Sweet Potato Black Bean Enchiladas with Roasted Red Pepper Chipotle Sauce

This is my type of comfort food. Spice roasted sweet potatoes cooked down and mashed with tomatoes then mixed with black beans, fresh coriander and lime juice. That’s the filling, you could just eat that on its own with spoon if you like.

But rolled up in soft flour tortillas and covered in the quick and easy Roasted Red Pepper Chipotle Sauce from my Mexican Tortilla Lasagne recipe it is divine. Not forgetting the handful of mature Manchego cheese that is grated over the top before going in the oven.

The final step of whacking it under a hot grill for 5 minutes at the end is what makes this special though. You need to give it that caramelised at the edges crispy cheese topping that is irresistible. To me anyway. You have to keep your eye on it, there’s a fine line between brilliance and burnt beyond repair.

Sweet Potato & Black Bean Enchiladas with Roasted Red Pepper Chipotle Sauce Recipe

Serves 4, vegetarian. Adapted from Call Me Fudge

• 2 large sweet potatoes (about 300 g each)
• olive oil salt & black pepper
• oregano, allspice, ground cumin
• 1/2 large red onion, finely chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
•  1 Tbsp chipotle chilli sauce
• 1 tin (400ml) chopped tomatoes
• 100 ml water
• 1 tin (400 g) black beans, drained & rinsed
• 10 x 8 inch tortilla wraps
• a big handful of grated manchego cheese
• a handful of fresh coriander, chopped plus garnish
• lime/lemon juice
• sour cream, or goat’s yoghurt to serve

Preheat the oven to 200 C and line a baking sheet with baking paper. Scrub the sweet potatoes well and cut into 1-2 cm dice. Put them on the baking tray, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with salt, pepper, oregano, cumin and allspice if you have it. Toss it all together with you hands to evenly coat then spread it all out in a single layer. Roast for 15-20 minutes until tender.

Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a large pan over a medium heat and add the red onion. Cook for 3-4 minutes until softened then add the garlic and cook for 2 minutes more. Add in the cooked sweet potatoes, tomatoes, chipotle sauce and water. Bring to the boil, lower the heat and simmer for 5-10 minutes to cook the tomatoes. Mash the sweet potatoes in the pan then add the black beans, stir them through and add the chopped coriander. Season with salt & black pepper and a squeeze of lime/lemon juice. Taste and adjust as required. (Try not to eat it all).

For the red pepper sauce:

• 1 jar/tin, roasted red peppers (about 200-250 gr), rinsed drained
• about 100 ml tomate frito /puree tomato/tomato passata
• 4 or 5 tsp chipotle chilli sauce
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• the other 1/2 large red onion, finely chopped
• 4 or 5 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 1  1/2 tsp palm sugar/brown sugar
• 1  1/2 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce (vegetarian)

Blend the drained, rinsed peppers, tomato puree, chipotle sauce, sugar, cumin & Worcestershire sauce in a food processor until smooth.

Heat the olive oil in a frying pan over a medium heat and cook the onion and a pinch of salt for 4-5 minutes until softened, then add the garlic and cook for a further 2 minutes. Remove from the heat and add to the processor with the red pepper sauce and blend again. Season with salt & black pepper and taste. Adjust as required.

To assemble:

Preheat oven to 190 C. You will need either one large or 4 individual ovenproof dishes. Or I used the dish in the pictures twice, this amount fed us both for two nights. The amount of tortillas depends on your dishes so just fill as many as you need.

Spread a layer of the red pepper sauce on the base of your dish(es). Take a few heaped tablespoons of the filling and lay it at one end of the tortilla (as in pictures above), roll up the tortilla and place it in the dish seam side down. Continue with the rest until your dish is full (you may have to trim some).

Tip the rest of the red pepper sauce all over the top of the wraps spreading it out evenly. Top with the grated cheese and bake for about 15 minutes. Then turn the grill/broiler on high and leave it under there for about 5 minutes. Keep an eye on it though, don’t ruin it!

Leave it for 5 minutes before serving with a dollop of sour cream/goats yoghurt, fresh coriander and a wedge of lime/lemon to squeeze over. A nice green salad would be good if you need something to accompany it. And a bottle of Coronita, of course.

Buen Provecho!

Mexican Tortilla Lasagne with Roasted Salsa Verde

This is the best vegetarian lasagne you’ll ever make. High praise I know, there’s nothing like setting yourself up for a fall but I really believe it. Lasagnes are one of those meals that have been done to death, diluted and destroyed by frozen food manufacturers.

When we first opened the restaurant, one of the things that I promised myself is that we would never serve a vegetable lasagne as the vegetarian option. It is the fallback/default veggie option in many restaurants and I think it’s just lazy. Most of them are a frozen, watery, disgusting, flavourless disgrace. Enough ranting…. I also said we would never serve chips or Traditional Sunday Lunch, ha! That didn’t last very long, Sunday lunch was the best thing we ever did and chips are what the people want. It was a steep learning curve.

Another Fine Mezze….

 “The weather outside is frightful but the fire is so delightful…” 

These cute little pastries were another part of the Thanksgiving mezze I served on Friday night to our friends Caroline & Jean and that song could have been written for us. As the rain continuously lashed down outside, we were inside enjoying a glass of pink cava by the roaring fireplace. So roaring, in fact, that the glass door of the fire broke about 10 minutes before they arrived and smoked out the whole house! The Washer Up wasn’t amused- we had to let all the smoke (and heat) out by opening the doors. But alls well that ends well, it didn’t take long to heat back up again. We definitely all had a rosy glow. Whether that was from the fire or the cava I couldn’t say but we had a fantastic evening. It’s so lovely to spend time with friends, sharing food and stories around the dinner table, giving thanks for all the beautiful things in life…

These little Muhammara Cigars are another recipe I found on www.tasteofbeirut.com. Muhammara is a dip made from walnuts & hot red pepper paste.  Its addictive taste is one I remember serving at the restaurant on a Lebanese Evening and then wanting to serve it with everything. It is great as a dip for raw veggies or with flatbreads or crackers. In fact it is good on just about anything. The idea of mixing it with feta cheese and then rolling it in filo pastry before baking them into hot crispy, cheesy nibbles is one I could not resist. Some things are just meant to be…

Apparently everyone has their own personal recipe for Muhammara using different nuts and different amounts of the other ingredients. This is mine, why not discover yours…. 

Muhammara Cigars

adapted from a Taste of Beirut recipe

makes about 12- 15, vegetarian

For the muhammara

• 1oo gr walnuts
• 100 gr almonds
• 1/2 red onion chopped
• 1 tsp ground cumin
•  the juice of 1/2 a pomegranate (or a tbsp pomegranate molasses)
• 1/2 tsp harissa paste (or any hot chilli paste)
• 150-200 gr jar roasted peppers
• 1 tbsp tomato paste
• about 75 ml olive oil
• salt

Place all of the ingredients in the bowl of a food processor and blitz until smooth but still with some texture. Taste for seasoning you may need more salt or chilli paste, maybe some lemon juice…

You will only be using about 1/2 of this mixture for the cigars, just store the rest in the fridge and serve as a dip, a pasta sauce, on a baked potato or even as a sauce for meat or fish.

For the Cigars

• 1 packet frozen filo pastry (defrosted in the fridge overnight)
• 2oo gr Greek Feta cheese
• 100 gr grated cheese (mozzarella, cheddar or manchego are good)
• 1/2 onion chopped
• 1 egg white
• white pepper
• melted butter or olive oil to brush on the filo
• sesame seeds

Leave about half of the Muhammara in the bowl and store the rest in the fridge. Crumble in the Feta, add the grated cheese, chopped onion, white pepper & egg white and blitz again until combined. Taste and adjust seasoning.

Lay a long piece of foil on your worksurface and brush it with oil or melted butter. Lay the filo out flat, cut into two squares then cut each square diagonally into quarters so you end up with eight triangles. There should be about 8 layers of the filo pastry, take 3 or 4 layers off of the top of one of the triangles and use these as the wrapping of your first cigar.

Lay the triangle with the long side facing you on the buttered foil. Brush the 3 corners with butter then place heaped tablespoon of the mixture a little way in from the long edge and start to roll it up like a spring roll. Brush with more butter on top of the rolled cigar and fold in the edges to seal them. Don’t worry if they are a bit of a mess, mine were, just stick them together with the butter or oil and hope for the best!!

Continue rolling all your cigars, you should get 16 triangles but filo can break easily sometimes, I only managed 12. Preheat the oven to 190 degrees. Place all the cigars on a baking sheet lined with baking paper, brush the tops with a bit more butter/oil then sprinkle over some sesame seeds. Bake for 20 – 25 minutes until browned and serve immediately….

I served these with a Tahini Yoghurt & Mint sauce made with the wild mint we picked by the side of the river.

Tahini, Yoghurt & Mint Sauce

Vegetarian served 4 -6 as a sauce

• 2 pots greek yoghurt about 250 ml
• the juice of 1/2 a lemon
• 2 tsp tahini paste
• a handful of chopped fresh mint
• salt & black pepper

Mix the lemon juice in with the tahini until smooth then add all the other ingredients and stir until well combined. Taste for seasoning.

This sauce is great to serve as part of a mezze. It goes really well as a sauce for falafels or my recipe for Honey Spiced Aubergines here. It would also be fantastic with lamb kebabs. You can add some toasted cumin seeds for more flavour, some minced garlic or even some grated cucumber would be lovely……