Bean enchiladas

30 min
(0)
Bean enchiladas

With an easy cheese and bean enchilada recipe, making a quick and tasty Mexican-inspired dinner is incredibly simple. Made with kidney beans, beluga lentils, tomatoes, and chilli cheese, our cumin and chilli-spiced bean enchilada filling packs a lot of flavours. When served with chunky tomato salsa with plenty of colour and freshness as well as a bit of creamy, cooling quark or skyr, these bean cheese enchiladas make for a wonderful meal that does not even take long to prepare.

Share
Print
https://www.arlafoods.co.uk/recipes/bean-enchiladas/

Ingredients

4 servings

Filling:

200 ml Vegetable broth, boiling
45 g Beluga lentils (approx. ½ dl)
1 tsp Olive oil
1 Onion (approx. 75 g), finely chopped
3 Small garlic cloves, finely crushed
1 Large green chilli pepper, finely chopped
1 can Diced tomatoes (approx. 400 g)
½ tsp Ground cumin
1½ tsp Coarse salt
1 can Kidney beans (approx. 400 g)
8 Wholemeal tortillas, about 20 cm in diameter
175 g Grated cheese, tex mex

Tomato salsa:

250 g Cherry tomatoes, cubed
1 Cucumber (approx. 250 g), cubed
½ Red onion (approx. 25 g), cut into thin rings
1 Small garlic clove, finely crushed
1 tbsp Fresh coriander, chopped
¼ tsp Coarse salt
Freshly churned pepper

Serve with:

250 g Quark 0.3% or skyr, natural

Instructions

Filling:

  • Let the oil heat up in a pan at high heat. Sauté onion, garlic, and chilli for about 2 minutes.
  • Rinse lentils in cold water and let them drip off in a sieve. Add broth, diced tomatoes, lentils, cumin, and salt to the pan. Let it cook at low heat for around 10 minutes – stir it occasionally.
  • Rinse the kidney beans and let them drip off before mixing them in with the filling. Let them cook for approx. 2 minutes. Season the filling to taste.

Bean enchiladas:

  • Preheat oven to 200°C (convection oven).
  • Transfer the filling to the 8 tortillas and sprinkle them with half of the cheese.
  • Roll the tortillas and place them in an ovenproof dish (approx. 20x30 cm) with the closing facing down.
  • Sprinkle them with the rest of the cheese and brown them in the middle of the oven for about 10 minutes.

Tomato salsa:

  • Mix tomatoes, cucumber, and remaining ingredients in a bowl and season to taste.
  • Serve the warm bean enchiladas with tomato salsa as well as quark or skyr on the side.
Enjoy!
Rate this recipe
1
2
3
4
5

It is a good idea to preheat the tortillas before filling them to make them more pliable and easier to roll without cracking. When tortillas are cold, they can be stiff and brittle, which can make them difficult to handle without tearing. Preheating the tortillas softens them and makes them more flexible.

You can either preheat them on a dry pan at medium heat for about 30 seconds on each side or in the microwave. If you go for the latter option, cover your stack of tortillas with a damp paper towel to prevent them from drying out as you heat them for about 1-2 minutes, or until they have been heated through and have become tender.

Questions about bean enchiladas

Our bean cheese enchilada recipe makes it easy to plate up savoury Mexican delights in no time. To learn more about bean enchiladas, continue reading below!

Do enchiladas have beans?

How to make bean enchiladas?

How long to bake bean and cheese enchiladas?

What beans are used in enchiladas?

How to serve bean enchiladas?

Savour our chilli bean enchiladas

Our savoury bean enchiladas with kidney beans, beluga lentils, green chilli pepper, and spicy Tex-Mex chilli cheese have just the right amount of spice and bite. As they do not take long to prepare, they make for a great dinner even on busier weeknights. Accompanied by chunky salsa with refreshing vegetables and citrussy coriander leaves, bean enchiladas make for a colourful and enticing meal.

Since it is easy to make a lot of tasty filling at once, our Mexican bean enchilada recipe is also great for dinner parties, where you might also like to serve other Tex-Mex classics like quesadillas, spicy nachos, and guacamole for dipping.

Flavourful, spicy, and savoury filling

The combination of sweet and earthy kidney beans, tangy tomatoes, and beluga lentils makes for tasty, filling bean enchiladas with a great texture. Beluga lentils, also known as black lentils or caviar lentils, are small, round, jet-black lentils that resemble beluga caviar in appearance. They have a rich, earthy, and nutty flavour that pairs nicely with the meatier kidney beans.

Since beluga lentils have a firm texture and, like kidney beans, hold their shape well when cooked, these lentils are perfect for making bean enchiladas with a bite. Vegetable broth, onion, garlic, and cumin give the filling a wonderful depth and savouriness, while the green chilli brings the heat to cut through the richness of the beans, lentils, and cheese.

Easy, cheesy bean enchiladas baked in the oven

Making bean enchiladas is very quick and simple. Since they are baked in the oven, they become slightly crispy with perfectly melted cheese, resulting in a comforting and satisfying meal that is sure to impress. The oven-baking method allows for a hands-off approach, making this a delightfully easy recipe that will yield delicious results every time.

Spicy Tex-Mex cheese for gooeyness and a touch of heat

Cheese bean enchiladas, of course, need the perfect cheese to introduce a bit of decadent richness and creaminess. A spicy, flavourful one with chilli is the perfect choice for a Mexican-inspired meal.

This makes our beloved Tex-Mex cheese, which is a mix of chilli-spiced mozzarella and cheddar, the perfect choice. Since it has already been shredded, you can simply combine it with your filling for a bit of heat and sprinkle it on top of your rolled bean enchiladas for a finishing touch. The deliciously gooey texture of the melted cheese ties it all together and makes eating these bean enchiladas amazing.

Add your own touch

If you want to turn up the heat a notch, you can make spicy bean enchiladas with either more chilli or multiple different kinds of chilli. Since green chillies are usually milder than red ones, you can use a mix of the two, add dried chilli, or use minced chipotle chilli in your filling. In addition to packing a lot of heat, the latter option will introduce a smoky flavour to the dish.

If you do not want to change up the filling, you can instead add pickled jalapeño peppers, fresh red chilli pepper, or diced onion to the top of the bean enchiladas before baking them to add extra spice, flavour, and texture.