Last weekend D and I treated ourselves to a proper date day – Design Museum, followed by dinner at Manna and then a movie (Sicario but don’t bother, do not recommend). At dinner I ordered the Green curry which was stunning, a big bowl of lightly cooked veg, smothered in green curry sauce, cashew, green papaya salad, topped with citrus marinated grilled tofu kebabs. Seriously, so good. BUT I had complete food envy when Dave’s enchilada lasagne came out. 
Yeah. Enchilada freakin’ lasagne.
From the menu: ‘our fusion of black bean, corn & sweet potato enchilada served lasagne style with coriander & lime rice, guacamole and carrot salsa’.
I’d had it last time we were at Manna and decided I should give something else a go.
Idiot.
I had buyer’s remorse the whole of the rest of the night and decided I had to recreate this masterpiece at home, natch. So when a couple of old buds from home came to visit me in LDN this week, I went for it, and the results are pretty awesome.
Here’s how you do it: layer corn tortillas (smothered in spicy jalapeño salsa) with roasted sweet potatoes and my chipotle black beans, and then drown in cashew cheese sauce, bake until everything gets all gooey and then dig way the hell in.
It looks a bit like this:
(I made a little casserole montage for you, #proud)
From top left:
- Spread about 3/4 cup of jalapeño salsa over the bottom of your casserole dish.
- Dredge 3-4 tortillas in the salsa (I cut mine in half so I could line up the straight edge of the tortilla with the side of the dish so everything was nice a snug) then add a little more salsa on top to make sure the tortillas are totally smothered. Make sure your tortillas are overlapping in the middle – it’s better to have too thick a layer than too thin as this will give your dish more… stability?
- Add your roasted sweet potato layer (you could throw in some frozen sweetcorn here too, I should have done that, that would have been smart)
- Add another layer of tortillas and salsa (about 3-4 tortillas and a cup of salsa)
- Add your black bean layer, making sure it’s even so that one side isn’t popping up
- Add last layer of tortillas and salsa – I added an extra tortilla here to give it a bit of strength
- Drench in cashew cheese (I made mine a little thicker than normal so it was more like queso)
- Bake for about 20-30 minutes and add pepitas and coriander on the top
So the separate components – salsa, sweet potatoes, black beans, and cheese – are all easy enough to make – they just need a little planning and it’s a bit time consuming. But you could buy salsa from the shop if you wanted and just top with plant based cheese like Violife if you want to save time, just don’t tell me.
- 1.5 cups black beans, soaked overnight
- 2 red onions, chopped
- 1 tsp salt
- 1tsp chipotle flakes/powder
- 1tsp ground cumin
- 1 red onion, diced
- 6 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 jalapeño, minced, seeds left in
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 cans whole tomatoes
- 2 tsp oregano
- Juice of 1/2 lime
- 2 large sweet potatoes, cubed (about 1 inch)
- 1 tbsp coconut oil, melted
- S+P to taste
- 2/3 cup raw cashews
- 2/3 cup nutritional yeast
- 4 cloves garlic
- 1.5 cups of veg stock (and a few tbsps extra in case the sauce is too thick) (I like marigold brand)
- 2 tsp smoked paprika
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- Fresh ground black pepper
- 12-16 tortillas, depending on size, you don't want any gaps in your tortilla layers, so you'll need more if your tortillas are on the small size
- Start with these since they'll take longest to cook, and then prep everything else while you're waiting. Add beans, chopped onion, salt, and chipotle to a large pot and add water so that it comes 1 inch above the beans (roughly). Bring everything to a boil and then simmer (with the lid on ) for about an hour to 1.5 hours. You want the beans to be ever so slightly undercooked so they don't get too mushy when you bake them in the lasagne. I check mine after an hour and then every 5 mins or so after that.
- Heat a medium pan over a medium heat, then add the cumin and toast until it changes colour and smells toasty (around 30-60 seconds), to help deepen the flavour. Toss in the onions, garlic, salt and jalapeños and mix around until everything is coated in cumin and cook until the onion turn translucent (around 5-7 mins). Be careful not to let it burn, and it it stick, deglaze the pan with a splash of cold water. Add the two cans of tomatoes, and the oregano and mix it around. Let it simmer with the lid on for around 20 mins. Let everything cool before transferring to a blender and blast it until smooth, add lime juice and adjust for S+P
- Preheat over to 200C/ 400F. Flip the diced sweet potato in the coconut oil and S+P until everything is coated, and put on a baking sheet, roast for about 15 mins (or until soft). Remember they will cook a lot faster than regular white potatoes so keep an eye on them. Like the beans you don't want them to turn totally to mush in the lasagne (although slightly squishy is good)
- Add everything to your blender and blast on high until the sauce is smooth and starts to get warm - this will help it thicken. You want it to be pretty thick so it sits on top of your lasagne and it's not running down the side, but if it seems too thick, add a little more broth.
- Spread about 3/4 cup of jalapeño salsa over the bottom of your casserole dish.
- Dredge 3-4 tortillas in the salsa (I cut mine in half so I could line up the straight edge of the tortilla with the side of the dish so everything was nice a snug) then add a little more salsa on top to make sure the tortillas are totally smothered. Make sure your tortillas are overlapping in the middle - it's better to have too thick a layer than too thin as this will give your dish more... stability?
- Add your roasted sweet potato layer (you could throw in some frozen sweetcorn here too, I should have done that, that would have been smart)
- Add another layer of tortillas and salsa (about 3-4 tortillas and a cup of salsa)
- Add you black bean layer, making sure it's even so that one side isn't popping up
- Add last layer of tortillas and salsa - I added an extra tortilla here to give it a bit of strength
- Drench in cashew cheese (I made mine a little thicker than normal so it was more like queso)
- Bake for about 20-30 minutes at 180C until it's hot in the middle. If it starts to burn on top but it's not hot in the middle, cover the dish with foil.
- Add pepitas and coriander on the top and serve with salad.
- Use corn tortillas for g'free, otherwise wheat tortillas are fine.
Serve with guac and salad! This makes a LOT of food so you’ll be set for a few days!
Enjoy!
L x
P.s. I wrote this article for the HuffPost blog on soy, check it out!
Superlative photography as always, SL! Incredibly striking
(and the food looks absolutely delish too)
Thanks DL!