Mexican tortilla bake with tomatillo salsa

I wasn’t going to blog about this, because I made it partly from a pre-packaged kit, which I don’t usually buy.

But it was so delicious that I just had to share it with the blogosphere. Next time I’m going to use more homemade ingredients to make it, instead of the kit.

This dish layers tortillas with a mildly spicy tomato/veggie mince filling… kind of like a Mexican lasagne.

The kit, made by Discovery, was packaged as an Enchilada Kit, and contained eight corn/wheat tortillas, a couple of packets of enchilada sauce, and a sachet of taco seasoning mix.

When I finally pulled it out of the cupboard to use it, I realised it was eight months out of date. I thought for sure the tortillas would have gone off, but they looked and smelled fine (albeit a little dry). Must be some industrial-strength preservative in those puppies! The seasoning mix was likewise fine. However, the enchilada sauce was a write-off. It was packaged in plastic pouches, and smelled very strongly of plastic.

But I was able to use the tortillas and seasoning mix, along with a package of veggie mince and some salsa, to make a scrumptious tortilla bake that had both Mr Thrifty and I smacking our lips.

To make the filling, I first sauteed a large onion and a sweet bell pepper in a bit of vegetable oil until soft, then added a minced clove of garlic and cooked for an additional minute or two. Then I added a 300g (10 oz) package of veggie mince (I prefer Redwood veggie mince) and the sachet of seasoning and mixed well. Next I added a 400g (14 oz) tin of tomatoes and half a tin of water, then cooked the mixture for about 10-15 minutes.

I cut four of the tortillas in half, and the other four into quarters. I then put a bit of the filling into the bottom of a greased lasagne pan (mine measures 24cm (9-1/2″) square and 6cm (2-1/2″) deep). Next I put a layer of tortillas (two halves and two quarters), then a quarter of the remaining filling, and repeated three more times until all the filling was used. (When layered like this, there will be two quarter tortilla pieces extra; I used one of these extra pieces on the second last layer of tortillas, and one on the last layer.) Then I moistened both sides of the last tortilla halves and quarters with a bit of salsa and laid them on top. And lastly, I topped it with a bit of Mozzarella Cheezly. I baked it at 200C (400F) for about 40 minutes.

The tomatillo sauce was made from tomatillos that we grew at our allotment. I will definitely be growing a lot more tomatillos next year, as they are fast-growing, very hardy and don’t get blight in wet summers the way tomatoes do. Best of all, they make a delicious tangy salsa. I used a variation of this recipe, omitted the chiles and fresh coriander (cilantro), grilled the onion, reduced the salt and, after pureeing, added some chunks of ripe avocado.

Next time, I will make this dish with homemade tortillas (probably using this recipe), homemade taco seasoning mix, and possibly with homemade nacho cheeze sauce instead of Cheezly.

Enjoy!