Mexican Lasagna

Name: Mexican Lasagna
Cuisine: Mexican
Ingredients: 1-2 TBL olive oil (as needed for pan roasting the veggies); 1 large red pepper (or two small), diced; 2 small zucchini, diced; 1 small yellow onion, diced; 2 cups frozen corn (or fresh, if you have it in season!); 1 4oz can diced green chilies (I used Hatch Spicy chilies); 2-3 tsp chili powder (I used a bit of regular and chipotle chili powder as well); 2-3 tsp cumin; 2 cups Mexican cheese blend, shredded; 15-20 corn tortillas (this is where you may use more or less depending on what you want); 1 can vegetarian refried black beans ( I added a little bit of salsa that I had on hand to make them easier to spread); 2 cups red enchilada sauce; your choice of toppings! I made a simple guacamole and I always like a touch of plain greek yogurt on top as well.

Posted by - Dawn
on - March 3, 2020
0 Comment

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Taco Tuesday…who doesn’t love this day? Matt and I have basically made it a tradition of making some kind of taco on Tuesdays and we love it. Not only do I love tacos, but it really helps with the meal planning for the week! Last week I was in the mood for something a bit different so I went to my Pinterest, Everything Mexican board, and started looking at all of the different recipes I had pinned. I saw a few different “casseroles” that sounded yummy so that was the route I was going to take, although, as Matt was watching me make this, he decided that I was basically making a Mexican lasagna so that is what we named it! 🙂

A really main component of this recipe is cooking the vegetables the right way. You want to cook them on higher heat so that they get a nice char on them. This adds some really nice flavor to your veggies! I put some oil in my pan and waited for it to get nice and hot before I added my veggies. I also did one veggie at a time so my pan was not too crowded. This is what they looked like after.

I used red pepper, onions with some hatch chilies, zucchini and frozen corn.

For the sauce, I went easy and used a store bought enchilada sauce. This one is a favorite of mine because it doesn’t have a lot of extra bad for you ingredients. You can find it with the rest of the Mexican food in your local grocery store. Or, if you have a good homemade recipe, then use that. I have one that I found from Gimme Some Oven that is really great and my go-to for chicken enchiladas! If you would like to check out that recipe, here it is https://www.gimmesomeoven.com/red-enchilada-sauce/ Here is the one I use. You will need two packs because you want two cups for your lasagna.

This one is not spicy so if you want extra kick then you will need to add to it.

I did find one thing that I would change next time with this recipe. I was being extra cautious about making this lower calorie, etc that I found I would have liked an extra layer of tortillas in mine. I felt like mine were kind of lost in all of the vegetables, which is totally fine if that’s what you are looking for, but I wanted more. So, I will give you both ways to try in the recipe below.

Mexican Lasagna

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A healthier take on a Mexican casserole. Vegetarian and tasty enough you won’t miss the meat!

Author: Dawn
Yield: 10–12 pieces 1x
Method: Oven Baked
Cuisine: Mexican

Ingredients

Scale

1–2 TBL olive oil (as needed for pan roasting the veggies)
1 large red pepper (or two small), diced
2 small zucchini, diced
1 small yellow onion, diced
2 cups frozen corn (or fresh, if you have it in season!)
1 4oz can diced green chilies (I used Hatch Spicy chilies)
2–3 tsp chili powder (I used a bit of regular and chipotle chili powder as well)
2–3 tsp cumin
2 cups Mexican cheese blend, shredded
15–20 corn tortillas (this is where you may use more or less depending on what you want)
1 can vegetarian refried black beans ( I added a little bit of salsa that I had on hand to make them easier to spread)
2 cups red enchilada sauce
your choice of toppings! I made a simple guacamole and I always like a touch of plain greek yogurt on top as well.

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and coat a 9×13″ baking pan with cooking spray.

1. Pan roasting the veggies. Place a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add a tablespoon of olive oil to pan and let the pan get nice and hot. Start with cooking the peppers and wait until they start to get a bit of a char on them. Add a bit of chili powder and cumin each time you add a different vegetable to the pan. You need to watch at all times because you don’t want to over cook them, but you also do not want to constantly stir so they are able to get that char. Once they are done, remove from pan, set aside in a bowl, and continue with the rest of your veggies. When the onion was almost done, that is when I added in the diced chilies.

Put the refried beans in a small sauce pan over low heat and add a small bit of salsa or water to them to soften them up a bit.

Cut the corn tortillas into strips or leave them whole. I cut them, but you could do either way.

*Assembling the layers –

Put some sauce to cover the bottom of the baking pan. First lay out half of the tortilla strips in the bottom of the pan. Cover that with half of the black beans.

Follow those layers with half of the vegetables, half of the remaining sauce and half of the cheese. Finish with another layer of tortillas, the remaining black beans, veggies, sauce and cheese. This is where you could finish it, but I felt like I wanted another layer of tortillas, so I would add these before the remaining sauce and cheese. I haven’t made it that way yet, but that would be if you wanted more tortillas, which I kind of did. Your choice!

Cover with foil and bake 15-20 minutes. Take foil off and bake another 5 minutes, until it is nice and bubbly.

Serve on a bed of chopped lettuce if you so desire and top with your favorite toppings…think guacamole, greek yogurt and fresh cilantro.