The Best Thing I Cooked Last Week: No-Bake Veggie Enchiladas

Everyone has probably at some point cooked or eaten a veggie enchilada. Typically, black beans are subbed in for meat, and you cover everything with a tomato-based sauce and a layer of melted cheese. These veggie enchiladas, though — with a roasted carrot sofrito — are something entirely new and fresh. They’re the best thing I cooked I last week.

There’s soffritto and sofrito. The first is an Italian base (typically onions, garlic, and celery) for soups and sauces, the former is the Spanish variety used primarily for the same purpose — and for today, the star of these no-bake enchiladas.

If you’re often in a time crunch (like me), you may filter out recipes based on the ‘time to cook’ stat — passing on items that take longer than 45 minutes to prepare. Don’t let the ‘2 hours’ number scare you out of making these. Most of that time is inactive baking that yields a roasted sofrito consisting of carrots, onions, garlic, and tomatoes. It’s roasted goodness that you’ll be enjoying throughout the week.

The filling for these enchiladas is a beautiful mix of crumbled queso fresco, red onion, and cilantro. It’s exactly the reason why, when it comes to Mexican food, I tend to lean on the side of fresh and crisp instead of saucy and rich.

After the sofrito is done roasting, the preparation of the enchiladas is easy. Each corn tortilla is lightly fried for pliability then rolled with the filling, and topped with the sofrito. It’s then finished with a tomatillo salsa, more cheese filling, and crema. 

It might be the best thing you make this week too.

→ Get the Recipe: No-Bake Veggie Enchiladas by Josef Centeno of Food & Wine

(Images: Chris Perez)