Easy Enchilada Sauce

A pan of enchiladas ready for the oven.

My daughter Eleanor loves it when I make enchiladas for dinner.

It's by far her most requested dish and I don't mind one bit because they are quick to make and everyone else in the family loves enchiladas too.

When I make them I usually take the easy route and make them "lasagna style" in the pan, alternating layers of tortillas and filling. I find this so much faster and just as good as making individually rolled enchiladas.

I recently mentioned to my friend Anne that Eleanor was getting ready to leave for a school trip to Japan and had requested a special family enchilada meal the night before her trip. I also mentioned that I always make my own enchilada sauce and she said "please put that recipe on the blog."

So here it is for Anne and for you, the tastiest and easiest enchilada sauce made with ingredients you probably already have on hand in your pantry.

Enchilada Sauce
1 28 oz can tomato sauce or crushed tomatoes (Note: Once I only had a single 12 oz can of tomato paste on hand — so I added water to thin it down to a sauce and it worked just fine.)
1 1/2 teaspoons Kosher salt
2 teaspoons garlic powder
3 teaspoons cumin
4 teaspoons chili powder
2 tablespoons water

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Put all of the ingredients into a bowl, mix and that's all there is to it.

Quick Enchiladas

Today's meal of quick enchiladas, grapes (from the Oregon Food Bank), chips and salsa.

With just hours to get a meal ready for hundreds at the Wednesday Community Meal, we have learned that sometimes we have to take shortcuts to keep our sanity. Today was one of those days.

Enchiladas are one of our most popular meals but rolling each one takes way too much time and focus.  Our solution today was to make quick enchiladas by layering the ingredients in a hotel pan just like a lasagne.

We began by putting a bit of salsa on the bottom of the pans and adding a layer of flour tortillas, seasoned refried beans, black olives and cheese.

Then we added another layer of tortillas and a rice, beef and black bean filling.

Adding the second layer of rice, beef and black bean filling to build our enchiladas. The pan in the back has the first layer of refried beans, cheese and olives.

Finally, we added more tortillas, a homemade enchilada sauce, cheese and black olives.

Just 25 minutes in a 350 degree oven and they were ready to cut and serve with a dollop of sour cream and a side of chips and salsa. Delicioso!

I do have to give a special shout out to dedicated volunteer Rieko who cut the enchiladas into perfect even-sized squares.  That kind of care and attention makes a huge difference and means so much to our guests.

We served 290 meals in the dining room today along with soup, salad and dessert.