Shrimp Enchiladas with Verde Sauce
There’s nothing better than good Mexican food. Come on, I’m from San Diego, I literally live 20 minutes from the border to Mexico. Solid Mexican food was something I grew up on.
All I wanted for dinner was shrimp enchiladas. Now I don’t know how to make shrimp enchiladas, but I thought that wouldn’t be an issue seeing as how the advent of the internet has given me access to food blogs a plenty. Don’t get me wrong, I was here for so many of the recipes I found, but a lot of them had a dairy based sauce and well…that doesn’t work for my family.
So I decided to reopen the test kitchen because when you can’t find what you need, you have to figure it out yourself.
Fair warning: This is definitely not the recipe to do in one sitting if you don’t have the time to spend cooking. A lot of aspects (see Notes) can be prepped ahead of time, and you can for sure make this work for a weeknight meal in that regard, just make sure you’re allocating enough time.
But you’re welcome for the end result because HOLY. MOLY. After all, if I’m going to invest this much time into cooking, it needs to be the best thing ever. There’s nothing more frustrating than investing all this time into cooking and the recipe ends up being a total dud. Yes I realize the oven is doing the majority of the hard work, but hey, I had to chop all those vegetables right? Needless to say, whatever happens it needs to be delicious and the whole family needs to love it.
I also feel like a total Olympian because I snuck in all the veggies. Isn’t that a total victory when you’re a mom? Making something that no realizes is healthy because it tastes so good, but you know it’s actually good for them too?
shrimp enchiladas with verde sauce
Prep time: 20 minutes
Cook time: 1 hour
Serves: 4 to 6 people
Enchilada Filling
12 tortillas
2 tblsp. olive oil
1 onion, diced
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 carrots, shredded
10 oz. green cabbage, shredded
1 bunch of spinach
8 oz. mushrooms, diced
1 lb. of shrimp
2 tblsp. taco seasoning
Verde Sauce
3 lbs. tomatillos, husked, rinsed and chopped in half
3 garlic cloves
2 poblano peppers, seeded and chopped in half
1-2 jalapenos, seeded and chopped in half
1 onion, quartered
1 bunch of cilantro, rinsed
Make the sauce first: Pre-heat your oven to 425 degrees, grab your lined cookie sheet and cover it with parchment paper. Place all the ingredients, except for the cilantro, on the cookie sheet. Toss with olive oil and salt to taste. Roast the veggies for 30 minutes, set aside and allow to cool.
Once cooled, add the roasted veggies as well as the cilantro to a food processor and puree until smooth.
Make the enchilada filling: While the sauce ingredients are roasting, make the enchilada filling. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees and line a cookie sheet with tin foil. Spray the foil with non stick spray, assemble your shrimp on the foil in a single layer and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cook for 6-8 minutes or until cooked through (if it’s raw) and set aside.
Grab your big skillet, and heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add in the onion and the garlic, sauteing for 5 minutes until the onion is translucent. Add in the carrots and cabbage, sauteing for an additional 5-8 minutes until wilted. Sprinkle the taco seasoning over the top and mixing until well combine. Then add in the mushrooms and the spinach, sauteing for 5 minutes until the spinach is wilted down.
Chop the shrimp into bite size pieces, add to the pan with 1/3 cup of your sauce, and mix until well combined.
Assemble the enchiladas: Decrease your oven temperature to 375 degrees. Once the filling is made, grab your 9x13 baking dish, and spray with non-stick spray. Put one heaping spoonful of the filling into each tortilla (around 1/3 cup), roll the tortilla up, and place seam side down into the dish. Repeat until all your tortillas and your filling are gone. Spread the remainder of the sauce over the tortillas until evenly distributed, cover with tin foil and heat for 20 minutes until heated all the way through. Serve immediately and enjoy!
