Ench-ch-ch-iladas!

This year my family bought half a share in a community supported agriculture (CSA) farm. Each week we receive a variety of vegetables from whatever is being harvested and what we get is always a surprise. However, we do end up with chard just about every week. A lot of chard. This is a vegetable that I had never cooked before our involvement with CSA. This past week we got our chard and we also got a basket of beautiful little jalapenos. I have become quite adept at making sauteed chard with caramelized onions and balsamic vinegar but have never branched out. After weeks and weeks of this, I realized that I couldn’t face any more sauteed chard and I needed to find something different to do with it. I also wanted to use the jalapenos to make something Mexican and remembered hearing about using chard in enchiladas. My entire family loves my enchiladas, but does not so much love chard. I decided to conduct a chard/enchilada experiment.

I am not a fan of those recipes for children that hide pureed vegetables in other foods like brownies and sauces. I much prefer to present new and interesting vegetables in a way that is enticing to children (and grownups!) so that they will learn that vegetables are delicious and enjoyable, not something that need to be disguised and hidden in order to be choked down. Cheese sauces and ranch dip are great ways to build acceptance of new veggies. I figured that adding chard to cheese enchiladas could also be successful.

The filling is basically a bean dip with chard and corn in it. I usually use whole wheat tortillas for enchiladas, mainly because I dislike corn tortillas. The edges of the enchiladas that are not covered by sauce get nicely crisp. This recipe is pretty easy and only takes about 30-40 minutes start to finish.

So what was the reaction from my family? My husband and I thought they were delicious. My elder daughter ate all of hers but my younger daughter only ate half (at most). The girls’ main complaint was that they were too spicy. Unfortunately, it is difficult to tell how hot a jalapeno is before you taste it and I apparently had some very hot jalapenos. Next time I might just leave out the peppers entirely and serve them as a condiment at the table.  The girls had no problem with the chard, though.

There was much dinner-table discussion about the name of these enchiladas. We finally decided on Ench-ch-ch-iladas, the extra “ch”s standing for chard and cheese. These would also work well with spinach or some other leafy green.

• Ench-ch-ch-iladas