These red enchiladas or enchiladas rojas are traditionally made vegetarian and they are incredibly delicious. Made with a mild red sauce, filled with crumbled queso fresco and served with chopped potato and carrot. These are a must make!
2medium-smallpotatoespeeled and chopped into small pieces
1largecarrotpeeled and chopped into small pieces
1/2cupwhite onionfinely chopped and adjust to taste
1 1/4cupscrumbled queso fresco*or queso panela or vegan cheese
1/2cupMexican crema*dairy or vegan crema
2cupslettuceroughly chopped
4pickled jalapeños to taste
Instructions
Make The Enchilada Sauce
Bring a pot of water to a boil. Wipe clean or thoroughly rinse the dried chiles. Cut off the stem, remove seeds and vein. Once the water is boiling carefully drop in the dried chiles, tomatoes, onion and garlic cloves. Simmer until everything is soft. The chiles may be ready before the other ingredients, remove things as they're ready.
Place the boiled veggies and rehydrated chiles into a blender cup with 1/2 cup of the boiling broth. Add the salt, cumin powder and veggie bouillon and blend until smooth. Add more boiling broth if needed to achieve a smooth salsa.
Pour the blended salsa into a bowl or container large enough to dip the tortillas into. Set aside.
Make The Enchiladas
Place the chopped potato and carrot into a pot with enough water to cover them. Sprinkle in some salt and bring to a simmer and cook until fork tender. Drain and set aside.
Mix the crumbled cheese and finely chopped onion in a bowl then set aside.
Heat a few tablespoons of vegetable oil in a medium skillet. Once hot dip one tortilla into the enchilada salsa, once well coated place in the hot oil. Fry for 2 minutes on one side, flip over for another minute.
Place the fried tortilla on a plate and fill with a heaping tablespoon of the cheese mixture. Fold over into half moon shapes or roll up. Repeat process until all of the tortillas have been cooked, adding more oil as necessary.
Once you're done making the enchiladas, sauté the cooked potato and carrots and allow to crisp up a bit.
Serve 3 enchiladas per plate and top with the crispy vegetables, a drizzle of crema, some chopped lettuce, jalapeno and more cheese if desired. Enjoy!
Video
Notes
The tortillas preferably should be a day old at least. Fresher will be too soft and moist and will cause the enchiladas to fall apart.
Warm up your tortillas for a few seconds in the microwave to help them soften up a bit.
For the cheese you can use any crumbled Mexican cheese and to make this recipe 100% use a vegan queso fresco or a vegan feta for a perfect vegan enchilada. I have a vegan cotija recipe you can try.