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Black Bean Enchiladas with Warm Salsa Verde

A Mexican dish of corn tortillas filled with black beans and topped with warm tomatillo salsa and melted cheese.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 25 ingredients
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Why it works: Beans and cumin match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,188 recipes. Both carry linalool, which smells floral, citrus. The science ↓

Black Bean Enchiladas with Warm Salsa Verde

Oven275°F

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wrap tortillas in aluminum foil and heat in oven at 275°F until fillings and sauce are ready.

Make the black bean filling

  1. Heat oil in a large skillet and add garlic. Grate onion into the pan with a hand grater. Add jalapeño, seeded and minced. Cook for 1 to 2 minutes.

  2. Add black beans, mash with the back of a fork, stir in cumin and tomato paste, and season with salt.

Make the warm salsa verde

  1. Place tomatillos in a food processor and pulse to a coarsely ground paste.

  2. Heat garlic in oil over medium heat in a large saucepan. When garlic begins to sizzle, grate onion with a hand grater directly into the pan. Add jalapeño. Heat onion and jalapeño through for 1 to 2 minutes, then add ground tomatillos. Simmer tomatillos with onion for 5 minutes. Add vegetable stock and seasonings.

  3. Halve avocado with skin on by cutting in and down to the pit all around. Separate halves, scoop out pit with a large spoon, scoop flesh out of skins into a pot, mash with the back of a fork, stir avocado into sauce to thicken it. Return sauce to a gentle boil and reduce heat to warm until enchiladas are assembled.

Assemble and serve

  1. Preheat broiler.

  2. Scoop some sauce onto the bottom of a casserole dish or shallow serving platter. Place 1 to 2 scoops of filling in the center of a tortilla, roll, and place seam side down into sauce on the platter. Line up tortillas, one next to another, and top with remaining sauce and grated cheeses. Melt cheeses under broiler and serve immediately with warm salsa verde.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

809Calories
24 gProtein
50 gFat
75 gCarbs

Counts 11 of 12 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 11 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Avocado1 medium (150g)240
Corn Tortilla1 medium flour (45g)140
Olive Oil1 tbsp (14g)119
Black Bean1/2 cup canned (120g) drained114
Cheese1 oz (28g) cheddar113
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Tomato1 medium (123g)22
Cumin1 tsp ground (2.1g)8
Oregano1 tsp dried (1.8g)5
Garlic1 clove (3g)4
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Enchiladanot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Beans + cumintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,188 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  2. Garlic + oniontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  3. Garlic + cumintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,082 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Olive + garlictop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,665 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  5. Corn + beanstop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,211 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Black beans
Form the bulk of the filling, and mashing them gives it a thick, creamy texture.
Tomatillos
Provide tart, bright acidity and the body of the green sauce.
Avocado
Adds creaminess and thickens the salsa verde when mashed into it.
Grated mexican cheeses
Melt into a stretchy layer and brown under the broiler, adding richness and salt.
Corn tortillas
Hold the filling and sauce together as the rolled enchilada structure.
Tomato paste
Adds concentrated savory depth and a deeper color to the bean filling.

The step that matters

Stirring in the avocado. Avocado thickens the sauce, but prolonged hard boiling can dull its flavor and color. Stir it in, then keep the sauce at a gentle boil and reduce to warm.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (corn, cheese, olive, garlic, onion, beans, cumin):

  1. Oreganofits better
  2. Corianderfits better
  3. Turmericfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against corn, cheese, olive, garlic, onion, beans, cumin. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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