‘Chicken’ Enchiladas

I was nearly not going to make dinner tonight. I have eaten far to much today. First I had left over curry and rice from last night. Then I had Govinda’s vegan buffet for lunch, since we had to use our coupon this week. Then I made a Hazelnut Mocha with Oats milk and had the lasted of the Salted Caramel Nuts for afternoon tea. So I wasn’t hungry, but by 8ish I was getting a bit peckish.

Vegan Buffet at Govinda’s

I had made the Vegan Sour Cream this afternoon with the extra silken tofu that the students left the other night. I had so much I even made a double batch of Marinated Buffalo Style Tofu Mozzarella. I knew I also had to use the packet of wholemeal wraps. Unfortunately then need to be used in 3 days after opening. So I came up with Enchiladas. I have never made them before, but then turned out pretty good.

I adapted the recipe for Homemade Enchilada Sauce from Recipe Girl. I added some cocoa powder, as  I saw another recipe that said it was more authentic with that. For the Enchiladas I noted that many recipes used either a tomato based sauce inside with meat or beans; or just sour cream and cheese with meat. So I did both and made a creamy tomato sauce. I topped it with Tofutti Cheddar Slices, that I diced. I would of preferred to use a better quality grated vegan cheese, but I didn’t have any. I served it with last nights leftover Yellow Split Peas and Brown Rice and just added vegan butter and lime juice.

All the ingredients are gluten free, except for the wraps I used. But you can definitely use gluten free wraps. If you don’t want to or don’t have any vegan chicken strips then use another can of kidney beans.

Sorry about the photos. My camera ran out of batteries before I got a chance to take a picture after it cooked. I used my mothers camera and I was also very sloppy when I served it. I promise you that it did taste really good, even though it doesn’t look that appealing.

‘Chicken’ Enchiladas (vegan, jut free)

Ingredients  for Enchilada Sauce:

1/4 cup sunflower oil

2 tablespoons arrowroot flour

2 tablespoons ground cayenne pepper

1 can diced tomatoes

2 cups vegan chicken liquid stock

1 tablespoon cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon onion flakes

sea salt to taste

Ingredients for Vegan Sour Cream: (makes 1.5 cups, only need 1 cup)

240g silken tofu

1 tablespoon garlic powder

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons lemon juice

4 tablespoons dijon mustard

1 teaspoon sea salt

Ingredients for Enchilades: 

1 tablespoon sunflower oil

2 garlic cloves, diced

1 onion, diced

1 small red capsicum, chopped

1 tablespoon ground cumin

1 tablespoon ground sweet paprika

1 cup passata sauce

2 tablespoons chili sauce

1 can kidney beans

380 g Fry’s Chicken-Style Strips or other vegan chicken strips (or another can of beans)

2 tablespoons lime juice

2 tablespoons nutritional yeast

sea salt to taste, 6-8 wholemeal wraps or enchilada wraps

vegan cheese (optional, I diced up vegan cheddar slices)

Ingredients for Rice:

leftover rice

1-2  tablespoons vegan butter

2-4 tablespoons lime juice

sea salt to taste

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.

2. Make the Vegan Sour Cream. Blend all the ingredients in a processor. Leave in the fridge till ready to use.

Enchilada Sauce

3. Next make the Enchilada Sauce. First take a large pot and heat oil on medium heat. Then add the arrowroot flour and cayenne and whisk it. Cook for 1 minute or until lightly browned.

4.Then slowly add the rest of the ingredients and whisk it all so it is consistent. Cook for 10 mins or until it has thickened, while stirring often. Turn of the heat and leave to the side.

5. Meanwhile make the Enchilada filling. Heat another large pot with oil on medium heat. Then add onion, garlic, capsicum, cumin and paprika. Saute for 4 minutes. Add a bit of water if its too dry.

6. Then add the passata sauce, chili sauce and kidney beans. Cook for another 5 mins and adjust seasoning.

7. Then add vegan chicken strips. Cook for 6-8 mins or until the packet says they should cook for.

8. Take of the heat and add the 1 cup of Vegan Sour Cream, nutritional yeast and lime juice. Stir through so it is consistently creamy.

9. Take a large baking dish and spoon 1/4 of the Enchilada sauce on the bottom of the dish.

10. Lay the first wrap on the chopping board. Fill the Enchilada filling in the center then roll an place in the baking dish. Continue till all 6 -8 wraps are placed in the dish.

11. Top the wraps with the rest of the Enchilada Sauce and vegan cheese. Bake for 25 mins or until cheese has melted.

12. Just before serving, prepare the rice. Take a pan and melt the vegan butter then add the rice and lime juice. Saute till heated through.

*I made 6, but there should be enough filling to make 8 Enchiladas

*The Ingredients for the Sour Cream makes 1.5 cups however this recipe only calls for 1 cup

Govindas Pure Vegetarian Restaurant

Today was such a stressful day. Marco and I had to babysit his 2yr old niece and 4yr old nephew from 9 till 2. That was actually quite fun. The stressful bit was meeting with my Italian lecturer after that to discuss my grades and getting an email from another lecturer that I should meet with him in 4 days to show all the work I’ve done on my thesis. If you have seen how much I’ve been posting lately, you can probably guess that I was taking my holidays a bit earlier then I should of. So today wasn’t a healthy day at all. It was peanut butter on toast, soy cappuccino, fish and chips (still having trouble saying no), soy ice coffee, then vanilla soy latte at uni. Luckily I saw a friend at uni, whose positively eased my nerves. Then after 2.5 hrs of meeting with my lecturer (which was not as scary as I though), Marco and Simon picked me up to go to Govindas.

I have been to the Govindas in Brisbane city a few times and loved it. That store has been there since I can remember. I was always curious about this ‘vegetarian’ restaurant, but usually opted for a McChicken or sushi roll for lunch. So when I saw a coupon last year I demanded we go. Since then I have been back a few times with friends and they loved it too. None of which were vegetarians.

Govindas is a Hare Krishna restaurant with 3 locations in Brisbane. They make vegetarian meals, but you can also opted for the vegan and gluten free options. I always get the vegan buffet, which includes Jasmine Rice, 1 or 2 mixed vegetable curry, Split mung dahl , Koftas balls with tomato and herb chutney, Pappadam, garden salad  and home made ginger & mint lemonade. I can never go for a second plate, it is far too filling. They also do a Halava (Semolina fruit pudding), which is included, but it has butter and a dairy custard, so I don’t order that. That only costs $12.90 or $10 for a student. So its very affordable if you are a student and very hungry. They do a few other specials like lasagna, pizza and occasionally I’ve seen vegan cakes as well.

So again when the coupon came up we bought two. Since the city is difficult to park, we bought the coupons for the Stones Corner location. This was our first time here. This restaurant is much smaller and in my opinion not as nice. But the food was still spot on. Our friend was impressed with the food, even though he’s a meat man. There was also another great surprise for me. Normally, I have to skip the dessert, but tonight they had a vegan option included. Also I got to have two curries, since both were vegan tonight. I didn’t have much room left after I ate everything off my plate and polished off Marco’s, but I made an exception for dessert. It was Apple Crumble with Vegan ice-cream. The girl took a while bring it and I was bit confused why. However, when it arrived I realised why. She had whipped up the most delicious coconut  ice-cream. By taste I think it was just coconut cream, ice and some sweetener. So I will be trying to recreate this soon.

So it was a well deserved meal for a big day. I really recommend this place, whether your vegetarian or not. You just have to love great food. There are Govindas in other states around Australia too. I would like to learn how to make koftas, halava and coconut ice-cream. I just need to buckle down for the next few days and finally end this semester.