Saturday Night Cookin'

This past Saturday, in an attempt to both eat well and be social, we decided to make an incredible Mexican vegan dinner for friends. With good friends, avocado and wine- it's hard to go wrong (actually, it's all right), but add some spice, sauce and some great entrées and you're talking BIG game.

For our main course, we decided to take on vegan enchiladas. We played around with a wonderful recipe that Jon's mom uses, but modified it to fill it with our favorite vegan cheese, to include more vegetables and seitan. (If you've never had seitan before, we encourage you to try it- it's a very different way to experience vegetarian protein if you've typically only had tofu or tempe. We describe it as having a bit more of a "tear" to it and takes on more of that "meat texture" and even flavor- and this is a great and easy dish to try it with).

We wanted to share this recipe because they came out wonderfully- this recipe made about 12, which was more than enough to fill everyone who came and also provide us with office lunches for the next few days (double score!).

If you want to make it extra delicious, we recommend having plenty of guacamole (our favorite recipe to come soon) and vegan sour cream on-hand so you can add and decorate as liberally as you'd like.

Ingredients for Enchilada Filling:

2 onions

2.5 tbs olive oil

8 oz seitan (westsoy) strips

2 green peppers

10 oz baby bella mushrooms

3 tbs of chipotle paste (or siracha or like minded)

Daiya Cheddar Cheese (there are many fake Vegan cheeses, Daiya is our favorite for actually melting)

medium sized whole wheat tortillas

Ingredients for Enchilada Sauce (combine and warm)

40 oz

marinara sauce

3.5 oz chipotle peppers in adobo sauce

1 tbs cinnamon

Pinch of salt

Preparation:

Dice the onions and cook in oil. chop seitan and green pepper into similar sized pieces and add to the onions. Slice mushrooms in a similar size and after 5 minutes add to the mix. Stir together and once cooked through, remove from heat.

Coat 9X13 pan in thin layer of sauce. Fill tortillas with filling and fold into 9X 13 pan. Once the pan is full, smother with sauce and drizzle cheese on top. Place in the over at 350 degrees for 30-45 minutes until tortillas are crispy.