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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Looks good!!
This is my first time on your website, do you ever include nutrition facts? This looks amazing btw!
Hi Marci, I do include them on some posts, I just haven’t gotten around to adding them to every post. I will work on it though!
I look forward to it, thank you.
Can’t wait to try this one ! Really enjoy receiving your great recipes in my inbox. Keep them coming !
Thanks so much, Jann!!
Hi what kind of enchilada sauce do you use? I don’t see the recipe
Hi Merri, I don’t really have one brand that I always buy, just whatever looks healthy-ish and tastes good! I do like the Hatch brand though 🙂
Hey Izzy…..! This looks mouth wateringly delicious; I will try to making this from your recipe…..Thanks for sharing…keep shared your delicious recipes…..!
Thanks so much, Samantha!
I feel like you’re so awesome at making healthy Mexican-inspired dinner recipes! Love the idea of these “meatballs” & will definitely have to try them.
Haha, thank you, Nicole! I’m a little obsessed with Mexican food 🙂
These sound amazing!! Can I use regular egg instead of flax egg?
Thank you! Definitely! 🙂
I just made these last night. They were amazing! I used what I had on hand (half brown rice, half white / an egg instead of a flax egg… Though I should have used aquafaba which I forgot I had / dried coriander instead of cilantro / panko crumbs instead of bread crumbs). They are hearty and filling, and SUPER easy to make. I’m excited to try your other recipes!
I love that you adapted them with the ingredients you had! So glad to hear you enjoyed them! 🙂
These were amazing! I used quoina instead of brown rice and baked them in the oven. So good!!!! My husband loved them too!
Awesome!! I’m so glad to hear you both enjoyed them! 🙂
This recipe was DELICIOUS!. I didn’t have flax so made a slight variation in using one egg so I needed to use a bit more flour (oat for gluten free) and ithe dish still turned out to be really tasty. I’m normally not good for leftovers for more than one day but this recipe kept me coming back until all gone!
Hi Pat! I’m so glad to hear you liked it! And glad to hear it worked well as leftovers, haha! 🙂
So freakin good!!!!
Thank you!! I’m so glad you enjoyed 🙂
Looks Yummy! I will make it with your instruction. And I will use gluten-free breadcrumbs. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks! I hope you enjoy!
I made these tonight and can’t say enough about how much we enjoyed them! So glad I listened to you and went with the enchilada sauce instead – what a great idea. Thank you for an awesome addition to my vegetarian options!!!
I’m so glad to hear you liked it, Liz!! 🙂
This was delicious!
I used 2 cups and more cheese and adjusted the seasonings just a smidge. Also made a cashew cream as a condiment. But overall, this was REALLY awesome! I ate it with the cauliflower rice as you suggested. Also, used the meat as the inside of enchiladas …Ymmy as well!
I’m so glad to hear you liked it! Thank you for the kind words 🙂
I tried making this – and while it is delicious – the “meatballs” didn’t hold their shape and kind of turned into splats in the oven once I added the sauce. What am I doing wrong?
Hmm, mine aren’t super firm like a pre-packaged veggie meatball but they didn’t fall apart either. Maybe try to refrigerate them to firm them up a little before you bake them? was your mixture really wet? Maybe add some more breadcrumbs to it. It’s hard to know exactly what went wrong!
So yummy! Looking for some great new vegetarian recipes and hit the jackpot with this one! Made it ahead on Monday night, had it for dinner last night and the leftovers for lunch today were even better! Only issue I had was that my kids didn’t want to eat it but because it’s been so hot here, they aren’t eating much of anything right now. Will definitely be making these again!
Yah! I’m so glad you liked it! It’s been so hot here too and sometimes it’s hard to have an appetite!
If you were to freeze these would you do that before or after baking?
before 🙂
This dish is amazing!! My family and I really enjoyed it.
I”m so glad to hear that, Monica!! 🙂
I have never written a review before this one but felt this deserves one! This is delicious!! I made it and served it over cauliflower rice as suggested. Thank you for such a delicious recipe my entire family liked! Can’t wait to try more of your recipes!
Yah! I’m so glad you enjoyed this recipe! And that your family liked it too, thats awesome! 🙂
Is this recipe for 4 servings?
4-6 depending on how much people eat 🙂
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!
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!
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!
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!
This was really good i really enjoyed it
Thanks!!
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!
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!
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!
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!
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 🙂
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.
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!!
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
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 🙂