Hibiscus enchiladas

Cinco de Mayo is only a few days away and I love celebrating by enjoying and making Mexican food. Any chance I have to celebrate, I take it. Any chance I get to create a Mexican recipe, sign me up. I picked up dried hibiscus at the grocery store and decided to create a hibiscus enchilada—a completely vegan recipe and inspired by the food blog Love and Olive Oil. I changed the ingredients and process based on my flavour palette. This recipe is tangy from the hibiscus and smoky from the chipotle in the enchilada crema. This recipe requires prep time to roast the peppers and soak the hibiscus, make sure to plan ahead for this one!

Serves: 4

Prep time: 1 hour

INGREDIENTS

Enchilada crema

• 2/3 cp. peppers, roasted and chopped
• 2 tbsp. olive oil
• ½ cp. celery, diced
• ¾ cp. onion, diced
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 tbsp. tomato paste
• 2 tbsp. La Costena chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, chopped
• 1 ½ cp. Tomato sauce
• 2 -3 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. black pepper
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 lime
• ½ cp. cilantro
• 2 tsp. tahini

Filling

• 1 cp. dried hibiscus, soaked for 4-6 hours, drained and chopped
• 2 cps hot water
• 1 tbsp. olive oil
• ½ cp. onions, diced
• ½ cp. carrots, diced
• ¼ cp .celery, diced
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 tsp. cumin
• 1 bay leaf
• ½ tsp. oregano
• ¼ tsp. thyme
• 2 tsp. salt
• ½ tsp. red pepper flakes
• ½ cp. vegetable broth
• 1/3 cp. shitake mushrooms, chopped
• ½ cp. Swiss chard, chopped
• ¼ slice of lime, squeezed
• 1 avocado
• ½ cp. cilantro

Topping

• Tortilla- corn or flour
• Shredded cabbage
• La Costena pickled jalapeno
• Daiya or President’s Choice shredded vegan cheese
• Cilantro for garnish
• Drops of El Yucateco chipotle hot sauce

DIRECTIONS

1. Soak dried hibiscus in a medium sized bowl with hot water for 4-6 hours and set aside. Turn oven on to 425 degrees. Place peppers on a baking sheet and spray with olive oil. Roast peppers for 10-15 minutes, flipping them halfway through until golden brown. Once roasted, set aside.
2. In a pan, heat oil and place onion and celery. Stir and let them sweat and turn glassy, approximately 5 minutes on medium heat. Once softened, add the garlic, tomato paste and chipotle. Stir until the garlic is fragrant. Add the tomato sauce, salt, pepper, bay leaf and squeeze juice from half of the lime. Simmer on low-medium heat for 10 minutes. Let cool for 5 minutes.
3. In a blender, place tomato chipotle sauce, cilantro, tahini and the rest of the lime juice. Blend until smooth. Set aside.
4. In a pan, heat oil and place carrots, onion and celery. Stir and let them sweat and turn glassy, approximately 5 minutes on medium heat. Once softened, add garlic and spices until spices and garlic are fragrant. Drain soaked hibiscus and roughly chop. Add hibiscus to the pan and stir. Add vegetable broth, stir and cover for 7 minutes until hibiscus has softened.
5. Add mushrooms and cook for another 4 minutes. Add Swiss chard and cover the pan for 2 – 3 minutes until chard is wilted but not overcooked. Take pan off the heat, squeeze remaining fresh lime juice and stir.
6. Take a tortilla and spoon the filling lengthwise. Add two slices of avocado and a bunch of fresh cilantro. Roll the tortilla. Spoon the enchilada crema on top, sprinkle shredded cabbage, cheese, a few pieces of jalapeno and drops of chipotle sauce. Garnish with more cilantro. Optional: place enchiladas in toaster oven to melt cheese or dig in right after assembly!