Enchilada Sauce

I wish that everyday were taco Tuesday, so then I could eat all things Mexican all of the days! I think that I have mentioned in a blog post or ten that I love Mexican food and I really love taco Tuesday. Not like I need a reason, but it gives me an extra reason to whip up some Mexican food and eat the heck out of some chips and salsa.

The other day, I was doing the washer and dryer shuffle in the laundry room with the cute Asian ladies that live in my building. When I happily realized that it was Tuesday, which means that I needed to make something Mexican…heck yes!   My taco happy dance was momentarily halted when I turned around from the dryer, and one of the cute Asian ladies was in my face pointing at my hand asking me “What I do?”  I looked down at the limp lint ball that was dangling from my fingers and I responded, “I was doing my laundry.”  She then pointed at the lint in my hand and asked me again “What I do?”  After a few awkward moments of silence, I realized that she wanted to know how I produced the teeny lint animal from my dryer.  I turned around and showed her how to remove the lint trap from the dryer, and informed her that this is where the lint animals spend most of their quality time.  Before I could return my lint trap to my dryer, she was already bolting through the laundry room. Socks and underwear where left in her wake by the time she reached her two dryers that were currently in use.  She flung open both of her dryers mid-cycle and whipped out the lint traps. To her horror she found a whole zoo of baby lint animals hanging on for dear life.  She looked at me in shock and uttered the words “Ohhhhhh Nooo! So sooo soooooo Durtee!” She immediately ran over to the trash can with her poor lint laden lint traps (try to say that 3 times fast), and proceeded to beat the crap out of the garbage can with the traps.  I quickly showed her how to rub her hand along the traps to help set the teeny lint animals free. Unfortunately I did not get there before the lint traps were bent in odd shapes from the violent beating on the trash can.  I handed her back her lint free bent lint traps, and she proceeded to stare at me wide-eyed, as if I had just produced a skittle eating unicorn out of my laundry basket.  I had no idea that when I woke up that Tuesday, that I would get to be a cute little Asian woman’s lint superhero for a good 5 minutes. Those 5 minutes quickIy passed ,and I went back to my own laundry and my taco Tuesday thoughts…

Sorry for the tangent, but I am quickly discovering that rarely a day goes by in this city without an amazing encounter similar to this. I realized that I need to start writing this stuff down!  So from time to time, I am probably going to throw a NYC story in with a post for your enjoyment, because some of the things that happen to me are just too random not to share. After the lint superhero experience in the laundry room, I settled on making an enchilada sauce. I layered this sauce into an epic enchilada casserole (casserole recipe coming soon). For now, just enjoy the magicness of this sauce, and go make friends with the mystical lint animals living in a dryer near you. 🙂

Ingredients

  • 1 TBS Olive Oil
  • 1 Small Onion, diced
  • 2 Cloves Garlic, minced
  • 1- 2 TBS Chili Powder (depending on your desired spice level)
  • 1 TBS Ground Cumin
  • 1 (28 Ounce) Can Tomato Sauce/Puree
  • 1 Cup Veggie Stock or Water
  • 1Tsp Kosher Salt

Directions

  1. Heat oil in medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onions and sauté for a few minutes, until they start to brown on the edges, about 5 minutes.
  2. Add the garlic, chili powder, and cumin. Cook for an additional minute to toast the spices.
  3. Add in the tomato sauce, as well as the veggie broth. Stir to combine and bring to a boil.
  4. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes.
  5. Remove from heat, let cool for a bit and then blend with a hand mixer or in a blender to eliminate all of the chunks.
  6. Season sauce with salt and black pepper to taste.
  7. Reheat the sauce to a simmer for 15 minutes, to incorporate everything.

This enchilada sauce will keep in the refrigerator for up to a week, or in the freezer for up to 3 months.

Keep me posted on how you end up using this amazingly easy enchilada sauce…you will never buy canned sauce again!

Enjoy!

6 thoughts on “Easy Enchilada Sauce

  1. Jessi

    LOL. Enchilada sauce does NOT have tomato sauce. I was very spoiled growing up with my grandma’s amazing (and authentic) Mexican cooking, and would be disowned if I used tomatoes in enchilada sauce, haha. My grandma’s recipe:

    Dried red chilies, de-seeded (preferably New Mexico chilies)
    A few cloves of fresh garlic (whole, to taste)
    A fresh yellow onion or two (to taste)
    Salt (to taste)

    Boil the dried chilies in a huge pot of hot water until they re-hydrate. It is actually better to place the chilies in a pot, then add hot water (from a tea kettle or whatever) and simmer. Once the chilies are done, scoop them out of the water using a slotted spoon and place in a blender. Throw in the garlic and onion (sorry for not having exact measurements, it’s an eyeballing/scent/taste type thing) and puree the hell out of everything until it is about the same consistency, maybe a bit thicker, than your current recipe using tomatoes. Use the water in which you re-hydrated the chilies if additional liquid is required.

    Once you pureed everything, using a strainer to eliminate chunks, pour the sauce into a pot and simmer. That’s all! Oh, to prepare, warm corn tortillas on a flat skillet (a regular frying pan is just fine), or warm them by dipping them in hot oil, lightly frying them, and dip each tortilla into the sauce. Place the tortilla flat on the plate (do not roll), and top with a bit of cheese and onion. Repeat until you achieve the desired height (probably about 3-5 tortillas), and if you are feeling extra fancy or eating them for breakfast, top with a fried egg. SOOOOOO delicious. This sauce works for juevos rancheros as well. Enjoy 🙂

    1. Dani

      Ha! You are right. This is just a quick, simple, and healthy recipe to replace the store bought canned stuff. Thank you so much for the great recipe, I can’t wait to try it. Thanks for checking out my blog. Cheers!

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