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Everyone will love these unconventional vegan skillet enchiladas made in one skillet with soy curls, black beans, sauteed veggies, queso, and crunchy tortilla chips. Garnish with your favorite Mexican toppings like cilantro, vegan shredded cheese, and avocado.
Homemade Enchiladas are one of my favorite quick weeknight meals but sometimes I don’t have the time or energy to roll up tortillas and bake them. Sometimes I need quick and easy! Let me introduce you to easy vegan skillet enchiladas! They are life-changing!
I love this vegan enchiladas recipe because you don’t have to roll or spend hours making the sauce and fillings, and you don’t have to worry about a perfect presentation. This is as easy as Tex-Mex gets. We make a simple red sauce in the blender, then fry up some soy curls which act as chikin sub, with bell peppers and onions. DONE! Now, we simply layer our enchiladas sauce with tortilla chips instead of soft tortillas and add some black beans and vegan cheese shreds while we’re at it!
You are basically making an enchilada nachos casserole! Awesome for game day or Superbowl! All done in so little time and with so little effort. This a no-fuss Mexican skillet dinner recipe. And let me tell you kids LOVE it, even with all of the added veggies!
I use soycurls as a chikin sub in this recipe. You can use seitan or other as well or use mushrooms or more veggies to make soyfree/Glutenfree.
If you would rather make classic enchiladas, make my Vegan Enchiladas!
More Mexican inspired recipes from the blog
- Spicy Chipotle garlic Jackfruit Tacos
- Vegan Tinga bowl with Hearts of Palm, Chickpeas, Spanish…
- Pulled Butternut Squash Tacos. Vegan Glutenfree Recipe
- Jackfruit Meatballs Tacos
- Lentil Sweet Potato Tacos
- Easy DIY Burrito Bowl
You can use some of the above recipes as the enchilada filling as well. Let’s make these!
Skillet Enchiladas with Soy Curls
Ingredients
For the Red Sauce
- 1/4 cup tomato paste
- 1 medium tomato
- 1 1/2 cups water, or vegetable broth
- 1 chipotle chili in adobo sauce , or 1/4 tsp of chipotle chili powder
- 1/2 tsp ground cumin
- 1/4 tsp salt
For the Soy Curl Meat Layer
- 2 tsp oil
- 1/2 cup thinly sliced onions
- 1/2 cup thinly sliced green bell pepper
- 2 oz soy curls , soaked in 1 1/2 cups of warm vegetable broth for at least 15 minutes
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tsp chili powder blend
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 black pepper
For the rest of the ingredients:
- 1 1/2 cups or more tortilla chips, or use sliced tortillas
- 15 oz can of black beans, drained
- Vegan Cheddar Cheese Shreds of choice, or use my queso (linked in notes)
Instructions
- Blend all the ingredients in the red sauce and set aside.
- Heat a cast iron skillet over medium high heat. Add the oil, and when the oil is hot, add in the onion and bell pepper, mix well. Cook until translucent.
- Drain your soy curls, and squeeze lightly to remove excess moisture, then chop up some of the larger pieces, then add the soy curls to the skillet as well.
- Cook this mixture until the onion is golden brown, and the soy curls are starting to turn brown on some of the edges. Add in the garlic and mix well, add in the chili powder, salt, and pepper and mix well, then add in your chipotle pepper, 2 tsps of the adobo sauce, mix well, then add in 3-4 tbsp of the red sauce and mix.
- Take off heat, then layer this mixture with the tortilla chips, black beans, and the remaining red sauce all over the beans and the tortilla chips.
- Then distribute the vegan cheddar shreds or vegan queso. Drizzle it all over.
- Move the skillet to an oven, and broil for 4-6 minutes, or until the cheese is melted, and the mixutre is bubbly, and the top is starting to get golden brown. Remove the skillet, garnish with cilantro, and green onions, and serve it with chili. You can serve this with avocado, vegan sour cream, and any other toppings of choice. No oven: Alternatively , cover the skillet and cook over medium heat until the cheese on top is bubbly
Notes
- Use any beans of choice.
- You can also use some Seitan instead of soycurls to make these Soyfree.or add mushrooms or more veggies
- use Cheddar Cheese Shreds or use my vegan queso
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Ingredients for making Vegan Skillet Enchiladas:
- For the simple homemade Enchiladas Sauce, we blend tomato paste, fresh tomato, some vegetable broth, chipotle in adobo sauce, and season with cumin for that Mexican touch.
- For the ” Meat Layer”, we sautee soaked soy curls with onion, garlic, bell pepper, pepper, and chili powder.
- Then we layer meat and sauce with tortilla chips and canned or cooked black beans, drained
- I love topping these with some Vegan Cheddar Cheese Shreds but you can also use my vegan queso
Tips & Substitutions:
- I like to use onion, and bell pepper, but you could add zucchini, poblano pepper, and some drained, canned corn. Feel free to use whatever veggies you have on hand.
- As a short-cut, you could use store-bought enchilada sauce.
- If you don’t want to use black beans, you can use pinto beans instead
- Cannot find chipotle in adobo? Add some smoked paprika instead along with the chili powder. 1 tsp should be perfect.
How to make Vegan Skillet Enchiladas:
Blend all the ingredients in the red sauce and set aside. Heat a cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat. Add the oil, and when the oil is hot, add in the onion and bell pepper, mix well. Cook until translucent.
Drain your soy curls, and squeeze lightly to remove excess moisture, then chop up some of the larger pieces, then add the soy curls to the skillet as well.
Cook this mixture until the onion is golden brown, and the soy curls are starting to turn brown on some of the edges. Add in the garlic and mix well, add in the chili powder, salt, and pepper and mix well, then add in your chipotle pepper, two tsp of the adobo sauce, mix well.
Add in 3-4 tbsp of the red sauce and mix.
Take off heat, then layer this mixture with the tortilla chips, black beans, and the remaining red sauce all over the beans and the tortilla chips.
Then your vegan cheddar shreds or cashew queso. Drizzle it all over.
Move the skillet to an oven, and broil for 4-6 minutes, or until the cheese is melted, and the mixture is bubbly, and the top is starting to get golden brown.
Remove the skillet, garnish with cilantro, and green onions, and serve it with chili. You can serve this with avocado, vegan sour cream, and any other toppings of choice. Alternatively, cover the skillet and cook over medium heat until the cheese on top is bubbly
Topping ideas:
- green onion,
- vegan queso nacho cheese sauce
- vegan cashew cream
- cilantro
- pickled carrots
- pickled jalapenos
- fresh or pickled radish slices
I made this tonight for my family and it was a huge hit. I decided to try veggie ground instead of soy curls (as we just ate soy curls the night previous) and corn tortillas instead of chips. I finished off the skillet with some pickled onions and guacamole. This dish packs a punch in flavour and I will definitely make it again.
Yay! Thanks for taking the time to comment.
This has great flavor and is easily modifiable. I do think that red sauce could have had a little less liquid in it, though. We’ll definitely make it again but I’ll probably put about 1/4 cup less of liquid in the red sauce. I may also layer it a little differently so that the chips don’t have the red sauce put directly on them and end up a bit more crispy. Great, nonetheless.
I did want to point out an omission that you made. You have listed in the instructions to add a chipotle pepper with the soy curls & veggies/spices but it is not listed in the ingredients under “For the Soy Curl Meat Layer.”
I also want to add for anyone that doesn’t know, soy curls can get rancid. I was not aware of that. A while back we made your recipe for Cajun buffalo soy curl wraps. I can tell that the flavors and final product should be really good but the ones we made were not good. It turned out that the soy curls had gone bad. I had about 1/2 of a bag that I had stored in a zip lock bag in the pantry. When I bought them again I kept them in the freezer and the leftover ones are back in the freezer and I am going to try the buffalo wraps again.
Thanks for the tips about soy curls!
Soy curls do have a Best By date on each package. Mine were about six months beyond the date of purchase. I also store mine in the freezer, however, so perhaps that date is extended.
I used about a cup of the soy curls, added black olives and substitute home fried Tortilla strips to replace the chips. Lastly made the red sauce but did not appeal to me, thus had packaged enchilada sauce on hand. It was delicious, mild enough for children.
I’m glad everyone liked the dish!
Delicious! Just had this for lunch, topped with your 10 minute vegan queso. Another great recipe!
Nice combination.
Yum! I used rice instead of tortilla chips and made enchilada bowls, and they were a big hit! Thanks for another awesome recipe, Richa!
Great idea!
Simple and delicious! Thanks, Richa!
thanks for popping in
We will definitely make this again. The whole family gave it 5 stars. I chose to use corn tortillas and it turned out great!
Awesome
Hey!
The adobo is listed under the red sauce but in the recipe is put on the skillet?? This is not the first time your recipes have such a weird mix up with ingredients. Anyway, it was delicious.
Ah I forgot to add another chipotle pepper in the ingredients with the soycurls. Good catch!
Another success! Husband ate two helpings at dinner tonight.
Amazing!
Made this tonight- so so good! I used canned enchilada sauce and added the cumin and chipotle spice to it. This recipe is a keeper!