A delicious healthy recipe for Enchilada Casserole (aka “Enchilada Pie”) with black beans and corn and our 5-Minute Enchilada Sauce. Easy and delicious and can be made in 45 minutes! Vegetarian, Vegan-adaptable!
It is the soul itself that has brought us to this difficult place in order to enlarge us,
to ask more of us than we planned on giving.~James Hollis~
Here’s a quick and easy dinner recipe, perfect for busy weeknights – Enchilada Casserole with black beans and corn and our quick and our easy homemade, 5-Minute Enchilada Sauce. It can be kept vegetarian as you see it here, or for heartier appetites, add rotisserie chicken, ground turkey or beef. Swap out the cheese for vegan cheese and make it totally plant-based. Your call!
The flavorful enchilada sauce is simple yet delicious and whips up in a blender. No cooking is involved! When pressed for time, this hearty meal can be assembled in 20-25 minutes, with the oven doing the rest of the work. Top it with cilantro, avocado, and sour cream and dinner is ready!
Enchilada Casserole | 45-sec video
What You’ll Love About this Enchilada Casserole Recipe
- It’s Fast and Easy. No rolling up the tortillas- just a quick layering!
- It can be made ahead. Assemble it ahead, refrigerate it for up to 3 days, then bake when ready to serve.
- Highly adaptable! Use any veggies you like. Add chicken or keep it vegetarian. Make it vegan with vegan cheese.
What you’ll need:
- Enchilada Sauce – store-bought or Homemade Enchilada Sacue
- Black beans (or ground meat or leftover chicken)
- Onion and Garlic
- Veggies: corn, sweet potato, bell peppers, zucchini, etc. Pick 2.
- Cheese: Pepper Jack, cheddar, Mozzarella, Queso fresco, or vegan cheese
- Garnishes: Avocado, cilantro, sour cream
How to make Enchilada Casserole
Step one:
Make the 5-Minute Enchilada Sauce– or use store-bought. I like Trader Joe’s brand – but this literally takes 5 minutes, so why not just make it? 😉
Blend up the Enchilada Sauce ingredients in a blender until smooth, and that’s it! No cooking required!
In winter I use canned tomatoes, but in summer, when fresh ripe tomatoes are available, I prefer those. This would also be something really great to can or freeze for winter if you are one of those lucky ones who can grow multitudes of tomatoes.
This recipe makes about 2 cups of enchilada sauce.
Step two
Make the filling. Saute onion, garlic and any veggies you like. Sometimes I’ll add bell pepper and zucchini, sometimes diced sweet potatoes- then add the corn and black beans. Season.
Step Three
Assemble the Enchilada Casserole!
Grease the casserole dish then, layer the ingredients, first with a little sauce to coat the bottom, then add tortillas.
Spoon in half of the filling, cheese, sauce, more tortillas, and repeat, finishing with the remaining enchilada sauce.
Feel free to add cheese to the top layer, or leave it off.
Step four
Bake for 30 minutes!
Step Five
Garnish! Add fresh diced avocado, cilantro and sour cream. 
And there you have it …. fast and easy Enchilada Casserole! This could easily be made ahead, and refrigerated. Or bake it ahead for mid-week meals.
What to serve with Enchilada Casserole
- Mexican Slaw with Cilantro and Lime
- Roasted Enchilada Sauce
- Mexican Pinto Beans
- Cilantro Lime Rice
- Pico de Gallo
- Fermented Hot Sauce
More recipes you may like!
On the homefront: I just got back from a dreamy little getaway, a town in Mexico, called Sayulita, just South of Puerto Vallarta. It’s amazing what a little sunshine does for the soul. Not to mention the food. Somehow the warm vibrant flavors revive the palate, and I always come home feeling refreshed and inspired.
I traveled with my friend Mikki who I met 20 years ago in the Counseling Psychology Program at Gonzaga University – and though she lives far, whenever we connect, it’s just like old times.
She gave me a book, which, when I first read the title, made me want to throw across the room, because well, it’s called Finding Meaning in the Second Half of Life by James Hollis and it’s hard for me to get my head around the fact, that yes, I’m in the second half of my life, because… when did that happen?! 😂
But title aside, the book is a treasure – and it has been a while since I’ve been this moved. It just reaches right in and speaks the truth, about what we probably already know, but don’t normally have the courage to face.
The writing is incredible, the author so candid and eloquent. If you are over 40 and are seeking depth, meaning … give yourself a gift. You will love it. There is a section on relationships that is particularly poignant.
Ok.. I hope you enjoy this recipe! let me know what you think and how you adapt it in the comments below. 🙂
xoxo
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Enchilada Casserole
- Prep Time: 15 mins
- Cook Time: 40 mins
- Total Time: 55 mins
- Yield: 8 1x
- Category: Main
- Method: Baked
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Vegetarian
Description
A fast and easy recipe for Enchilada Casserole, with black beans, corn, sweet potatoes and a quick 5 Minute Enchilada Sauce. Comforting and healthy! Keep it vegetarian or add cooked chicken or ground turkey!
Ingredients
- 12-ounce bottle of enchilada sauce (or make my 5-minute enchilada sauce)
- 12 x 6-inch corn or flour tortillas
- 2–3 cups grated Mexican style cheese (or try a vegan cheese)
- 4 ounce can green chilies, (optional)
Garnish: chopped cilantro, diced avocado, sour cream, hot sauce
5 minute Enchilada Sauce:
- 14.5 ounce can diced tomatoes (or tomato puree or tomato sauce)
- 1/4 cup water
- 2 Tablespoons olive oil
- 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 2 teaspoons chili powder
- 1/4–1/2 teaspoon chipotle powder – optional (plus more to taste, or add a canned chipotle pepper, or smoked paprika and cayenne for heat)
- 1 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 garlic cloves (or 2 teaspoons granulated garlic)
- 1 teaspoon oregano– optional (dry or fresh)
Casserole Filling:
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1/2 an onion, diced ( see notes)
- 4 cloves garlic, rough chopped (see notes)
- 1 large yam or sweet potato, diced into 1/2 inch cubes (optional, or sub 1 large bell pepper, or zucchini)
- 12– 16 ounce bag frozen corn (regular or fire-roasted ) – or sub fresh corn.
- 15-ounce can black beans, drained( like Trader Joe’s Cuban Style Black Beans) Or substitute with 2 cups cooked chicken, browned seasoned ground turkey, or beef.
- 2 teaspoons cumin
- 2 teaspoons chili powder
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 F
- Make the Quick Enchilada Sauce: Place all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth, set aside.
- Make the filling: Saute onion, garlic and sweet potatoes in the olive oil over medium heat, until tender, about 10-12 minutes, covering ½ way through, allowing potatoes to steam and get tender. Add corn and black beans, cumin, chili powder and salt and saute until warmed through.
- Assemble: In a greased 9 x13 inch baking dish, spread out ½ cup of enchilada sauce, to lightly coat the bottom. Spread out 4 tortillas on top of the sauce. Spread out ½ of the filling over the tortillas. Scatter half of the canned green chilies (if using), and 1 cup of the grated cheese. Drizzle with a ½ cup enchilada sauce. Top with 4 more tortillas, add the remaining filling, green chilies, 1 cup cheese and top with 4 more tortillas. Lather the top with the remaining enchilada sauce and any additional cheese if you like a cheesy top.
- BAKE Cover tightly with foil(use parchment to prevent foil from touching the casserole) and bake for 30 minutes. Uncover, and bake 10 more minutes.
- Garnish with diced avocado, cilantro and sour cream. The sour cream really adds a nice creaminess.
Notes
If really short on time, you can sub granulated onion and/or garlic powder for the fresh onion and garlic. Add about a teaspoon each to the veggie filling.
In winter, I love adding the diced sweet potato for extra richness, but in the warmer months I’ll opt for zucchini and/or bell pepper. Feel free to load the filling up with seasonal veggies- tasting and adjusting salt and seasoning accordingly. Or add a protein like cooked ground meat or chicken.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1/8
- Calories: 436
- Sugar: 5.6 g
- Sodium: 1396.4 mg
- Fat: 20.7 g
- Saturated Fat: 8 g
- Carbohydrates: 51.1 g
- Fiber: 10 g
- Protein: 16.2 g
- Cholesterol: 35 mg
Sooooo delicious! My picky husband wants this again! Yay! Made Sylvia’s 5 minute enchilada sauce. Perfect and soooo quick to make with this dish. Thanks Sylvia!!!
Glad your husband liked this-yes an easy one!
This sounds delicious Lucy and I will absolutly try it. Thanks for sharing!
I make this quite often. I use a green chili enchilada sauce with extra green chilis and low carb spinach tortillas. My friends love it!
Love this Logan- you gave me such a good idea! Thanks!
Delicious! I made one with cheese and a vegan one for a brunch with friends. It was delicious and a big hit. Everyone loved it! It will be my new go-to brunch recipe. Thank you for always having such great recipes!
thanks, Michelle- so glad you liked this one. Did the vegan one have vegan cheese?
This was simply delicious. I bought the enchilada sauce that comes in a pouch, but made my own tortillas. I made eight tortillas and that was enough, I didn’t put the third layer on and will not when I make this again. Thanks for the recipe.
Hey Sylvia,
If I were to freeze this, would I assemble, bake, and then freeze, or just assemble and freeze?
Thank you!
I think I would bake first, then freeze. Thaw first before heating.
Amazingly delicious! One bite in and my boyfriend said that it had to be a new staple! Thank you for another great recipe!
Can you make the recipe fit on one or two pages? 5 is excessive.
ARe you printing from the recipe card at the bottom?
could I make this with your verde sauce (using the recipe for the chicken/corn enchilada Verde – and use the same layering technique? How far in advance could you make this? Thank you.
yes, I think that would taste great!
So easy and delicious, another hit recipe from this website. I used 1/2 a large sweet potato, 1 red bell pepper and 1 zucchini because I had them on hand, so why not!
Perfect!
Was delicious! Instead of 8 tortillas, it looked like you used 12. I only had 8 and was still great. Easy and simple. Thank you!
Loved avoiding rolling into enchiladas! Sauce was so easy to make. Added ground turkey. Yummy and even better as leftovers
Absolutely loved this! My one-year- old cleaned her plate and my husband loved it too! Another hit from this website! Thank you , thank you!
Yum! Everyone asked for seconds! What a great way to get more veggies into my picky family.
I made as listed including the homemade enchilada sauce. Used a white sweet potato to trick my 10 year into eating it – she claims she doesn’t like sweet potatoes. (it worked)
Thanks for another great recipe
ANOTHER GREAT RECIPE THAT MY FAMILY WILL HAVE ON ROTATION!
This was so delicious! I can’t believe how easy it was to make the enchilada sauce. I didn’t have chipotle powder so added one chipotle en adobo. I added fresh jalapeno and habanero to the sauteed vegetables for a little more heat. Just wonderful!
Family loved the vegetarian enchildas! Thank you-you have great recipes!
thanks so much Shannon! xoxo
I would like to make this the day before serving it to transport to use at my parents home. Do you have an advice about or experience with making this ahead to use the next day? Bake first and reheat later? Assemble and bake the next day? Thanks!
Either way would totally work! Take your pick!
This was easy, beautiful and delicious. I substituted eggplant from the garden for the sweet potato, kept it vegetarian. The 5 minute enchilada sauce will become a staple in my house. Thanks fir a great recipe!
It seems almost too simple to be interesting, but it’s a delicious way to use sweet potatoes. We went the easy route this time by using canned organic enchilada sauce, dairy free sour cream and cilantro from the garden. MMmm! Trying not to use the oven too much in warm summer months, but this one will reappear in our fall and winter rotation for sure.
Subbed the onion powder with a shallot and smoked paprika for the chipotle> BEST TACO SAUCE EVER
Didnt have potatoes so left those out, instead used some diced celery. Also added a slight pinch of cocoa powder to the filling. Both the sauce and filling taste lovely. Its now in de oven and ill eat it after working out 🙂
Thanks so much and happy you liked it!
This recipe was so good! I didn’t expect to like it so much, but I took a chance because I haven’t had a bad meal from this blog! Another success, thanks!
Love it- and glad it worked for you Michele!
We have recently committed to eating vegetarian. another winner recipe. My son said he has not had a bad meal yet. This was simple and delicious.
Can this be frozen?
Yes!
The only change I will make to this next time I make it is I will leave out the olive oil in the sauce. It’s great sauce, but I could taste the olive oil too much. I cut half of the tortillas in half (and note you’ll need 12 tortillas as written) and put the straight edges along the edge of the pan for full pan coverage. I also think this filling would make a great topping for nachos.