Name: Lentil Enchiladas for Two
Prep time: 40 min
Cook time: 15 min
Ingredients: 2 cup cooked brown or black lentils (at room temperature); 1 red bell pepper; 1 pasilla pepper; 1 jalapeno; 2 garlic cloves (finely chopped); 1 green onion; 1/2 tsp cumin; 1 lg egg (optional); 1/2 tbsp oil (grapeseed or avocado oil recommended); 2 flour tortillas**; sea salt (to taste)

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These lentil enchiladas are so good you won’t miss the meat! A low-stress recipe with steps that can be done in advance, they make a spicy and healthy way to do date night. Seasoned lentil filling wrapped in a tortilla shell topped with a homemade, fire-roasted enchilada sauce is a delicious start to a romantic evening.

It isn’t commonly known but I have Mexican heritage. I grew up with dishes like enchiladas served at celebrations and as comfort food. This enchilada recipe combines my childhood memories with my work as a holistic nutrition counselor by taking the basic idea of an enchilada and packing it with great nutrition–not to mention aphrodisiac ingredients.

Table of Contents

Vegetarian enchiladas without the beans

What’s normally the star of a plant-based enchilada? Beans! But I’ve traded in the beans for lentils for two reasons.

First of all, lentils are on our list of the 10 Best Foods for Women’s Sexual Health.

Secondly, I prefer lentils over beans as a meat “substitute.” I know that most of the people attracted to a vegetarian or vegan enchilada recipe are, well, vegetarian or vegan. But since I’m suggesting this as the main course for a romantic evening, I wanted to make it appeal to the carnivores, too. And lentils, when well-seasoned, can make a totally satisfying ground meat replacement everyone will appreciate.

Seriously! You have to taste it to believe it but savory, protein-packed lentils make a fantastic substitute for ground beef.

How do you make lentil enchiladas?

You’re going to love how easy it is to make this lentil enchilada recipe. You start with cooked lentils, so the assembly is quick. You can cook the lentils in advance and store them in the refrigerator so they’re ready to go–just make sure they’re warmed to room temperature before you assemble the enchiladas. Or purchase-precooked lentils. Just taste them before you season because many pre-cooked lentils are already heavily seasoned.

How to roast the peppers

The first step to making these veggie enchiladas is to roast the peppers. This recipe uses fresh peppers instead of chili powder. You can get so much flavor this way!

I use a fire-roasting technique in this recipe that requires a gas stovetop. If you don’t have a gas stove, you can roast them on the center rack of your oven.

This is how you do it:
Preheat the oven to 475 degrees–you want it really hot. Bake the peppers on a baking sheet for 30-40 minutes, turning once. When cooked, they should look charred.

You must transfer the peppers to a container. This could be a paper bag but I prefer a sealed food storage container. This will steam the skin away from the pepper and make it easy to peel.

The rest of the filling prep is completely straightforward and surprisingly easy. Just be sure to taste the filling to make sure it is seasoned to your liking.

How to make the enchilada sauce

There might be some confusion about the enchilada sauce. You’re not going to make a traditional, smooth sauce to top the enchiladas before steaming. In this case, you’re simply going to pour the pepper mixture on top of the rolled tortillas and allow them to make their own chunky sauce as they steam. It’s a simple and effective way to make homemade enchilada sauce with great flavor and texture.

Equipment

You don’t need any special equipment to make these vegetarian enchiladas. But you will need both a small sauté pan and a medium sauté pan with a lid for steaming the enchiladas before serving.

Variations

Gluten-free: You can easily make this recipe gluten-free. Just use gluten-free flour tortillas.

Vegan: To make vegan lentil enchiladas, simply omit the egg.

Cheesy: Cheese lovers can feel free to add cheese to the lentil mixture when forming the enchiladas. Keep in mind that they won’t be vegan and the cheese will add extra calories and fat but if you love that sensation of melted cheese, feel free to sprinkle the filling with shredded cheddar.

Less spicy: If you or your date night partner, is sensitive to spice, omit the pepper seeds from the sauce. The spiciest part of a pepper is the white stuff inside, the pith as well as the inner ribs. That’s part of the reason we usually remove these parts from the pepper.

But the capsaicin, the chemical in peppers that makes the ribs and pith so spicy, can end up on the seeds because they’re in contact with the ribs. So keeping the seeds out of the dish will help keep the heat level at a pleasant tease.

Serving suggestions

These enchiladas are a great choice for a vegetarian date night dinner is because most of the steps can be done in advance. You can make the lentil enchilada filling and prep your peppers earlier in the day then just warm the filling and peppers before assembling the enchiladas to steam. This takes away the stress of timing a meal while you’re trying to prepare for romance.

I created this enchilada recipe with date night in mind by making sure they’re layered with plenty of aphrodisiac ingredients.

For starters, there’s the lentils with their benefits to women’s sexual health. Then I added cumin, known as a warming spice because it can create feelings of body heat. Then there’s the chile peppers. They are among the world’s most famous aphrodisiac foods. These are not only warming but they also make your tongue tingle and lips plump with kissable softness.

Of course, you don’t have to serve these enchiladas for dinner. I love them as a midnight snack. And if you enjoy a savory breakfast they make a fun and healthy alternative to a spicy breakfast burrito.

How to prevent lentils from making you gassy

Of course, there’s one challenge we need to address if you’re planning to serve these plant-based enchiladas on date night. Like beans, lentils can make you gassy. That’s because they contain fiber that your body can’t break down. Instead, they sit in your intestines, ferment and cause gas. Not a pretty picture for a romantic evening.

There are three keys to preventing (or at least significantly cutting down) this problem. The first is to maintain a diet rich in fiber. If you’re eating a fairly high-fiber diet, your body is already used to handling these foods. In addition, eating a high-fiber diet promotes sexual health.

The second thing you should do is drink plenty of water. Water will help prevent bloating and the possible discomfort that can come with eating lentils.

The third is to help reduce the type of fiber in lentils your body can’t break down. Soak the lentils overnight. This will help get rid of some of the oligosaccharides, the carbohydrates in lentils that make you gassy. Rinse the lentils and cook in fresh water. This will drastically reduce the chances of the meal ending with the wrong kind of bang.

closeup of lentil enchiladas with homemade enchilada sauce on a white plate

Lentil Enchiladas for Two

Print Recipe

This vegetarian date night dinner recipe is as easy as it is tasty. Lentil enchiladas in a homemade sauce is hearty, satisfying and layered with aphrodisiac ingredients for a romantic meal.

Course Main Course

Cuisine Mexican-inspired

Cooking Style vegan, Vegetarian

Diet and Health gluten-free, healthy-ish

Ingredient lentils

Prep Time 40

Cook Time 15

Servings servings

Calories 839

Author Delahna Flagg

Ingredients

2 cup cooked brown or black lentils at room temperature
1 red bell pepper
1 pasilla pepper
1 jalapeno
2 garlic cloves finely chopped
1 green onion
1/2 tsp cumin
1 lg egg optional
1/2 tbsp oil grapeseed or avocado oil recommended
2 flour tortillas**
sea salt to taste

Instructions

Roast peppers on open flame, rotating as they char.
Remove peppers and seal them in a container for 15 minutes so the steam will loosen the skin.
Once the peppers have cooled a bit, remove the outer layer of roasted skin.
Deseed and dice the roasted peppers. Reserve the seeds.
Add the chopped garlic and a pinch of salt to the peppers, mix and set aside.
In a medium sauté pan, lightly toast the cumin over low heat. Heat till aromatic then remove from the pan. (You will use the pan again later.)
Combine the cumin with the cooked lentils.
Thinly slice the green onion into rounds and add it to the lentils.
Take 3/4 of the pepper mixture and mix it into the lentils (the other quarter of the peppers will be used as your enchilada topping).
Scramble the egg in a small sauté pan and add to the lentil mixture, thoroughly combined. (Skip this step if making vegan enchiladas.) Taste the lentil mixture and season with salt if necessary.
Heat a saute pan you used to toast the cumin with the cooking oil. Sauté the lentil mixture. Aim to achieve a golden brown coating on all sides to give the enchiladas their crispy texture.
Lightly cook tortillas directly on the stovetop if you use a gas stove to achieve a light toasted flavor. Cook both sides. If you're using electric or induction, use a pan and cook the tortillas over high heat to toast the outside without drying them out.
Cover the bottom of a medium sauté pan with a thin layer of water. Turn on the stove for the steam to build.
Fill each of the the tortillas with 2 tablespoons of crisped lentil mixture. Roll tightly and place into the pan.
Combine the reserved pepper mixture and seeds (optional--see notes) and pour over the top of the enchiladas.*
Cover with a tightly-fitting lid for 2 minutes to steam.
Serve immediately.

Notes

*If you're sensitive to spice, discard the seeds. See the explanation in the introduction to learn more about how pepper seeds can intensify spice.

**To make gluten-free enchiladas, use gluten-free tortillas made from alternate flours that do not contain gluten.

To make these enchiladas vegan, simply skip the scrambled egg.

A note on the provided nutrition information

The nutrition information provided has been estimated by an online nutrition calculator and is not a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

Delahna Flagg

Delahna Flagg is a nutrition expert with a PhD in Holistic Health from Saybrook University as well as a classically trained chef and graduate of the California School of Culinary Arts. She is best recognized as the chef and co-star of Pamela Anderson's The Sensual Vegan web series. Her work on the series helped her develop into an authority on vegan recipe development and the nutritional needs of a vegan lifestyle. Delahna also has experience as a line cook and restaurant sous chef and she is the owner of a special events catering company, My World on a Plate, specializing in delicious, nutritious foods. As a nutritional consultant, she is a Center for Mind-Body Medicine practitioner. She also works as a nutritional value recipe development consultant. Delahna is the co-author of Amazon bestselling dessert cookbook Eat Cake Naked and has served as our Director of Nutrition for over ten years.

Lentil Enchiladas for a Vegetarian Date Night