Low Carb Enchiladas

I love Mexican dishes, but as a vegetarian on a low-carb diet, it can be a challenge trying to create a Mexican meal from beans.

But, I'm nothing if not persistant. I wanted a low carb enchilada that was filled with low carb chilli, so that is what I made. The secret to these is the choice of beans. Often in Mexican cooking you will use kidney beans and pinto beans. These are both high carb beans with low fibre. But the haricot bean, that's only 2g net carbs per 400g can. Perfect!

You can also make meat versions of this recipe by adding minced beef or chicken, or anything you want to the chili really.

Most of the ingredients can be found easily, but I've linked to the ones that might be a bit more difficult to hunt down.

Serving Size: Makes 6 enchiladas.
Net carbs per enchilada: 5g

Ingredients:

• 1 x 400g can of haricot beans (240g once drained - 3g net carbs per can).
• 1 x 400g can of three bean salad (Cannellini Beans, Flageolet Beans, Adzuki Beans, 240g drained - 5g net carbs per can)
• 30g of kidney beans (drained - 3g net carbs)
• 1 small onion
• ½ bell pepper
• 1 garlic clove (crushed)
• 1 jar of Doritos salsa (any salsa will do)
• 6 low carb tortillas
• 1 block of mature cheddar cheese
• 1 ripe avocado
• 300mls sour cream
• 1 lettuce
• 2 tomatos

  The 5 Bean Chilli - Method

1. Chop the onion and the bell pepper up into small pieces and put in a bowl.
2. Cut the garlic clove in half and crush half of it into the bowl with the onions and peppers. (Put the second half to the side for your guacamole).
3. Boil the can of haricot beans for a few minutes (until they are soft enough to mash up). 
4. Drain off the water, and mash up the haricot beans before adding them to the bowl of ingredients.
5. Drain the kidney beans and three bean salad and add them to the bowl.
6. Now add 2 tbsps of salsa to the chilli and mix all those ingredients together.
7. This chilli can be stored in a fridge and frozen for later use. It cab be used in many different Mexican dishes. If you eat meat, you can add mince, chicken or anything you want to it. If you are vegetarian, you can use it to make spicey bean burger patties.

Remember that the chili is uncooked at this stage. Usually, you will cook it during the creation of the meal (inside the enchilada, on top of the nachos, inside the bean burger). If you plan to just have a bowl of chili on it's own, remember to boil it for 10-15 mins to heat it up and soften the ingredients a bit.

Enchilada - Method:

1. Lay out low carb tortilla on a baking tray.
2. Add a large tablespoon of your chili to the centre of the tortilla.
3. Sprinkle grated cheese over the chilli (as much or as little as you like).
4. Roll up the tortilla.
5. Sprinkle some grated cheese over the top of the enchilada.
6. Make six enchiladas on the baking sheet, then bake in the oven at 150 degrees celcius for 10-15 mins to warm it up and crisp up the tortilla.

Dressings - Method:

1. While the enchiladas are baking, make the guacamole and salad.
2. Peel and remove the stone from the ripe avocado, then mash up the avocado.
3. Crush half a garlic clove into the avocado and mix it in to make ready to serve guacamole.
4. Chop up the lettuce into thin strips.
5. Chop up the tomatos in to small cubes and rinse off the seeds.

Serving - Method:

1. Get the enchiladas out of the oven and serve on a plate.
2. Surround with lettuce and tomato.
3. Add as much guacamole, sour cream and salsa as you like.

These are a great snack, lunch or even main meal for both vegetarians and meat eaters. With lots of fibre, protein, fats and vitamins, it's a great meal for all round nutrition. Organic eaters can make their own salsa and tortillas, so there really are no limits on how healthy you can be with these.

Additionally, you can use the chilli for many Mexican dishes: burritos, nachos, spicy bean burgers ...

Also worth noting, the haricot bean is the bean that is used to make Baked Beans, so you have to wonder how much sugar they put in their sauce if a 400g can of the beans is only 3g carbs. Try making your own baked beans with haricot beans and some of your own recipe tomato sauce. I bet you can create better tasting, lower carb baked beans than you can buy in a store ^^.