Video Vegetarian dish with tortilla

Here’s a great late-summer, early fall vegetarian entrée. It’s a layering of enchilada sauce, tortillas, sautéed summer vegetables, herbs, and Monterey Jack cheese. It’s an assembly that lends itself well to improvisation — use what you have on hand: mushrooms, Swiss chard, kale, eggplant would all work well here. The key? The homemade enchilada sauce, which takes 15 minutes to make and is so, so tasty.

A piece of vegetarian tortilla casserole on a plate.

As long as the tomatoes are still arriving in the farm share, I’m going to continue making my favorite summer recipes, namely this quick, red enchilada sauce. Of all the culinary discoveries this year, this one tops the list as most welcomed.

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If you haven’t yet given it a go, I highly recommend you do: start to finish it takes 15 minutes, and it yields enough for at least a couple of batches of enchiladas or huevos rancheros or this lasagna-style casserole, which has found purpose for the many tortillas amassing in my bread box as well as a glut of late summer produce in my vegetable bins.

With that in mind, this is the sort of recipe that lends itself well to improvisation. Here, I’ve sautéed zucchini, corn, and bell peppers, but I can just as soon imagine sautéing mushrooms or Swiss Chard or, later in the fall, roasting cubed butternut squash or shredded Brussels sprouts.

The one non-negotiable? The sauce. As a refresher, it’s made with broiled vegetables (tomatoes, onions and jalapeño), fresh lime juice, and a chipotle in adobo sauce. It infuses anything it smothers with heat and spice, smoke and char, sweetness and acidity. It is delicious.

Here are the other components:

Tortillas:
- If you’re feeling ambitious: make your own: easy flour tortillas or simple sourdough tortillas {video guidance provided for each}.
- Order a few packs of Caramelo flour tortillas, which are exceptional. Read more about them here: Caramelo Flour Tortillas.
- Seek out corn-flour hybrid tortillas, which of the commercial varieties, I find to be the tastiest. La Tortilla Factory sells a variety, and both Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s do as well.
Vegetables: As noted above, use what you have on hand. Sautéed mushrooms or greens would be delicious here as would any number of roasted vegetables. Truly, I cannot imagine a vegetable that would not work in this recipe. The key is to cook the vegetables to remove their water content.
Highly seasoned beans or meat:
- These slow-cooked black beans are seasoned with olive oil, salt, a bay leaf, onion, garlic, and crushed red pepper flakes. I have been cooking them by the pound and stashing them in the fridge or freezer. They are delicious straight from the pot, but as they marinate in their cooking liquid, they become even more flavorful. They freeze well, too. There are instructions in the recipe for making them in the Instant Pot, too.
- Chicken: Tinga, a Mexican dish made with shredded chicken, chipotles in adobo sauce, tomatoes, onion, and cilantro is great in this tortilla casserole or in more traditional enchiladas. Here are two recipes: Instant Pot or traditional.
Lots of fresh herbs: Inspired by this enchilada casserole recipe, which calls for layering the tortillas, sauce, and cheese, with lots of fresh cilantro and sliced scallions, I’ve done the same here.
Cheese: Monterey Jack cheese excels at melting, which is why I love it for this dish as well as these enchiladas. That said, it’s very mild in flavor. Though I haven’t tried, I think a mix of Monterey Jack cheese and Cheddar would be excellent.

PS: Vegetarian Bean and Cheese Enchiladas

There are instructions in the notes below the recipe for how to freeze this tortilla casserole… your December self will thank you. As always, I hope you all love this one as much as I.

Here’s the play-by-play: Gather your ingredients.

The ingredients to make sautéed summer vegetable tortilla casserole.

Sauté the vegetables, starting with the onions and peppers, then the zucchini, and finally the fresh corn.

A skillet on the stovetop with sautéed summer vegetables.

Add some black beans, stir to combine, and season to taste with salt.

Ingredients on a counter top for the summer vegetable enchilada casserole.

Begin layering: enchilada sauce, tortillas, cilantro, scallions, veg+bean mix, and Monterey Jack cheese. Repeat until you have at least 3 layers of tortillas.