Jalapenos' Spinach Enchiladas

Kim D.'s Note:

Jalapenos is a popular Mexican restaurant here in Houston, Texas. Their spinach enchiladas is one of the most popular entrees on their menu. This recipe was posted in the Houston Chronicle.

• Total Time: 1 hrs
• Prep Time: 20 mins
• Cook Time: 40 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 10

Enchiladas

• 4 (10 ounce) packages frozen chopped spinach or 4 bunches fresh spinach, cooked
• 2 tablespoons chopped garlic
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 lb fresh mushrooms, halved
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 2 slices white bread, crusts removed
• salt
• 2 teaspoons white pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups grated monterey jack and cheddar cheese blend, divided
• 10 -12 flour tortillas

Cilantro Cream Sauce

• 3 cups half-and-half
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch, plus
• 2 teaspoons cornstarch, dissolved in a small amount of cold water
• 3 cups chopped cilantro

Directions:

1. For enchiladas, cook the spinach according to the package directions, if using frozen.
2. While spinach is cooking, combine garlic, onion and mushrooms in food processor, and process until coarsely chopped.
3. Melt butter in sauté pan, and sauté onion mixture until onion is translucent.
4. Remove pan from heat, and set aside.
5. Drain spinach, squeezing out excess water.
6. Make bread crumbs in food processor from sliced bread.
7. Add spinach, salt, pepper, nutmeg, chili powder and eggs.
8. Process until blended thoroughly.
9. Transfer to mixing bowl, and stir in onion mixture and 6 tablespoons cheese.
10. Preheat broiler.
11. Spoon a portion of filling onto each tortilla and roll it up.
12. Place each enchilada in casserole dish, seam side down.
13. Repeat until you've used up filling.
14. For cream sauce, mix half-and-half, cayenne, salt and a little of the dissolved corn starch in medium saucepan, and heat until thickened.
15. The sauce should be creamy, not runny; add more cornstarch mixture as necessary.
16. Off the heat, stir in cilantro.
17. Pour Cilantro Cream Sauce over tortillas, and sprinkle with remaining cheese.
18. Broil until cheese melts and turns a nice golden color.

Reviews

[cookiedog]

Delicioso! This is a vegetarian entree that will satisfy even the hardiest carnivores. I loved the cilantro cream sauce. The 3 cups of cilantro was a little more than 2 large bunches of cilantro.Next time I might use a few extra mushrooms just because I love them so much. Make sure to serve this with refried beans because the flavors are so good together. Made for my PAC baby 2009.

[Chef #188695]

Fantastic! What a find! I made one fourth a recipe to use some fresh spianch that would expire soon and am so sorry. I wanted to lick the plate. I used it as a side dish with grilled orange roughy and Bobby Flay's slaw with cilantro. My husband says this is restaurant quality. I believe this would be a wonderful brunch dish. I didn't have mushrooms so reconstituted dried shitakes and used those. This will become a regular at our house.

[Pot Scrubber]

Great spinach enchiladas. We had some at a restaurant recently that weren't nearly as good as these. The cream sauce is great and I'm going to use it to make chicken enchiladas, too.