Roasted Sweet Potato and Onion Enchiladas

A vegetarian enchilada casserole of corn tortillas stuffed with spicy sweet potatoes and onion, covered in roasted tomato sauce and plenty of cheese.

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Welcome back to your normal How To Use the Vegetables from your Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm share box programming. Did you enjoy the week of desserts? I won't lie, it was loads of fun making them--especially the Killer S'mores Blondie!

I thought I'd settle back into a routine with a vegetarian enchilada recipe. I've been sitting on this one since the ladies at the Thrift shop raved about it last winter, and now that I'm getting sweet potatoes in the farm share--blue ones, too--it's time to put it up on the blog.

I can't tell you why I veered away from the standard "sweet potato and black bean" combo, other than everyone else is doing that, so why should I? Instead, I used a filling of roasted sweet potatoes and sautéed onions, spiced up with some salsa verde. Yum! We get plenty of protein in our diets, we sure don't need a can of black beans to make or break things. [Heck, yesterday at the Ohio Renaissance Festival I ate not one but 2 Scotch eggs--one for my honey since he couldn't be there. That's a hard cooked egg covered in sausage and deep fried. Yeah, some protein. And oh so good.]

I've shared plenty of enchilada recipes on this blog, vegetarian and otherwise. Some you can find on my Clickable Collages of Recipe Suggestions page. Since that was published I've added Turnip Enchiladas, Cranberry, Chicken and Leek Enchiladas, Easy Cheesy Vegetable Rice Enchiladas, and Beef Tongue Enchiladas. You could say I have a thing for enchiladas--they are a terrific vehicle for getting dinner on the table.

For other recipes using sweet potatoes, blue or otherwise (I still don't know what to make with them, good thing potatoes store for a long time in the Strategic Winter Squash Reserve) please see my Sweet Potato Recipes Collection, part of the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient, a resource for folks like me eating seasonally from the farm share, the farmer's market, and whatever's plentiful and cheap at the store.

Note: these enchiladas are shoved willy nilly into a casserole dish, stacked on top of each other, because I was working with space constraints. The oven where I first baked them does not fit a 9x13 pan. Please feel free to bake these in a single layer if you prefer, though if you want an more layered lasagna or enchisagna like dish, rock on with an oval casserole like I did.

Another Note: This casserole can be made a day ahead and refrigerated before baking. Could you freeze it? Maybe. I haven't tried it.

YET ANOTHER NOTE:  This recipe could be gluten free. I am not watching out for gluten, so I did not source a can of GF enchilada sauce. All of the other ingredients I used do not contain gluten.

Check labels to confirm that your products are also gluten free. Good sources for determining that your products are gluten free can be found here:

http://knowgluten.me/2012/03/31/other-names-for-gluten/

http://glutenfreedoctor.com/gluten-free/

http://www.celiac.com/categories/Safe-Gluten%252dFree-Food-List-%7B47%7D-Unsafe-Foods-%26amp%3B-Ingredients/

Roasted Sweet Potato and Onion Enchiladas

Ingredients

• 4 to 5 cups peeled cubed sweet potatoes
• 2 tablespoons olive oil, give or take, divided 
• about ½ teaspoon each salt and pepper
• 2 cups chopped onion
• ½ cup salsa verde plus more to serve
• ½ cup cilantro leaves, chopped, plus more to make it pretty when serving
• 1 10 ounce can prepared enchilada sauce (your choice)
• 1 14.5 ounce can fire roasted salsa tomatoes
• 1 cup slow roasted tomatoes (here's how I roast mine--they keep in the freezer)
• 14 corn tortillas (if purchased raw, cooked according to package directions)
• 3 cups shredded cheese (I've used Colby Jack and Mexican blend)
• sour cream, more salsa verde, and cilantro to serve

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. In a large bowl, toss the sweet potatoes with 1 Tablespoon oil and season with salt and pepper. Spread on a rimmed baking sheet and roast for about 30 minutes until tender. I generally stir around the 15 to 20 minute mark and then pop them back into the oven for another 10 minutes or so. Set aside, and turn the oven down to 375 degrees. You can also do this step a day ahead.
2. In a large skillet preheated to medium heat, add remaining Tablespoon of oil. Dump in the onions and sauté for 8 to 10 minutes until softened.
3. In a large bowl, mix together sweet potatoes, onions, and ½ cup salsa verde. Stir in half of the cilantro leaves. Set aside.
4. If you don't mind chunky sauces, combine the enchilada sauce, salsa tomatoes, and slow roasted tomatoes. I prefer a smoother sauce, so I threw everything in the food processor and gave it a whirl. You'll have about 4 cups of red sauce.
5. If you made the sweet potatoes a day earlier, preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit now. Spread about ½ cup of red sauce across the bottom of a casserole dish (see Note above for size options).
6. Spread ⅓ of a cup of sweet potato/onion mixture onto a warm corn tortilla. Top with about ¼ cup of shredded cheese. Roll up and lay, seam side down so it doesn't explode open, in the prepared pan. Repeat until you run out of filling or tortillas. If you need to, feel free to stack up the tortillas--adding a layer of red sauce and cheese in between if you like.
7. Cover the rolled tortillas with the remaining red sauce. Top with the remaining cheese and chopped cilantro. You can cover and refrigerate the casserole at this point, and bake the next day. If doing so, take the dish out of the fridge when you turn on the oven and let it get used to warmer temperatures before moving to the oven.
8. Bake for 30 to 45 minutes (use the longer time if tortillas are stacked in layers and if the dish was chilled overnight) until cheese is melted, sauce is bubbly, and tortilla edges are crispy. 
9. Serve with additional salsa verde and sour cream, garnished with cilantro if you can make it look prettier than I can, which is not hard to do because garnishing is not my strong suit.