Cheesy Red 'n' Black Bean Enchiladas

Technically, these are not actually "enchiladas" although they bear a resemblance to the traditional dish. According to Wikipedia: "The Real Academia Española defines the word enchilada, as used in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, and Nicaragua, as a rolled maize tortilla stuffed with meat and covered with a tomato and chile sauce."

Well, let's see -- how many ways did I violate this definition???

- Whole wheat tortillas instead of corn
- two kinds of beans, but no meat
- no tomatoes in the sauce, only cheese

But there are chiles in the sauce, so I'm going to call these enchiladas anyway, based upon the following statement: "Enchilada is the past participle of Spanish enchilar, 'to add chile pepper to,' literally to 'season (or decorate) with chile."

I feel better now! Enchiladas these will be!!!

I had left a package of tortillas in the freezer at Tom's house, and they had no kosher certification so I couldn't take them back to the apartment I'm staying at. Tom had some leftover Cuban beans from Trader Joe's (black beans in a seasoned sauce), and there was also a can of red kidney beans in his pantry, each seeking a purpose in life.

On top of that, Wholly Guacamole had written to me recently asking me to look over a new website they'd launched, and even offering to send me samples of their products to try ... clearly, the presumption was that I would share all of this with my faithful followers and rave about it with an abundance of praise.

Well, I don't do product reviews because I don't want there to be any hint that I might offer a favorable opinion based upon having received a gift. So I told them this while thanking them for the offer, and they told me they'd still like me to try the items ... wow, that was unexpected!

So, I received a large box that had been very generously filled with guacamole and salsa, which are kosher, and two containers of queso sauce, which is not. I brought the queso to Tom's, and then we tried to figure out what to do with it.

Et, voilà -- an epiphany!

(Wait a second -- how do you say that in Spanish, which I've never studied ... okay, Y aquí -- an epiphany! God I love Yahoo's Babel Fish translation site! It lets me translate or -- more importantly -- confirm that I'm not misspeaking and embarrassing myself with my severely limited Italian and unbelievably rusty French!)

So I combined the beans, tossed in some of the salsa, rolled the mixture up into tortillas, placed the filled tortillas into a casserole dish, and poured some of the queso sauce over everything. Oh, man, did the house smell good as this baked!

Tom dipped into them and stated very simply and succinctly: "Very tasty, my dear." It was a perfect transformation of leftovers into an entirely different meal, and one that was sublime.

So, to provide a bit of a groan but also -- I hope! -- a smile: What's black and white and red all over? These Red 'n' Black Bean Enchiladas with a white queso sauce ... :)

(Okay, so that was bad! You know you still love me anyway, and you'll be back tomorrow to see what my latest kitchen adventure will be. And, of course, I'll welcome you as always, looking forward to seeing you again!)

Cheesy Red 'n' Black Bean Enchiladas

1 cup Trader Joe's Cuban beans
1 15-ounce can red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 cup fresh salsa
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon chili garlic sauce
6 8" whole wheat tortillas
8 ounces queso sauce
1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese

Prehat oven to 350F. Grease a casserole dish.

Combine the Cuban beans, kidney beans, salsa, salt and chili garlic sauce in a medium bowl; using a potato masher, mash the mixture a bit to break up some of the beans.

Lay the tortillas out on the counter, and divide the bean mixture among them by placing the beans in the middle of each tortilla.


Spread the beans out into a line not quite reaching the edge of the tortilla, then roll each one up and place it into the prepared casserole dish.


Pour the queso sauce over the tortillas, then sprinkle the cheese over that.


Bake for 30 minutes until the enchiladas are golden and the sauce is bubbling.

Makes 6 enchiladas.