Emo Potato Pumpkin

Confession: there are more pumpkin posts on this blog than potato posts.

Pumpkin Enchiladas--or Just Another Vegan MoFo Brainstorm. My participation didn't really live of to MoFo standards, but it did prompt flurry of thought about food and creative ideas.

Pumpkin Enchiladas were an idea I had meant to test out during October and post for Vegan MoFo, alas the grad school gods had other plans. But last night I got home from the library with half a pumpkin (see Pumpkin Chili for the destiny of its counterpart) in my fridge begging to be used along with an already opened package of preservative-free corn tortillas and some time on my hands until I needed to be out amongst the populace cheering at addition of each blue state on the big screen. (By the way, Go Pennsylvania!--it warmed my heart to see Cambria County's ragged blue rectangle in the Central-Western PA sea of red. Color me proud.)

Before I digress any further--back to brainstorming and creativity about food. I think I owe a little something to Isa and Terry (and of course all the awesome vegan food bloggers out there) for helping me think more creatively about vegetables and "traditional" dishes. I don't think I would have ever come to the idea of pumpkin enchiladas were it not for the tasty Potato-Kale Enchiladas in Veganomicon. Thus a seed was planted.

That seed grew into a recipe.


Pumpkin Enchiladas

makes 8-10 enchiladas

2 cups cubed pumpkin, about 1 1/2-inch pieces (about 1/2 a small Sugar Pie pumpkin)
olive oil spray
1 tbsp canola oil
1 small onion, diced
2 cloves garlic
2 tsp ground cumin
1 2/3 cups cooked pinto beans (or 1 can, drained and rinsed)
1 tsp sea salt
8-10 corn tortillas
1 recipe Creamy Chipotle-Cashew Enchilada Sauce

for Creamy Chipotle-Cashew Enchilada Sauce:
3/4 cup raw cashew pieces
2 1/4 tsp tapioca flour (or cornstarch)
3/4 cup water
3/4 cup plain unsweetened soymilk
2-3 chipotle peppers + 1 tsp adobo sauce (I'd err towards 2, but I'm not huge on heat)
1 1/2 tbsp tahini
3/4 cup tomato sauce
1 cup nutritional yeast
salt to taste

Preheat oven to 425 F. Spray bottom of an 8x8 baking dish with olive oil, add pumpkin and coat with olive oil spray. Roast for 25-30 minutes, until pieces are soft and edges caramelized.

While pumpkin is roasting, make enchilada sauce. Combine cashews and tapioca flour in the jar of a blender and grind into a fine powder (I was able to accomplish this even in my craptastic Hamilton Beach blender with no problem). When finely ground, add water, soymilk, chipotle peppers, tahini, tomato sauce, nutritional yeast, and salt. Blend to combine. Cook mixture over medium heat a few minutes until thickened a bit. Remove from heat and set aside.

When pumpkin is done roasting, remove from oven and set aside. Begin making your enchilada filling. Over medium-low to medium heat saute onion in canola oil. Once it has started to soften, add garlic and saute a minute; add cumin and saute a few seconds more. Season with salt, and add pinto beans, stirring through a minute or two to warm. Stir in roasted pumpkin and mash a bit (not too much) with the back of your wooden spoon. Remove from heat and set aside.

Warm your tortillas for optimum pliability: I laid them out on the rack of the still-warm-but-not-hot stove--or you could do this in a dry skillet, one at a time as you go, flipping each side for a few seconds. Dump about 3/4 cup enchilada sauce on the bottom of your baking dish and spread to coat the bottom. Dip a tortilla in enchilada sauce to coat. Since the sauce is a bit thicker than regular sauce, using a spoon to spread it out a bit might be helpful. Spoon on some filling (remember they are kind of delicate so don't try to stuff them too much) and wrap up in tortilla. Place filled tortilla seam side down in pan. Repeat until you've used up all your filling.

Preheat oven to 400 F. Pour the remaining enchilada sauce over your pan of tortilla-pumpkin bundles. Bake for about 20 minutes at 400 F.

Consume. (Especially with Fire-Roasted Salsa.)



I ate two of these for lunch today (hurrah for the occasional morning off spent mooching about). I guess you know a recipe is a keeper when it is equally delicious--and possibly more so--microwaved the next day.

I hope you've all had a great day celebrating a Democratic victory.
Now I'm off to class.