This Sweet Potato & Black Bean Vegetarian Meatball Enchilada Bake is ultimate comfort food!
I meant to get this post up yesterday but instead I went to bed early and it was totally worth it, haha! My sleep is very precious to me and although Eli has gotten really good at sleeping through the night (most nights), I still feel like I’m always tired.
I feel like I’m always either chasing after Eli, working on the blog or cleaning the house. Somedays it seem like all I do is clean!
At least working on the blog usually means cooking, so dinner is easy. This Sweet Potato & Black Bean Vegetarian Meatball Enchilada Bake is one of my new favorite dinners! (I made this recipe before I started Weight Watchers, so I’m not sure of the point value).
I adapted it from one of my favorite veggie burger recipes and turned it into a Mexican style dish with enchilada sauce and melty cheese. And, it’s SO good! There’s tons of spices that make it really flavorful and it’s great for a make ahead meal too.
If you’re looking to make more of a meal out of this dish, they go perfectly topped on a bed of cauliflower rice. I just tossed mine with a little salt, pepper and lime juice, but you could make it anyway you like.
Sweet Potato & Black Bean Vegetarian Meatball Enchilada Bake
- Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
- Yield: 20 1x
Description
Sweet potato and black bean vegetarian meatballs baked in enchilada sauce with cheese!
Ingredients
- 2 cups peeled and diced sweet potato, about one large sweet potato
- 2 teaspoons olive oil, divided
- 2 cups cooked brown rice, I like to use an 8.8 oz package pre-cooked rice to make it easier
- 1 (15 oz) can black beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 flax egg (1 tablespoon ground flax mixed with 2 1/2 tablespoons water, let sit for 3 minutes)
- 2 tablespoons bread crumbs, gluten free if necessary
- 2 tablespoons chopped cilantro
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon ground onion
- 1/2 teaspoon paprika
- 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika (optional)
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 cup enchilada sauce
- 1/2 cup grated cheese
- Optional toppings: cilantro, red onion, avocado
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees F. On a large sheet pan, toss together the diced sweet potatoes, 1 teaspoon olive oil and a pinch of salt and pepper. Roast sweet potatoes until fork tender, about 35 minutes.
- Add roasted sweet potatoes, black beans and brown rice to a food processor and blend until kind of smooth but still a little chunky.
- Transfer mixture to a large bowl and add the flax egg, bread crumbs, cilantro and all the spices. Use your hands to mix until everything is combined. Use a tablespoon scoop to scoop the meatballs and roll them into balls.
- Raise oven temperature to 400 degrees F. Heat a large oven safe skillet over medium heat and add 1 teaspoon olive oil and add meatballs. Cook meatballs until warmed through and browned, about 10 minutes, flipping occasionally.
- Pour the enchilada sauce over the meatballs and top with cheese. Place skillet back into the 400 degree F oven and bake until sauce is bubbly and cheese is melted, 15-20 minutes.
- Garnish with your favorite garnish and enjoy!
Notes
If you want you can serve it over cauliflower rice to make it more of a meal.
- Prep Time: 25 mins
- Cook Time: 65 mins
- Category: Dinner, Gluten Free, Vegetarian
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Ever tried freezing them? Would you do it before or after you bake them?
Hi Ashley, I have not frozen them myself but would probably freeze before cooking if it were me 🙂
What can I do to substitute the enchilada sauce if o want to make it for my toddler?
You could use tomato sauce or a cheese sauce
Thanks for putting together a very tasty recipe. I could not find a ready made gf enchilada sauce so made my own. Will definitely be making it again. I baked the sweet potato balls for 20 mins and then added the sauce and vegan cheese.
I’m so glad you hear you enjoyed it!!
I have made this once before and deviated from the original recipe by chilling the “meatballs” for an hour in the fridge and it was amazing! I didn’t have time for that tonight and just followed the recipe and my meatballs are mush!! The flavor is great but they really need to be chilled prior to cooking.
I was initially a little hesitant with this recipe because it seemed like it would take so long, but everything came together very quickly (even as I was making a homemade enchilada sauce!). It’s also one that you could do parts of ahead of time, like cooking the sweet potato and rice, which I like. I added a bit more sweet potato and less rice to my mix but had no troubles with getting the right consistency and lightly frying them while in their meatball shape. Will definitely be saving this and making again in the future!
I’m so glad you enjoyed it! And that it didn’t take forever to make 🙂
These were a nice change of pace for us though they recalled our once beloved sweet potato black bean quesadilla. I doubled the spices (I always do this) and used homemade enchilada sauce I had leftover and they were really great! A nice meat-free option.
So glad you enjoyed them!
Just made these “meatballs” for me and my family, absolutely delicious! Thanks so much for this recipe, I’ve been trying to get my kids to eat more vegetarian food and this went down a treat, a big thumbs up from my family. Even my one year old loved them!
I’m so glad everyone enjoyed it!
I’m not sure what I did wrong but my mixture was too wet to roll into balls. No amount of bread crumbs was going to dry it out. With the thought of regrows beans in mind I managed to quick fry it and then I put it in a casserole dish, topped it was cheese and we ate it like a nacho dip. I made fresh guacamole and dinner was saved. The mixture is quite good. I think it would be better as meat balls but we did still enjoy it.
Oh no, I’m so sorry it didn’t form balls for you, but glad you enjoyed it anyway!
This was delicious! However, the balls fell apart. I couldn’t even flip them over. My husband and I ended up enjoying it over rice, but the kiddos wouldn’t touch. 🙁
I’m sorry they fell apart 🙁 but glad you enjoyed the taste!
This was really good i really enjoyed it
Thanks!!
Thanks for this recipe, my family really enjoyed this. Well worth the prep and cooking time and the fire alarm beeping!!!
Kate
Awesome! So glad to hear it!
Made these tonight. Served with zucchini noodles. Really enjoyed them and will make again. Next time I’ll try and follow the ratios a bit closer as they were a bit mushy, but despite that, held their shape and tasted great. I made my own enchilada sauce and baked in the oven with mozzarella cheese. Yum!! Thanks
I’m so glad you enjoyed them! I love the idea of serving them over zucchini noodles!
My entire family enjoyed this meal (including my 2 and 4 yrs old) I struggled with the meatballs staying together, but my thoughts are make them smaller and/or chill before browning. I also might have been a little heavy handed on the puree. Anyway, thanks for this creative new veggie meal.
Yah! I’m so glad everyone enjoyed it! It’s one of my favorites!
These look delicious! I’m going to make a batch this week and see how they go down with my carnivorous family (I’m also using your enchilada sauce recipe)
Thanks!! I hope everyone enjoyed them!