Black Bean Sweet Potato Enchiladas
Amazing black bean and sweet potato enchiladas, smothered in salsa verde. A delicious, hearty vegetarian entrée.
Updated by Kathryne Taylor on October 22, 2024
Quick! I’m sharing these enchiladas with you as a suggestion for a post-Thanksgiving meal this weekend (don’t forget, I have lots of vegetarian Thanksgiving options here).
The enchiladas are stuffed with creamy, hearty sweet potato, plus black beans, feta cheese, and spices. The sauce is super easy—just grab some mild salsa verde at the store. Or, you can go the extra mile and make your own.
Most restaurant enchiladas are so cheesy that I leave with a belly ache, but not these. They are delicious, satisfying and leftovers taste even better the next day. If you want to make a vegetarian dinner and hear, “I don’t even miss the meat,” these enchiladas are for you.
This recipe is actually one that I shared back in 2011, but it was missing some key instructions, like how to roast the sweet potato. So, I revisited it and tweaked it a bit, and they’re better than ever.
These enchiladas taught me some valuable lessons about cooking back then, so I’m leaving my notes for you below.
From 2011: Do you ever cut corners when you’re following a recipe? I do—all the time—and I’m always learning from my mistakes.
Take these black bean sweet potato enchiladas, for example.
I blundered through Gluten Free Goddess’ recipe, made it my own, and came out a better cook in the end.
Lessons learned:
- Substitutions can be ok: I subbed Target’s salsa verde for the Karina’s green chile sauce, which worked out fine.
- Skipping steps is usually not ok: I ignored her recommendation to warm up the corn tortillas first, so they broke to pieces when I tried to wrap the tortillas around the inside ingredients. As a result, my enchiladas weren’t as pretty as they could have been, but it didn’t affect the flavor. I need to trust that my fellow cooks will not recommend additional steps if they are not integral to the dish’s success!
- Additions are just fine: I love spicy food, so I knew adding a jalapeño was a good idea. And it was.
- Pay more for high quality ingredients: Packaged breads, including tortillas, tend to be full of preservatives and unnecessary ingredients. I paid more for these sprouted grain corn tortillas at my local health food store, and go figure, they taste better than the rest!
- Some flavors are so good together, you can’t go wrong: Black beans and sweet potatoes are a delicious combination. Even with all my mistakes, I ended up with a mighty delicious meal.
Please let me know how these enchiladas turn out for you in the comments! I hope they’re your new favorite.
Craving more Mexican-ish, cheesy goodness? Don’t miss my roasted veggie enchilada casserole or baked jalapeño poppers.
Watch How to Make Enchiladas
Vegetarian Black Bean Sweet Potato Enchiladas
Amazing black bean and sweet potato enchiladas, smothered in salsa verde. A delicious, hearty vegetarian entrée. Recipe yields 10 enchiladas, enough for about 5 servings.
Ingredients
Filling
- 1 ¼ pounds sweet potatoes (2 small-to-medium)
- 1 can (15 ounces) black beans, rinsed and drained, or 1 ½ cups cooked black beans
- 4 ounces (1 cup) grated Monterey Jack cheese
- 2 ounces (½ cup) crumbled feta cheese
- 2 small cans (4 ounces each) diced green chiles
- 1 medium jalapeño, seeded and minced
- 2 cloves garlic, pressed or minced
- 2 tablespoons lime juice
- ½ teaspoon ground cumin
- ½ teaspoon chili powder
- ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional)
- ¼ teaspoon salt, more to taste
- Freshly ground black pepper
Remaining Ingredients
- 2 cups (16 ounces) mild salsa verde, either homemade or store-bought
- 10 corn tortillas
- 4 ounces (1 cup) grated Monterey Jack cheese
- 2 tablespoons sour cream
- 1 tablespoon water
- ¼ cup chopped red onion
- ¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper for easy cleanup.
- Slice the sweet potatoes in half lengthwise and coat the flat sides lightly with olive oil. Place the sweet potatoes flat-side down on the baking sheet. Bake until they’re tender and cooked through, about 30 to 35 minutes. Leave the oven on, since we’ll bake the assembled enchiladas soon (no temperature adjustments necessary).
- Meanwhile, pour enough salsa verde into a 9 by 13-inch baking dish to lightly cover the bottom (about ½ cup). In a medium mixing bowl, combine all of the remaining filling ingredients.
- Once the sweet potatoes are cooked through and cool enough to handle, scoop out the insides with a spoon. Discard the potato skins, and lightly mash the sweet potatoes with a fork or the back of a spoon.
- Stir the mashed sweet potato into the bowl of filling, and season to taste with additional salt (I added ¼ teaspoon) and pepper.
- Warm up your tortillas, one by one in a skillet, or all at once in a microwave so they don’t break when you bend them. Wrap them in a clean tea towel so they stay warm.
- Working with one tortilla at a time, spread about ½ cup filling down the center each tortilla, then wrap both sides over the filling and place it in your baking dish. Repeat for all of the tortillas.
- Top with the remaining salsa verde and cheese. Bake for 25 to 35 minutes, until sauce is bubbling and the cheese is lightly golden.
- Let the enchiladas cool for about 5 minutes. Whisk the sour cream and water together to make a drizzly sour cream sauce. Drizzle it back and forth over the enchiladas, then top them with cilantro and red onion. Serve.
Notes
Recipe adapted from Gluten Free Goddess.
Make it gluten free: Use certified gluten-free corn tortillas.
Make it dairy free/vegan: Omit the cheese. Stir a scant 1 cup vegan sour cream into the filling, reserving a few tablespoons for drizzling on top. Once baked, thin the vegan sour cream with a little extra water to make it extra-drizzly and drizzle it on top as shown.
Nutrition
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice. See our full nutrition disclosure here.
My son-in-law made these and I couldn’t believe how delicious they were! I’m adding it to my Christmas fare this year!
Great to hear, Nancy! Thank you for sharing.
Absolutely LOVE this recipe. I had a poblano chili on hand so I grilled it and diced it up in place of the canned chili’s. also, I diced and roasted my sweet potatoes and then mashed them a bit. The spices in this are amazing:) Definitely, a new family favorite!! We are having a Vegan Thanksgiving this year and with a few modifications this will be on our menu. Thank you!!!
Well I didn’t read carefully and removed the skins before I realized. But it worked. Had to sub in cheddar for feta. I used an enchilada sauce from a can from Walmart on the bottom of the tray and a chipotle salsa from Trader Joe’s on the top. I also used the whole wheat flour tortillas from TJs and added a bit of rice to the mix and had to use lemon instead of lime. It was simply delicious. Next time I will try it as you recommended and make the salsa verde myself. Love your site and all your recipes.
I bought almost everything to make this recipes but cannot buy green chilies as they are not available in the stores here. They have ongoing signs of sold out. Is there a substitute that I could use for now until they become available again?
Thank you for your help.
Elizabeth
Hi Elizabeth! I’m sorry you are having a hard time finding them. You can omit them and it should still be delicious. Maybe add a chopped jalapeño instead (seeded). Let me know what you think!
Thanks for the response. I tried the recipe today without the green chilies. I think the green chilies would have changed up the consistency of the filling. It as still a tasty dish. Thank you !
If it helps, I ended up making my own green chilis by roasting Anaheim peppers, removing the skins and dicing. Very fast and easy. My stores are low in stock on canned chilis too!
These were just as delicious the second time I made them. My daughter is not a fan of sweet potatoes but does enjoy these a lot! The first time I cooked the sweet potatoes in the Instant and roasted them the second time. We did not notice a difference either way. We can’t eat dairy so I omitted the sour cream (we don’t like the non-dairy ones) and the cheese, but did lightly sprinkle non-dairy mozzarella on top (I didn’t have Monterey Jack). That just made them look pretty but didn’t really add anything extra. We have to eat GF so used corn tortillas instead of flour. These are now a regular in our house. Thank you again!
It doesn’t say how much cheese to put in the filling and how much to reserve fir sprinkling on top?
Hi! It is separated out based on filling and remaining ingredients. Then see step 8. I hope this helps!
I’ve made this twice now and it’s incredible!!! Thanks for the attention to detail in your recipe and all the helpful tips – looking forward to making it again!
Great to hear, Kurt! Thank you for sharing.
Hi Kate,
These enchiladas are so delicious! Man it made so many! Definitely a keeper in this house! Thanks for all of the great ideas.
You’re welcome, Brenna! Thank you for your review.
I just made this for dinner. I used red enchilada sauce instead of green (used your recipe for the red sauce) and it came out delicious. I will definitely make this again!
Found this recipe after searching for a vegetarian recipe that was a bit different even though I’m a meat eater. This is the best Mexican dish Ive made and so much tastier than with meat in my opinion! Absolutely delicious. I found a recipe for Green Chili enchilada sauce and made that to substitute the salsa verde. This recipe is not complicated and easy ingredients to get hold of although I did use kidney beans instead of the black beans but I think they did the job fine. I just had a salad on the side and it was plenty. I’ll definitely be making this again!
Fantastic recipe. Cooked it this evening and am already excited for the leftovers tomorrow! Had to use 50/50 corn/flour tortillas as our shop was out of corn tortillas but otherwise followed your recipe to a T and it was a hit with the whole family! :)
Thank you for sharing! I’m glad it was a hit, Steph.
These are incredible! I have already sent the recipe to 2 others. So flavorful, and filling. The recipe makes a TON of filling, so we actually have extra to make more (which we WILL be doing ASAP). I was nervous about the jalapeño, but the addition did not make the dish too spicy at all (you could probably throw in an extra). I used Safeway enchilada sauce (the green one), and I made guacamole from scratch, which was the perfect addition. Thanks so much!!
Wonderful to hear! Thank you, Natalie, for your feedback and for sharing this recipe!
I have made these twice now and absolutely LOVE them. My husband (meat eater) loves them too!
To save some time, on Sunday, I roasted and mashed the potato & put it in a container. In another container, I combined all of the other filling ingredients (left out the cheese…thought it might get weird overnight). I also chopped the red onion and washed the cilantro. When I came home from work today all I had to do was mix it all together & assemble!
This was incredible! Always love the sweet potato and black bean combo. Definitely going to be in our dinner rotation from now on
That’s great to hear, Brianna.
Kate, I LOVE this recipe and so many more recipes from this blog. It is so delicious, the flavors so incredibly balanced, I make it all the time and everyone loves it! I’ve shared your recipes countless times.
Thank you thank you, you’ve inspired my love for food!
Thank you, Callie! I’m excited you are enjoying it so much.
One of my favorite recipes. My whole family loves them. I have recently switched to a mostly vegetarian diet due to gout; and awesome recipes like this is making the switch a lot easier than I thought it would be. I omit the jalapeño and use a slightly hotter verde salsa.
Wonderful, Jason! Thank you for sharing and taking the time to review.
I made this for dinner a few nights ago and wanted to give a review for people who usually like their sweet potatoes to be sweet with brown sugar and marshmallows (#thanksgiving). I love a good enchilada and this has a lot of the components of a good enchilada. The feta was a nice addition that I enjoyed. Unfortunately I have a really hard time with the sweet potatoes in here. Everything else is great and if you like savory seasoning on your sweet potatoes you’ll probably love these. It was fun to give it a try.
Thank you for giving your feedback, Katherine! I’m sorry this one wasn’t for you, but I’m glad you tried it.
I made this for dinner a few nights ago and wanted to give a review for people who usually like their sweet potatoes to be sweet with brown sugar and marshmallows (#thanksgiving). I love a good enchilada and this has a lot of the components of a good enchilada. The feta was a nice addition that I enjoyed. Unfortunately I have a really hard time with the sweet potatoes in here. Everything else is great and if you like savory seasoning on your sweet potatoes you’ll probably love these. It was fun to give it a try.
I appreciate your review, Katherine!
Love this recipe! It’s one of my go to’s when I have company over!! Have you tried premaking the filling and freezing it? Thinking of making a double batch this week and saving half for guests around Christmas.
Hi! I believe this recipe freezes well. I would suggest that over just the filling.
I love this recipe! It’s a hit with my entire family! It’s so pretty too!
I won’t lie there is lots of prep work but well worth it.
This is a fast, easy, delish meal. Have made it a few times sometimes adding more veggies if I have them. Also using 1/2 vegan cheese 1/2 regular. No one can tell!
Everyone loves it.
That’s great to hear, Beverly! Thank you for sharing.
Hi Kate! I really love this recipe, the flavors are fantastic. I tend to break my corn tortillas every time I make this dish. Do you have any recommendations on how to make them more malleable? I see you can heat them in the microwave… do you stack them and then put them in there? Finally, what size corn tortilla do you usually purchase? Thanks so much!
Hi! Wrap them in a damp towel and then heat for 15-30 seconds depending on if they are cold or not and how many in the stack. I usually get the standard size.
Thank you!! This worked so well. Perhaps my towel wasn’t damp enough previous times. They were delicious, as always!
Love this recipe. I love spice and Im pretty used to it but WOW I find this recipe so spicy! Anyone else?
This sounds so amazing and I’m excited to finally try veggy enchiladas tonight. I am a bit confused about the measurements though. 1 Cup of Monterey Cheese would be 8 ounces, not 4 ounces. Half cup of Feta would be 4 oz. not 2 oz. Am I measuring cheese wrong? Let me know!
Hi! It’s actually dry weight vs weight weight so what I have listed is correct. Hope that helps!
I made this recipe for the first time after seeing it got so many great reviews and I am a lover of enchilada dishes. It turned out SOOOO GOOD!!! My husband already said “this one goes in the weekly rotation,” for meals. I added twice as much lime juice, and doubled the spices. Warming the tortillas in the microwave was imperative for easy enchilada rolling, had to rewarm them half way through. I also got 12.5 enchiladas out of this. Tons of food! I substituted Greek non-fat yogurt for sour cream.
I will definitely be making this again and again! :)
I love that! Thank you for sharing, Stephanie.
Outstanding! My family loved it! Very tasty – satiating
Thank you so much!
Delicious! I subbed a large acorn squash for the sweet potatoes. Turned out great, and the leftovers were even better the next day.
I’m delighted you loved them, Stacy!
Two baking dishes of these enchiladas in the oven now! Wanted to express gratitude for your work getting this recipe developed and sharing your ideas, tips, pictures.
I only changed one thing – I steamed the sweet potatoes instead of baking them (4 small garnet yams in a steamer basket in a covered pot with 3/4 cup of water) – took about 20 minutes total to get a custardy center and easily peelable skins.
Thank you Ivy! I’m glad you enjoyed it and appreciate the recipe.
We stumbled upon this recipe last year, and we’ve made it at least once a month since. The flavors are incredible, and we love that it makes a big batch because the leftovers are just as good! Our only change, we whisk lime juice with sour cream (instead of water) and it sends the flavor over the top!
Since then, we’ve tried several other recipes from your site and they’ve all been good enough to make again. We aren’t vegetarian, but we’re trying to eat more vegetarian based meals, and your website has been such a great help! Thank you.
I’m delighted you are still enjoying it, Sarah!
My meat eating bf loved this recipe and I had extra filling left over that I just ate with some rice and an egg the next day. Add the whole jalapeno though. I was worried it would be too spicy so I only did half – it would have been fine with more.
These came out absolutely amazing!!! I changed the recipe a bit to make it vegan and used homemade new Mexican enchilada sauce and was blown away. I used the rest of the filling for a second batch, added chorizo to the inside and topped with melted cheese… mind blown. As an avid enchilada lover this is definitely going into my rotation. Thank you!
I’m delighted you loved it! Thank you for your review, Claudia.
One of my favorite dinner recipes!! I typically will shred a rotisserie chicken or brown ground turkey to add for extra protein. Always come out delicious!
That’s great! thank you for sharing, Rachel.
I am working on eliminating meat from my diet and came across this recipe for black bean and sweet potato enchiladas. I’m going to make it tomorrow. I am certain it will be wonderful. I’ll comment again once I’ve tried it.
Thank you for sharing the recipe
I have made this recipe SOOO many times! Delicious and easy to make! Thank you for sharing this!
Absolutely delicious!
We are in the middle of making this recipe and spooned a bit of the stuffing in our mouths. Wow!!! I know these are going to turn out fantastic!!! Thank you!!
You’re welcome, Samantha! I’m happy you loved it.
Amazing recipe! It’s a delicious combination of flavors and the whole family loved it. Thank you so much for sharing, this one’s a keeper!
Kate, good job as Anaheims are green chilies, just very mild.
Kate,
These enchiladas are DELICIOUS. What an amazing recipe! Thank you for sharing such a tasty creation with us! I am adding the recipe to my recipe box. I already can’t wait to make it again!
I have some leftover filling. The corn tortillas I used were pretty small. Any ideas of what I could do with the extra filling? I am thinking of getting some more corn tortillas to make a few more enchiladas, but do you have any other recommendations?
Thank you, Mary! I’m delighted you think so.
This turned out great! I doubled the spices and added 1lbs of ground bison and used flour tortillas. The corn tortillas kind of disintegrated so it turned out more like a casserole than enchiladas lol, I had much more success with flour tortillas. Love the flavors and will definitely make again! This made about 4 days worth of food for the two of us, which was super convenient!
This recipe was so good! I added sautéed green peppers and onions to make black beans
And used a spicy organic salsa verse from Whole Foods.
This recipe is so easy and so good. I made a few adjustments due to what I had on hand. I used flour tortillas instead of corn. I omitted the jalapeño because I used pepper monetary jack cheese, which was spicy enough. Lastly, I used a roasted salsa verde. I’m not really a fan of sweet potatoes but this was so good!
I’m delighted you loved it, Janet! Thank you for taking the time to review.
Hi-
I just noticed that this recipe has an incredibly high amount of sodium amount per serving. Is this a normal amount?
Hi! More on my nutritional information. You can adjust by the type of canned items you add and amount of added salt. These figures are only estimates, although I try to make them as accurate as I can.
This is one of my go-to recipes. This week there were only purple sweet potatoes at the market. And there was a little spinach in the fridge…. now they’re delicious and beautiful!
Hi, for this and the Salsa verde … are Jalapeños the same as fresh green chilli or are you meant to use jarred jalapeños? Thanks
Hi! If they are fresh, it will just be jalapeño in the ingredients. For the jared, I will note pickled. I hope that helps!
I used your red enchilada sauce on this recipe and it is in my opinion the best vegetarian meal I have ever eaten! Thank you
That’s great! Thank you for your review.
Hi!
Love this recipe. Have made it a few times and is so tasty. The only changes I made was not using the cheese. Instead I made the Creamy Vegan Queso and added a bit inside each enchilada and also made the Vegan Sour Cream recipe and drizzled that on top after is baked. Also added more Queso on top after is baked. Delicious! Thanks!
Thank you for sharing, Carol! I appreciate your review.
Can I make these the night before? would you recommend just doing the filling ahead and then putting in the tortillas right before cooking?
Thanks!
Hi! I think these make great leftovers. You could try making the filling first and then assemble later, although I haven’t tried it.
Made this for the first time tonight. I used store bought salsa verde and they were delicious!! This is going into my favorite file! All the flavors work so well together.
Delicious recipe, was hard sourcing salsa verde but was worth it! Thanks
You’re welcome! I’m happy you enjoyed it, Kat.