I love this easy peezy Enchilada Casserole. Fast, Simple and Delicious! You can name it anything, mexican lasagna, mexican casserole, layered enchilada or enchilada casserole. This is my version of casserole with tex-mex flavors. It is layers of mix vegetables, black beans, cheese and Enchilada sauce in between Tortillas. After baking the dish for sometime in the oven and letting the tortillas and vegetables suck up the flavor of enchilada sauce, you get an amazingly tasty and filling casserole.
When ever you have a party or a crowd to feed, this is the best dish to make. It hardly requires any cooking and can be assembled in advance. It is best served hot with Guacamole and sour cream. Mexican rice as a side goes well with this dish.
You can use any vegetables of your choice for this casserole. In any tex-mex dish, I prefer using yellow onions, zucchini, corn and red bell peppers. You can totally skip making fajitas out of vegetables and use them raw directly while assembling the casserole. I like to saute them a little bit in pan with some taco seasoning.
I don’t prefer using pre-shredded blend of cheese you get in store. They don’t melt well and becomes hard as there is corn starch in it to keep the shred separate. I buy blocks of Sharp cheddar and Monterey Jack and shred it by myself. I love how they melt compared to pre-shredded cheese and remains so soft even after refrigerating.
Number of layers will depend on the size of pan you are using. I normally try to get around 2 layers of stuffing, that is cheese, vegetables and sauce for a 9×13 casserole dish. Always start with layer of sauce and tortillas on it and end the layer with tortilla and sauce on it. So, before you start assembling try to roughly divide everything. I have used whole wheat tortilla for this recipe but you can use traditional corn tortilla. If in mood of cooking, I make Enchilada sauce at home or just use the store bought can of enchilada sauce. Choice is yours 🙂 .
Vegetarian Enchilada Casserole
Ingredients
- 9 whole wheat tortillas or corn tortillas
- 2 cups enchilada sauce
- 2-3 cups blend of shredded cheddar and monterey jack cheese
- 1 diced zucchini
- 1 diced red bell pepper
- 1 diced onion
- 1/2 cup corn
- 1 cup black beans
- 2 tbsp taco seasoning
- 1 tbsp oil
- cilantro for garnish
- 9 x13 casserole dish or any size baking dish
Instructions
For Fajitas
- In a large skillet, heat oil over a medium-high flame. Saute onions, zucchini and bell peppers along with taco seasoning. Cook it for 2-3 minutes. Do not over cook as they are going to cook while baking.
- Turn off the flame. Add black beans and corn to it. Mix it properly.
For Enchilada Casserole
- Preheat the oven at 375°F . Prepare the assembly line with fajitas, shredded cheese, enchilada sauce and tortillas.
- Roughly divide sauce and fajitas into 2.Cheese and tortillas into 3.
- In a 9x13 casserole pan, put some spoons of enchilada sauce at the bottom. Lay 3 tortillas over it(overlapping is fine).
- Spread a layer of fajitas and cheese over it and pour some sauce on it.
- Repeat the layering process by placing 3 tortillas followed by layer of cheese, fajitas and enchilada sauce.
- Place last layer of 3 tortilla and top it with cheese.
- Cover the pan with foil and bake it for 30 minutes. Remove the foil and cook it for 10 more minutes.
- Let it sit for 10-15 minutes. Cut into desirable size pieces.
- Serve it with some Guacamole and sour cream.
