Alina's Pumpkin Mole Enchiladas

I had this idea to combine two of my favorite things: delicious cocoa based mole sauce (yum!) with a savory pumpkin dish.

I've been tossing pumpkin mole enchiladas around in my head for a while now, and decided to finally take the plunge and make it. I scoured the Internet for an existing pumpkin mole enchilada recipe, but came up dry. All the pumpkin enchilada recipes I found were not suitable for a mole sauce, so I ended up improvising and modifying this recipe from the Peanut Butter Fingers blog. Basically I replaced the enchilada sauce with the corn based recipe I whipped up below. I also added zucchini and spinach for a little extra veggies. Altering this recipe that is apparently quite delicious might have been a mistake, because while conceptually it has a lot of potential (pumpkin and chocolate sauce has to be amazing) the result was sort of eh. I want to try again and make some renovations to the recipe. I still think this could be great with a little tweaking.

Approximate cost: $17. Makes 8 servings. 277 calories per serving.

Prep time: 1.5 hours Total time: 2 hours

• 1 can sweet corn
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 2 cans kidney beans
• 1 large can unseasoned pumpkin
• 8 whole wheat tortillas
• 3/4 cup slivered almonds
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 3 small yellow onions
• 1 medium handful of fresh spinach (I'm sure frozen would work too)
• 2 cloves of garlic, chopped
• 3 tsps chipotle in adobo
• A fistful of cilantro, finely chopped
• 1 1/2 cups low sodium vegetable broth
• 3 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp chili powder
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 2 tsp oregano
• 1 very heaping tbsp of unsweetened cocoa powder

Mole sauce

I followed this recipe from No Meat Athlete to a t, except that I used cocoa powder instead of an ounce of baking chocolate. It was pretty simple, but required constant monitoring and activity.

The recipe starts with sauteing the garlic, almonds, onions, raisins, and some spices.

Eventually the veggie broth and cocoa powder are added. You also add some of that fiery chipotle.

This is where I accidentally rubbed my eyes and they started burning like crazy from the spicy chipotle! Ironically, the blogger I grabbed the pumpkin enchilada recipe from also cried while making this recipe, but that was because of some out-of-control onions.

Naturally, I had to take my "OUCH! That burns!" picture. See my tears?

After it cooks for a while (and you recover from crying), it's blended into a pasty sauce.

Pumpkin Enchiladas

I wanted to create enchiladas without tomato sauce. All the pumpkin enchilada recipes I found had tomato sauce, but I didn't envision a tomato based enchilada to go with my mole, so I omitted that. Instead, I pureed some corn along with some other ingredients to add to the sweetness of the filling and also to make it a little saucier. I hand blended a can of corn with a tsp of chipotle in adobo, a tsp of chili powder, a small handful of spinach, and a tsp of cumin. This was a bit of an experiment, but it worked out. I would try this again.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Sauté onion and garlic in a pan sprayed with cooking spray. Stir in corn/spinach sauce mix (directions above). Add pumpkin and stir until combined. This is so colorful and pretty!

Add cilantro, cumin and chili powder. Add the chopped zucchini too.

Spread a light layer of sauce on the bottom of an 8×8 or 9×9 pan. Fill tortillas with an even amount of sauce. I also opened another can of kidney beans and spooned a little of that into each tortilla and added a wee bit of spinach. Like so:

Roll tortillas and place in the pan with the folded edges facing down to keep them closed.

Top with mole sauce. Bake for 10 minutes or until the mole starts to look super delicious.

Serve and enjoy! Here's the final product:

Adam’s taste rating: 2 ladles

Brad’s taste rating: 2 ladles
Healthy rating: 4 ladles
Ease of prep rating: 3 ladles
Overall average: 2.75 ladles