When you’re craving Mexican: Quick Broccoli Lentil Enchiladas for One

If you’re craving some really good Mexican food but you don’t want to spend hours in the kitchen, try these quick broccoli lentil enchiladas. The lentils cook fast and you can use frozen broccoli and pre-shredded cheese. So if you have some good enchilada sauce on hand, you can be eating in about 30 minutes!

Personally I love this simple, hearty plant-based version of enchiladas. I make them often for myself. But if you want to add meat and you have some taco meat or salsa chicken on hand, go for it.

For equipment, if you’re cooking for one (or a few more): you’ll want one (or two or four) small oven-safe dish(es) that are about 6 inches long and 3 – 5 inches wide, with a bit of depth to them. I have three of these dishes that I found at a thrift store and we use them ALL the time.

While I prefer my higher-fiber, veggie-packed plant-based enchiladas, my house-mates like chicken enchiladas or chicken and bean enchiladas. The great thing about having individual dishes is everyone can have the kind of enchiladas they prefer and it’s really not any more effort (as long as you have the filling ingredients on hand). Which we pretty much always do.

We make big batches of salsa chicken in my Instant Pot so we have ready-made chicken at the ready for enchiladas, taco salads, enchiladas and more. I also like to prep lentil taco filling on the weekends and keep it in the freezer in small containers so I can grab some anytime. I do the same with my Instant Pot Beans, then turn them into refried beans whenever the urge strikes.

What’s the key to good broccoli lentil enchiladas?

The key to this recipe is a really good enchilada sauce. If you have an enchilada sauce that you just love, use that. If you’re looking for a good recipe and you prefer a red sauce, my fire-roasted red enchilada sauce is amazing. For a green sauce, I’d recommend my green tomato enchilada sauce. If you like the bite of sour lime flavor, you’re totally going to love the green sauce! Both of my sauces can be customized to your own comfort level in terms of heat/spice. Also, you can either freeze or can them. Because it’s just so awesome to have homemade enchilada sauce on hand.

For an even simpler version of red sauce, I’ve started to lean towards this one from Gimme Some Oven. When I make it, though, it’s more of a mix between my red sauce recipe above and Gimme Some Oven’s sauce. Because we garden, we always have fresh or frozen peppers on hand, so why rely on dried/powdered ones?

I hope you try these delectable plant-based enchiladas. It might sound odd putting broccoli in enchiladas, but trust me, it totally works! I got the idea from a really good local enchilada shop that makes broccoli cheese enchiladas on Fridays. (Their regular menu is super simple. All they make is enchiladas, so when you order it’s simply beef or chicken, one or two.)

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