Eliot's Vegan Enchiladas

These enchiladas have it all. The acorn squash subtly remind us of Thanksgiving. Makes one large (9x13) baking dish. 

      Prep-time 0:45-1:15 
       Cook-time  2:00

Ingredients

• 1 medium onion
• 1 head of garlic
• ~18 oz canned crushed roasted tomatoes*
• ~8 oz canned tomato puree*
• 1 large portobello mushroom
• 2 large carrots
• 2 acorn squash
• 3 cups cashew butter**
• 1 can black beans
• 1 can corn***
• 12 small corn tortillas
• Several handfuls of spinach
• 3/4 cup flour
• 2 cups crushed tortilla chips****
• 2 tablespoons ground flax
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• chile peppers- I used 2 poblano, 3 serrano, and 2 of a variety i don't remember the name of*****
• Spices: Thyme, Sage, Oregano, Cayenne Pepper, Salt, Pepper

* The tomatoes, spices, etc, are used to make a sauce. If you wanted to be more ambitious you could stew the tomatoes yourself, and if you"re pressed for time a store bought enchilada sauce would work also

** I had some made beforehand. A good recipe can be found here: http://healthyblenderrecipes.com/recipes/raw_vegan_cashew_cheese

*** Roasting the corn would add a lot. I didn't have time. To roast corn, place it in a 425 degree oven, husks on! Turn regularly until the outside of the husk is charred. Even better, do this on a grill 

**** You could equally well just add more flour. I have some chips on hand that were too small already to do much with (the last in the bag), so I tossed them in to the tomato sauce mixture

***** If you have some on hand or easy access to fresh, hatch roasted chiles would be divine


Instructions

1. Roast the peppers, garlic, and squash. To roast, plop them on a baking sheet and turn the oven on to 450. Wrap the garlic and squash in foil. Turn peppers occasionally, the goal is to have nicely charred brown-black skin all around. Garlic and squash should roast for ~45 minutes, until squash is soft and the garlic skin is golden brown.
2. Prep other ingredients. Onions should be diced, carrots sliced, corn and beans drained, portabello thinly sliced.
3. Make the tomato sauce. Mix tomato puree and crushed tomatoes, add herbs, salt and pepper. Add about half of the onion, half of the peppers, and all of the garlic (garlic should be smashable once roasted). Mix in flour, tortilla chips, and flax.*
4. In a large glass baking dish, spread about half of the tomato sauce on the bottom. Smear 6 tortillas with sauce and place them sauce up across the bottom of the dish. 
5. Top with onions, carrots, black beans, corn, portabello, carrots, remainder of peppers, and spinach. 
6. Mash the acorn squash, and add to the cashew butter. Add the remaining tomato sauce to this mixture also. 
7. Smear remaining tortillas with generous portions of cashew mixture, and place sauce-up across the pan. 
8. Drizzle the enchiladas with olive oil. Place in 425 degree oven for ~1 hour, or until they look done (like the picture at the top of this page). 

* The order is not important here. I added chiles and garlic last because they were still roasting

Here's the dish before cooking! Check out the layers in the top picture!

Recipe by: Eliot