Creamy Spinach and Cheese Green Chile Enchiladas-we love these creamy and cheesy vegetarian enchiladas. They are simple to make and freeze beautifully!
Before we had Maxwell, we made a few freezer meals so we would have something good to eat on the days when we were too tired to cook. I am so glad we did because the days of being too tired to cook is pretty much every day. Life has been a little hectic at our house!
Last week, I opened the fridge to try and find something to fix for dinner, but it was slim pickens. I could have gotten creative, but my brain was fried due to lack of sleep so I turned to the freezer instead. I pulled out the Creamy Spinach and Cheese Green Chile Enchiladas we made in our pre-baby #2 days. The days when we had energy, time, and motivation to cook dinner.
Thank goodness for freezer meals! These enchiladas saved the day!
Enchiladas are one of our favorite meals. We make our Stacked Roasted Vegetable Enchiladas all of the time. We also love these Creamy Spinach and Cheese Green Chile Enchiladas. They are easy, cheesy, and delicious!
The enchiladas are loaded with cheese! I add in spinach too make them somewhat healthy:) I mix the spinach mixture with sour cream or Greek yogurt to make the enchiladas extra creamy. The enchiladas also have Old El Paso Green Chiles and Green Chile Enchilada Sauce! I top the enchiladas with avocado and cilantro so these enchiladas are green all around and that makes me happy because we all know I LOVE green!
If you are looking for a tasty dinner idea, make our Creamy Spinach and Cheese Green Chile Enchiladas. And don’t forget that you can freeze these enchiladas. You will do a happy dance when you remember that you have enchiladas in the freezer. I did and so did Josh when he sat down at the dinner table. I think he was getting tired of cereal:)
We did make a few other freezer meals before we had the baby and we will be sharing those soon! Stay tuned! And thank you for all of your well wishes and concern for Josh. He went to the Dr. on Friday and no longer has to be on an IV or any antibiotics. His MRSA is all cleared up! YAY! We are lucky he caught it early.
Creamy Spinach and Cheese Green Chile Enchiladas
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 small yellow onion diced
- 1 clove garlic minced
- 10 cups fresh spinach leaves
- 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
- 1/3 cup chopped cilantro
- 1 can 4.5 ounces Old El Paso chopped green chiles
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1/4 teaspoon ground chili powder
- 1/2 cup sour cream or plain Greek yogurt
- Salt and black pepper to taste
- 2 cans 10 oz each Old El Paso Mild Green Chile Enchilada Sauce
- 8 Old El Paso Flour Tortillas Burrito size
- 2 cups shredded Monterey Jack cheese divided
- 2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese divided
- Toppings: Green onions chopped, Fresh cilantro, chopped, Diced avocado
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. In a large skillet, heat olive oil over medium high heat. Add the onion and cook until softened, about 3-4 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for an additional 2 minutes. Add the spinach leaves and cook until they are wilted and shrinks down. Stir in the lime juice, cilantro, green chiles, cumin, and chile powder. Remove from heat and stir in the sour cream. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.
- To assemble, spread about ½ can of enchilada sauce in the bottom of a 9 x 13 baking dish. Fill each tortilla with about ⅓ cup of the spinach mixture. In a medium bowl, combine both kinds of shredded cheese. Sprinkle cheese over spinach mixture, about 3 tablespoons per enchilada. Roll up and place seam side down in the baking dish. When all enchiladas have been rolled and placed in the pan, top with the other ½ can of enchilada sauce and about ½ of the other can. We had some sauce leftover. Sprinkle remaining shredded cheese on top of enchiladas. Bake 20-30 minutes or until the cheese is melted, and the sauce is bubbling around the edges.
- Garnish enchiladas with green onion, cilantro, and avocado, if desired. Serve warm.
- Note-these enchiladas freeze well. Cool completely, without toppings, and place in a tupperware container. Reheat individual servings in the microwave when ready to eat! You can also freeze an entire pan and reheat in the oven!
Have you tried this recipe?
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Disclosure-this post is in partnership with Old El Paso, but our opinions are our own.
Love this dish! Made for the first time this last week. Planned on freezing some, but they were too yummy and we ate them all over the course of a few days. Served with a side of pinto beans and sour cream. Will be adding this to our favorites file. Thank you.
would you recommend adding artichoke and or mushrooms to this recipe? if so, how much? thanks!
These Enchiladas were AWESOME ! made them exactly by the recipe and my wife and I loved them. Served with a Mexican rice side dish. We will definitely add these to our dinner menu rotation. Next time I may add more onion and cilantro as we both love those ingredients. Overall an excellent dish.
THis was delicious although I only used half the amount of cheese and added a fresh chili since my family likes spicy food. I’ll definitely make this again.
Enjoyed this recipe however I added cooked chicken in with the spinach mix, so delicious! ; )
This recipe is so good! I used plain Greek yogurt instead of sour cream and it was great. I also used standard corn tortillas and got about 12 enchiladas.
Great! Thanks for sharing!
I made the enchilada today ,l cock it for 40 minutes and it was very on done in the bottom .it need more time to cock . Maybe 1 hours more then 20 minutes
Made this last night. It was well received but I made changes – sorry. I added pinot beans. I think there just isn’t enough “there there” without any beans or additional veggies.
I didn’t use all the cheese – just too cheesy – and I used greek yogurt in place of the sour cream. I didn’t increase the sour cream despite adding beans so it wasn’t so creamy (the way I wanted it).
We always use corn tortillas (GF)
Big hit. Will make again
Filling was delicious–I did, however, use the more traditional enchilada vehicle, corn tortillas. Because of their smaller size, the recipe made 15 generously filled enchiladas, so I will cut it in half for my small family next time. The leftovers are in the freezer. Fast and easy! This is similar to the spinach enchiladas I enjoyed for decades in Austin, and since those frequently had mushrooms added, I put in a few, sliced and sauteed. This would also be delicious with diced chicken. Sauteed red bell pepper would add some color. I love recipes that provide a strong backbone and let my imagination step right out.
This is REALLY good! I make my own sauce by just roasting 10 tomatillos, 1 poblano and 2 jalapenos then pureeing them but other than that followed the recipe. This is so much better than what our local restaurant offers. It should be just as good with leftover rotisserie chicken. I’ll try that next time.
These are sooo good!! I’ve made the recipe as is and have added black beans as well….both delish! Cooked for 30 minutes and was golden. Loads of avocado on top, a winner!
I’m quarantining with a vegetarian so we tried these for the first time. They were perfect! The only change we made was lightly fried corn tortillas as I am not a fan of flour tortillas and I’m always looking for gf recipes for family members. We are repeating these for Cinco de Mayo with refried beans, street corn salad, and Margaritas. Thank you for an easy recipe that is so delicious.
I made these to freeze in separate containers for lunches coming up, and the bites I tried were delicious. When we are ready to eat them, do you suggest putting them out to thaw the night before? How long do you typically reheat them in the microwave? Thanks! 🙂
Hi! Cooking now! I froze one tray! How long and what temperature would you suggest? I didn’t see a reply to yours.
Can you use frozen spinach?
Totally! But it would add a few extra steps: thaw the spinach and squeeze out the excess water before adding to the onions. You will probably have to let it cook longer than 3-4 mins to warm it up…. OR if you are like me (lazy and forgetful) I would throw the frozen block in a saucepan and let it heat up while I was cutting up the other veggies. I’d poke it around to break it up after a few minutes. By the time the prep work was done, the spinach would be ready for the added onions/garlic.
10 cups of spinach “translates” to a 10oz box of the frozen stuff.
Just made it. Looks delicious. I’ll update after I try it. But this recipe has a pet peeve I have about most recipes – the measurements. This one calls for ten cups of fresh spinach. Who buys spinach by the cup? And on top of that, I haven’t seen fresh spinach in my supermarket in years. How about real world measurements. Spinach is most commonly found frozen or in cans! Yes, I know it’s more watery than fresh, but you CAN squeeze the water out. An equivalent can or frozen amount would be helpful.
Despite my having to guesstimate the amount of canned spinach, the dish was delicious! Will definitely make again.
These were delicious! I added riced sweet potato that I found in my freezer- just to give them a little more substance. My daughter loved them- and she is a picky eater!! Will definitely make again!
We visited a local Mexican restaurant recently and tried their spinach enchiladas. They were a little different than the ones we’ve had before. I scoured the internet for recipes to recreate them. I came across this one. We tried it tonight. High-fives across the board. My veg daughter even said it was better than the restaurant! Thank you for your time and effort to craft a delicious recipe! Do you have calorie info for this dish?
Many thanks!
So delicious and easy to make for this #chefintraining
How long do these bake at 375 if cooked from frozen? Thank you. I’m baking one pan for tonight and one for the freezer.
I have to admit, I think this is an excellent base recipe. I’ve made the exact recipe which tasted great and I’ve also made this using a few modifications such as using fresh homemade salsa verde in lieu of old El Paso sauce which despite being the sponsor of this recipe, I don’t believe could ever top homemade. To those adding beans or meat, I just don’t see how that could improve a recipe on SPINACH enchiladas. I found the spinach mixture to be satisfying enough and served this alongside rice and roasted squash and zuchinni. This is one of those meals that no one eats and thinks “it’s good for being vegetarian”. It’s simply a great meal. My salsa verde is a lb of tomatillos, about 6 whole fresh jalapeños, 1-2 cloves of garlic and about 3/4 c water (just enough to boil the vegetables) until everything is dark green and soft enough to blend with an immersion blender (10-15 min). Season to taste with salt. You can also stir a little sour cream in this to make a milder, creamy version.
Great recipe! I added a can of black beans and a couple chopped jalapeños. (We love spicy food). Great reheated too. Not a bite went to waste!
Love this. The spices are spot on. I’m making it for my birthday. It’s that good.