Enjoy a quick and delicious 30-minute enchilada casserole that’s gluten-free and offers a dairy-free option for everyone to savor.
Quick and Easy Recipe for a Flavorful, Healthy Meal
This easy one-pan enchilada casserole offers a delicious and quick meal option that can be prepared in under 30 minutes, making it perfect for busy weeknights. The recipe features a variety of wholesome ingredients, including butternut squash, red bell pepper, onion, diced tomatoes, black beans, corn tortillas, and enchilada sauce. For those with dietary restrictions, it can easily be made gluten-free and includes a dairy-free cheese option. Additionally, shredded chicken can be added for extra protein, though it’s entirely optional.
The preparation process is straightforward. Start by sautéing the butternut squash, bell pepper, and onion in olive oil until they are softened. Once cooked, stir in the diced tomatoes, black beans, and half of the enchilada sauce. Next, tear the corn tortillas into bite-sized pieces and mix them into the skillet, followed by the remaining enchilada sauce and shredded cheese. Cover the skillet and cook until the tortillas are tender and the cheese has melted, resulting in a mouthwatering dish with minimal cleanup required.
Quick and Flavorful Fiesta in a Dish: A Wholesome Twist on a Classic Favorite!
Hi I’m Kayla Capello and this is cooking with Kayla whether you need some easy 30 minute dinner recipes if you need to be gluten-free or eat dairy free or you just want to learn more about cooking at home this is the podcast for you every week I talk you through an easy recipe.
The ingredients you need to make it and how to make it allergy free today we’re going to be talking about an easy enchilada casserole it’s an easy 30 minute recipe even a beginner can do it it only uses one pan and it’s perfect for a healthy week night dinner I love week night dinners that can be made in under 30 minutes I don’t want to.
Be spending you know an hour in the kitchen making dinner after a long workday so this is the perfect recipe for those like lazy days when you kind of wish you could order in Mexican but you want to save your money but you also want it homemade so this is like the perfect combination of all of those factors this angelot casserole is made.
With enchilada sauce it has melted cheese gooey cheese on the top it’s packed with vegetables and it’s super easy to add any kind of meat or protein too it has the same flavors as the normal enchiladas that you would get from your local Mexican restaurant I love classic enchiladas I love the red enchilada sauce I also love the green.
Enchilada sauce this one I used red you could use red or green honestly whatever you’re ordering from the Mexican place make sure you’re making it the same way at home so it tastes just as good this is the ultimate comfort food dish honestly there’s not a situation where Mexican food isn’t going to make me feel better and like this is the absolute.
Moment to be making a comfort food at the end of a day when I just want to relax sit on the couch maybe watch some Bachelor you know just relax and take the night off this is a stov top enchilada Skillet which means it’s all made in one Skillet on the stove and you don’t even have to heat up your oven to make it if you want to heat up your oven.
If you want to make it in a casserole dish you totally can especially as it’s getting cooler in the fall you know you want that cozy feeling of like the oven being on you can absolutely make this in the oven too you can make this in the air fryer I know in my air fryer you know I have one of those baskets that you put in you can just put all the.
Ingredients in that and layer it in your fryer basket you can also make this in a crock pot or in an insta pot the best part about this is that you can make it as spicy as you want you can use spicy mild medium enchilada sauce I prefer always to make it mild my husband’s absolutely going to say spicy every single time you know any kind of spice.
You want to add to this to make it spicier is great too red pepper flakes if you want to add hot sauce it just all works great and it’s all giving it like that spicy enchilada restaurant taste this dish is obviously super easy to make dairyfree and it’s naturally glutenfree so let’s talk about the ingredients in it first.
Of all this dish is packed with fet vegetables for this one I used butternut squash I used fresh tomatoes I used bell peppers and an onion I really wanted the base of this dish to be heavy on the vegetables I know butternut squash is not one that most people would add honestly when I was making it my husband was like I’ve never heard of this.
Butternut squash option like this seems really weird but when I looked up different types of vegetable enchiladas butternut squash came up so often that I was like I just want to add it to this one if you guys want normal more classic flavor you can just use tomatoes peppers and onions if there’s anything you really want to add that you really like.
Vegetable wise you can feel free to add it to this so like you can add zucchini any other squash like if you have a yellow squash I also really love spaghetti squash I know spaghetti squash seems like kind of a weird option but this is supposed to be like a casserole it’s all baked together all the flavors are molding together so if you want to.
Use spaghetti squash here like please totally use it for the bell peppers I really prefer the red kind the yellow kind even the orange kind the green kind to me just aren’t as sweet like them the same but I use them in different recipes so I feel like if you don’t want to use a green pepper here you definitely don’t have to if you want to add more of that.
Pepper taste you want to add some poblano peppers this recipe would be so good with poblano peppers if you want to throw in a jalapeno that’s like a great option too I’ve been loving the pickled jalapenos from Trader Joe’s it’s like those sweet and spicy jalapenos honestly these would be really good even in this dish or on top of this dish I’m just all.
About those jalapenos for the protein in this if you’re making the vegetarian version I had black beans I really enjoy black beans but only in a Mexican restaurant or Mexican recipe to be completely honest I’m definitely like rarely throwing black beans in like a salad or wrap I only want it if I’m trying to make Mexican food at home you.
Can also add protein to this that comes in a meat form so like chicken any kind of shredded chicken in this ground chicken any kind of pan fried chicken would be really good you can use ground chicken ground turkey ground beef I know sometimes it’s hard to figure out a recipe that you can make for your family that sometimes like some people want.
Meat or protein and some people don’t so you can also Leave Out All the protein when making this and sauté the chicken or the ground turkey the ground beef in a separate pan so then you can add it on top of the people who want to be having the protein with their dinner and leave it off of the options for the people who want just the veggie enchilada casserole.
Like as is the next thing we have is corn tortillas I love Mexican food because I feel like it’s so easy to make gluten-free because any recipe that has flour tortillas you can really just Sub in corn tortillas and it’s still like that classic Mexican taste I know I’ve also seen tortillas out there that are cauliflower based or like even almond.
Based and and that can give you more of a low carb feel while still avoiding those flower tortillas if you’re gluten-free like I am you’re definitely not going to want to eat any kind of flour tortilla please avoid them at all cost but if you’re not gluten-free and maybe you’re just dairy free or you’re just looking for a healthy easy recipe.
They work the same they’re just not glutenfree corn tortillas buy the ones that are made from either white corn or yellow corn but I always make sure that I look on the back to make sure that they are 100% gluten-free every now and then I’ll grab a pack of corn tortillas like off the shelf and I’m not really paying attention to the brand or what’s.
In it I turn it over and I realize like shoot it’s actually a combination of corn and wheat so you want to make sure the ones that you are buying are like the classic ones just corn you don’t need all these extra ingredients you definitely don’t need it to be mixed with wheat just classic corn tortillas the best part about this.
Though is that when I make enchiladas at home I feel like corn tortillas are so hard to roll up like honestly you can’t just take them out of the bag and start rolling them they’re cracking they’re dry they’re breaking everywhere so you have to heat them up either in the oven or sometimes I do it in the microwave with like a wet paper towel on top to.
Make sure that they’re warm and pliable and easy to work with but if you don’t want to go through all that to make the enchiladas this casserole is perfect because all you’re going to do is Rip pieces of the corn tortilla and just lay it on top after your veggies are all cooked you’re going to add this corn tortilla topping you’re going to add.
Your sauce and your cheese and that’s actually going to mimic what a classic enchilada would have of the rolled corn tortilla the same flavors just in like a totally lazy girl easy way which is honestly the best way that’s the way I want it the next part is the enchilada sauce like I said love a red enchilada sauce I think it’s so classic it’s so.
Flavorful it’s so like rich I really enjoy that the best so I use the red enchilada sauce for that signature Mexican enchilada flavor but you can also use green enchilada sauce for this any kind of enchilada sauce will work the same it kind of just depends on your preference but I want to make sure if you’re gluten-free you are buying a.
Pre-made enchilada sauce that is gluten-free sometimes they do contain weat so make sure if you don’t have like a brand that’s your go-to every time that you’ve been buying for years you know is gluten-free if this is something you’re buying for the first time just make sure checking your labels you always want to be checking those labels.
You don’t want to find yourself in a situation where you’re like shoot I bought this I got it all the way home and it’s actually not gluten-free and now I can’t use it just try to avoid that make sure you’re checking your labels when you’re buying or when you’re researching what you want to buy online you know look up the brand beforehand.
Sometimes that’s what I do I type in like you know horn tortilla is gluten-free and I look up what brands come up so when I get to the grocery store I’m not stuck at the grocery store making all these decisions In the Heat of the Moment where there’s much higher of a risk for me to make the wrong decision if you can’t find a gluten-free.
Enchilada sauce if you’re scared if you’re nervous you’ll pick one up that’s not gluten-free or you can’t figure out the right ingredients in it you can use a salsa in its place any kind of salsa you know a mild one a medium one a spicy one any salsa will work here as well and if you don’t have salsa but you have taco sauce you can definitely use taco.
Sauce in its place if you don’t have any of these the last option is you can buy a tomato sauce in a can so not the marinara sauce that you’re buying to put on top of pasta but if you go down the canned aisle in the Tomato section there’s going to be just plain tomato sauce in a can grab that and grab a pack of glutenfree taco seasoning and you can.
Mix that together and use that in place of let’s say like the enchilada sauce or the taco sauce the last ingredient we’re going to talk about is the cheese so I use shredded cheddar cheese on top of here you can also use like a Mexican blend a cheddar blend honestly any cheese that you normally go to when you’re making Mexican food at home would.
Work great here if you only have mozzarel if you only have pepperjack if you only have feta if you only have a Cita cheese like any of these are going to work great too it’s going to give you that cheesy kind of creamy topping that you really want that’s going to be reminiscent of your normal signature classic enchilada for a dairyfree recipe.
The only sub I’m making here is I’m using dairyfree cheese you can use dairyfree sliced cheese you can use shredded cheese it’s all going to work the same just make sure whatever your dietary needs are that you are buying it according to those needs let’s talk about how I serve and eat this recipe at home I make it in a skillet that is a.
One pan easy to clean Skillet I use the RPL pan a lot I use the neutri cook pan a lot I also use a couple that I have from Pottery Barn or Williams and sowa because the idea here is that you want it to be easy to clean you don’t want like all the cheese getting hard and sticking to the outside so make sure you just have like your go-to easy pan or.
Your easy casserole dish that’s easy to clean after to make sure you are not making this meal any more difficult for yourself than it really has to be I like topping each portion with either hot sauce maybe a little shredded lettuce some sour cream some r even some salsa on top is really good if I’m going for the dairy free option I allow myself to.
Use dairy free sour cream or even a dairyfree ranch to dip it in I for some reason think sour cream and ranch are like interchangeable they’re definitely not like if you’re using ranch it’s definitely less of a Mexican choice or a traditional choice but they’re both creamy to me so they kind of achieve the same goal and if you already have Ranch.
In the fridge like don’t go out of your way to buy the sour cream just a quick Ranch drizzle on top would be really good but it’s totally up to you if you want to use a fat fee sour cream a fat-free Ranch any of these options work great if you want to skip all the creamy components and just have the enchiladas as is that works great too that’s a.
Really traditional option and honestly I go with that time almost nine out of 10 times how to make this recipe glutenfree dairy free allergy friendly is really easy so to make this recipe gluten-free you’re going to make sure that the corn Tory teas are gluten-free you’re going to make sure that the enchilada sauce is glutenfree and all of the vegetables and.
Chicken that you’re throwing in are not something that would contain gluten so if you’re trying to take the lazy way here which I do all the time let’s say you want to save times you’re buying yourself a rotisserie chicken to throw into this just do yourself a favor and make sure that the rotisserie chicken you’re using is 100% gluten-free you.
Know no cross contamination no weird flavorings if you guys like aren’t sure just ask about at the grocery store you just want to be safe rather than sorry to make this recipe dairyfree you’re going to use any dairyfree cheese like I said it can be shredded it can be sliced cheese it can be a block of cheese that maybe you shred at home if you’re just.
Doing it to be dairy free you can use lactose free option as well that will just take the lactose out of the cheese but it still will contain dairy but it’ll be lactose free look for any kind of block of lactose free cheese I love the Green Valley brand I buy their block of cheddar cheese pretty often and just shred it myself so let’s go through.
Exactly how you’re going to make this when you make this for dinner tonight so you’re going to get your large Skillet pan you’re going to add your butternut squash cubes your bell pepper your onion and a little bit of olive oil onto the bottom of the pan and you’re going to cook it for approximately 15 to 20 minutes on a medium low heat until the.
Butternut squash is soft the bell pepper is soft and the onions are translucent to save yourself time you can definitely buy a butternut squash you know a bell pepper and an onion that’s already sliced and diced but if you want to do that yourself you’re going to want to slice and dice it before you put it into the skillet once all your vegetables are.
Cooked you’re going to stir in the diced tomatoes you’re going to stir in the black beans and about half of the enchilada sauce you’re going to mix it all together season with a little Salt and Pepper or if you want to add a little bit of taco seasoning fajita seasoning enchilada seasoning you can add it here and you’re going to make.
Sure that everything is covered consistently with the enchilada sauce next you’re going to tear the corn tortillas apart and you’re going to add them to a layer on the top of the skillet this will be your corn tortilla topping once you cover the whole Skillet you can pour the remaining enchilada sauce on top over the tortillas you want.
To make sure I want to say 75% of the tortillas are at least covered if you want to cover the whole thing you totally can but I like to leave just a little bit of the corn tortilla still showing so then once you’re continuing to cook it you kind of get that contrast of like how the corn tortilla tastes once it’s cooked versus how it tastes.
When it’s cooking in a liquid it’s going to be a mushier consistency versus a crunchier consistency and I like to taste both textures when I’m making this dish after you tear the corn tortillas on top and put the enchilada sauce on top you’re going to sprinkle the cheese over you’re going to sprinkle the cheese evenly over the mixture you’re either.
Going to put the sliced cheese in a layer on top or you’re going to use the shredded cheese and put it in that layer on top if you’re choosing to add chicken if you’re adding ground chicken if you’re adding ground turkey or ground beef this is where you can add it you’re going to mix that either ground meat or the shredded meat in with the cheese for.
Your top layer next you’re going to put the top on your Skillet and you’re going to and you’re going to continue to cook it for about 10 to 12 minutes on medium heat on the stove top with the cover on this is going to help make sure that all the components are warming together they’re cooking together the enchilada sauce is getting hot you know if you.
Have chicken in there the chicken is getting warm the cheese is getting melted because remember vegetables are already cooked so this part here is kind kind of just to make sure that the rest of the dish is all getting to the same temperature so when you’re ready to eat it’s all hot and melty and gooey together once it’s done cooking I like.
To take the top off just try a little bit make sure it’s the right temperature it’s the right consistency and everything is cooked if you’re adding any shredded lettuce if you’re adding any fresh herbs on top you can add it here I like to use a spatula kind of cut up into six different portions you know two cut Cuts one way turn the pan two.
Cuts the other way so there’s like very even serving sizes before I serve it I like to serve mine in a bowl I like a little side salad or maybe some raw vegetables to dip in some sort of ranch or some sort of dressing I just I really enjoy this recipe for an easy week night meal I think it’s so easy to make delicious it has those classic Mexican.
Flavors without wasting money on takeout without wasting time waiting for take out to be delivered you know you want it you want it fast you want it quick and you want it to taste really good and this recipe has all your bases covered okay that’s a wrap or should I say that’s a meal this recipe was easy had minimal ingredients was easy to clean up.
Afterwards and is of course easy to make gluten-free and dairy free if you like easy meals like this make sure to subscribe so you don’t miss next week’s easy 30 minute meal chat
