Wednesday, July 6, 2011

"You Choose" - Mary's ingredient: Tomatillos

"You Choose" - Mary's ingredient: Tomatillos

Are you familiar with my new summer blog series, "You Choose"?  I posted about this on My Facebook Page last week.  In short, I asked some of my friends & page followers to suggest an ingredient that they'd like to see in a (fairly) healthy recipe.  My assignment is to find a recipe, tweak it to make it more my own, and blog about it.  I'll also give a shout out to the person who recommended that particular ingredient in the post on my Facebook page.  What a fun summer challenge for me - and BONUS - I get to try all of these new recipes!

Would you like to participate too?  Please visit my Facebook page, click on "Notes" and add your ingredient - a veggie, a fruit, an herb, a root...(anything that's not meat).  I'd love to see some more fresh, seasonal things that I can find at a farmer's market.  If you can't find the note, no worries!  Just comment on my page.  I'll see it.  I encourage and am asking for more participation, so please join in!  Here's the link:  Fit & Healthy Mommy

I have to say, when my good friend Mary Brown suggested tomatillos, the first thing I thought of was salsa verde.  I think that's what most people would come up with.  While I didn't want to go that route, I found a recipe that I really wanted to tweak and try - but, the tomatillos were made into a salsa verde.  Ah well...hope I don't disappoint.

I made Sweet Potato & Bean Echiladas - and holy smokes, they were pretty awesome!  *Don't forget to scroll all the way down to see the pictures!

1 can rinsed & drained organic pinto beans
5 or so tomatillos, husks removed & quartered
2 medium sweet potatoes (I peeled & diced them very small)
1/2 white or yellow onion, chopped
1 bunch fresh cilantro, chopped
6 whole wheat flour tortillas (about 8" round)
1/2T cumin
1/2T chili powder
optional chopped jalapeno for spice
1/2 tsp salt
about 1T extra virgin olive oil
1T organic ketchup or red chile sauce
cheese (I used about 1/2 cup shredded sharp white cheddar and 1 small pkg goat cheese feta, but you can use queso fresco, cheddar jack or Mexican blend...whatever floats your boat!)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Add diced sweet potatoes to bowl and toss with evoo, cumin, chili powder,ketchup & salt.  Roast in oven for about 20 minutes or until cooked.  While those are cooking, make your way over to the tomatillos.  In wide pot, add tomatillos, chopped onion and just barely cover with water.  Cover and bring to a boil for 10 minutes.  Remove from heat and cool in water - don't drain.

Add sweet potatoes, pinto beans and half of the cilantro to a bowl. (I mashed slightly to make the enchilada filling less chunky.)  Stir in half of the cheese(s).  Set aside for a moment (see picture #2).  Add tomatillos, onion & cooking water to blender or food processor.  Add rest of the cilantro (and jalapeno if using) - then blend to make the tomatillo sauce (see picture #3).  This is when you want to make sure that the tomatillos have cooled, otherwise your blender may explode - not a joke - it's happened.

I lined my baking dish with nonstick foil.  Take each tortilla and add a few spoonfuls of sweet potato/bean/cheese filling down the center and top with a spoonful of tomatillo sauce so the insides do not get too dry (see picture #4).  Roll each tortilla - folding the sides first to keep filling inside.  Place seam-side down in the baking dish.  Once all 6 are side by side, top with rest of tomatillo sauce, then add the rest of your cheese (see picture #5).  Note - it looks like a ton of cheese, but it's really not that much, really!

Bake at 400 degrees for about 25 minutes until cheese melts and enchiladas are heated through (see picture #6).

Tomatillos & onion - fresh & ready to go!

#2 ~ mashed sweet potato, pinto beans, cilantro & cheese

#3 ~ Tomatillo sauce, after blending

#4 ~ add the potato mixture & spoonful of tomatillo sauce to each tortilla

#5 ~ tortillas rolled, seam-side down, topped w/tomatillo sauce & cheese

#6 ~ Voila!!  Fresh from the oven.

Dinner is served!

Enchilada, cut open - look at that YUMMY filling!

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