timer: 1 min
Dolly’s tip: Warm tortillas bend. Cold corn tortillas crack when you roll them.Spoon a line of filling and a little cheese onto each tortilla, roll it up, and set it seam side down in the dish.
Dolly’s tip: Pack them snugly side by side so they hold each other closed.Pour the rest of the sauce over the top and scatter over the rest of the cheese.
20 minutes, until the sauce bubbles and the cheese is and spotted brown.
Bake. Baking means cooking in the oven with dry heat all around the food. It cooks evenly from every side, so you can mostly leave it alone.
How you’ll know: It’s golden on top and passes the recipe’s check, like a clean toothpick or the right temperature.
Melt. Melting means gently heating something solid, like butter or cheese, until it turns liquid. Low or medium heat keeps it from browning or burning.
How you’ll know: It’s smooth and liquid, and butter may foam a little but hasn’t turned brown.
Timer: 20 min
Let them 5 minutes, then top with cilantro and sour cream.
Rest. Resting means letting cooked meat sit for a few minutes before you cut it. It keeps cooking gently, and more of the juice stays in the meat instead of running onto the board.
How you’ll know: Loosely covered with foil, it stays hot, and very little juice runs out when you slice it.
Timer: 5 min
Plan this in Dollop, and get the grocery list
Dollop puts this dinner on a night that suits your week, lists only what you still need to buy, and walks you through each step while you cook.
