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.
Made these for New Year’s and they were an absolute hit!
Great to hear, Katie! Thank you for your review!
Hi all,
Could this recipe work with a red las palmas sauce?
It should, I just prefer my recipe. Let me know what you think, Jessica!
Really enjoyed this recipe. Topped with avocado. My husband took leftovers to work for lunch. I had to laugh when I received this text from him while I was at work the next day:
“I’m pretty sure those enchiladas that I had for lunch might be my FAVORITE enchiladas in the history of my existence.“
What a great text! Thanks for sharing, Amy.
Amazing! I roasted sweet potatoes the night before which helped on the night of assembly.
Thanks Kate for another vegetarian meal that my family loves!!
Great idea, Heather! Thanks for your review.
I just layer tortillas (like lasagna) avoiding the need to heat, and making it much quicker to assemble! We cut into squares instead and it works just fine!
Thanks for sharing, Dee Dee!
These are delicious and very filling. I make a double batch as they make good lunches for both work and school
Thanks for sharing, Kathy! I appreciate the review.
Very delicious and easy to make
W e loved it—- made it a little differently. Added more black beans and instead of rolling things up in the tortillas — I placed a layer of tortillas on the bottom layer of salse verde, added all the filling, then put another layer of tortillas, then topped with the rest of the salsa verde and cheese. Easier and faster.
That works! Thanks for sharing, Deidre.
Made these tonight for me and my very picky and meat-loving fiancé and we both loved them. After a a lot of complaining about “something weird again, AND no meat!?” while we were cooking, he had to give me a look after a few bites that said, “I hate to say it, but you were right. This is really good.” Did everything according to recipe other than a bit more cheese on top (and I freshly shredded mine because I couldn’t find it pre-shredded so it was extra good), topped with sour cream and avocado. Thanks for a great recipe that we both like, is healthy, and will leave lots of leftovers for the week!
Something great to look forward to for the week, Sara!
I made this fish a couple weeks ago and let me tell you, this is by far one of my favorites. Such a simple meal with so many great ingredients and flavors. I will definitely be using this recipe again
I’m glad this is a favorite, Sophie! Thanks for coming back to comment!
Kate – I made this once before as written and loved it. Making it again tonight I got lazy and put the baked sweet potato halves right into my casserole dish (after baking cut side down, as you say) and dumped the filling on top of the sweet potatoes (I even left their skins on because I love eating the skins). Then I tore up 2 corn tortillas into small pieces and scattered on top and topped with the salsa verde. Baked it til bubbly and the torn tortillas were a little crispy. Still delicious like this!!! The combination of ingredients is a winner!!
Thanks for sharing, Aliza!
OMG AMAZING. I substituted sharp cheddar cheese and mozzarella, because that’s what I had on hand. And it was sooo delicious. I’m very surprised it was such a huge success, because my husband HATES sweet potatoes. He didn’t even notice they were in there. In his words
” OMG, THIS IS DELICIOUS”
I love it! Thanks for letting me know it was a hit.
Thanks for the recipe it was delicious. I tweaked it by using Greek plain yogurt instead of sour cream and made a green chile sauce instead of the salsa verde. I also put some of the sauce inside before rolling up the tortillas. All in all, yummy recipe.
You’re welcome, Elle!
I made it this evening, and it was easy and really tasty! Great recipe!
Thank you, Linda!
Wow, this was insanely good!!! I swapped in a can of pinto beans instead of black (hubby’s preference) and chopped up some jarred escabeche because I forgot to buy the fresh jalapeño. One weird thing that happened – after baking, the bottom of the corn tortillas fell apart and puffed up into globs of mushy masa. Still delicious, but any ideas on why this would happen? Maybe the filling was too wet? I drained the beans….but not the green chilis.
Made these for vegetarian company over the weekend. I’m not a vegetarian, but thought they were delicious. They were a hit.
Thank you, Heather!
Awesome recipie! I make 3 versions of these for the varied diets in my home- I like these so much I’m willing to have 3 different types – bean free (add chicken) ,dairy free , and just like the recipie says. My non vegitarian friends even like them without meat.
I love it! Thank you, Jen.
Hi, Did you mix in 1 cup of shredded monterey jack cheese in the filling, then another 1 cup on top? I can’t find the directions for the filling step before adding the sweet potato. Thanks!
Kate these were so good, thank you.
Happy to hear that, Patrica!
I am a personal chef and made this last night (2/28/19) for a vegetarian family I cook for. They told me these were literally the best enchiladas they have ever had, and they’ve been to plenty of Mexican restaurants.
I am so happy I found your site because everything I’ve made from here has been really delicious.
I love it! Also, what a cool job! Thanks for the review, Lauren.
This recipe was amazing, my husband said it is one of his favorites. I used the leftovers to make breakfast burritos. Yummy!
I’m so glad you enjoyed it, Dawn!
Just made these tonight we thoroughly enjoyed them this recipe is going into our new favorite recipe collection thanks
Happy to hear, Michael & Jean! Thanks for sharing.
Oh. Man. This is delicious! I could eat it every day. I threw half an avocado in the blender with sour cream, a touch of lemon and water for the sauce. Mmmm, this recipe is perfection. I’m not a vegetarian and I don’t miss the meat. Thank you!
I’m so happy to hear that! I love the idea of the avocado and sour cream. Thanks for sharing, Stacy.
These were the BEST enchiladas I have ever made….delicious!! My husband high fived me twice during eating this…Thank You!
Great to hear, Ericka!
So delicious! My fiancé doesn’t usually feel satisfied when we don’t have meat on the plate but neither of us missed it with these enchiladas. I had a lot of extra filling since I was just cooking for two so I froze it so I can make these again in a little while. They were even great reheated the next day. Very satisfying and flavorful!
I’m glad this one did the trick, Sarah!
Made this for a dinner party. Delicious & easy to make! Thanks
You’re welcome, Val! Thanks for your review.
Made as written, and it is absolutely delicious! A lot of my friends are or are becoming vegetarian and this is definitely a keeper!
That’s great! Thank you, Alexis.
I just made this tonight and holy Moses it’s amazing! I’ve added this to my meatless Monday repertoire. Thanks so much!!
You’re welcome, Vanessa!
Hi Kate,
Thank you for the delicious recipe! They are great! Spicy with the right amount of cheese. I used flour tortillas. What size tortillas is best for this recipe? Thanks!
I’m so glad! I used corn tortillas for this recipe, which only come in one size (about 6″ diameter). Hope that answers your question!
Made these tonight and they turned out very well.
We had fried potato and soyrizo tacos yesterday, so I used the leftovers instead of the sweet potato/beans. Not quite as healthy, but it’ll do. Skipped the chili powder/cayenne because soyrizo, and added the diced onion to the filling. FWIW, if you are near a Trader Joe’s, the Israeli feta is a game changer. One of our house’s favorite cheeses. Despite my love of green chilies, I had Hatch red chile enchilada sauce in the cupboard, so I used that. My budding vegetarian daughter proclaimed them great! Bookmarked.
Thanks for sharing, Chris!
Loved these enchiladas. My family raved about these and the chili. Your website is my go to for delicious vegetarian meals.
I’m happy to hear both of those things, Patty! Thank you for your review.
These look great but the link to my favorite, your black bean vegetarian enchilladas, is broken. It goes straight to the JPG photo from the recipe now. Please fix, love that recipe!
Hi CS! I’m sorry for your experience with Cookie and Kate this weekend. My website hosting made a big mistake and I’ve worked with them to resolve the issue. All should be working now. Let me know if you have any issues!
I’ve been wanting to make this for a few weeks, but when I clicked on the button to make it all I got was a picture. Glad that was fixed because this dish was yummilishous
I’m sorry you experienced issues! It should all be working now.
This was great! And when I reheated leftovers at the office the next day, a coworker said “that smells good!”
Winning lunch! Thanks for your review, Matthew!
Sounds delicious! Anxious to make this recipe! What size tortillas did you use? Thanks for all the great recipes!
Hi Raneeta! These are corn tortillas for this recipe so there is one standard size.
This recipe was BOMB! Warning: it’s a little spicy — but I love spice so it was right up my alley. Made 3 meals out of it for 3 people. Great warmed up in the oven or microwave. Definitely going to make this again!
Thanks for sharing! I’m glad you really liked it, Lindi.
Omg these are absolutely unreal!!! I found myself craving another an hour after dinner even though I was still full thank you!
This recipe is delicious, I’ve made it twice now. The great thing about it is the leftover sweet potato mixture can be used as a salad so it’s multi-purpose goodness becomes something else that is tasty.
Super easy to make which makes this dish even better.
Thank You!
This dish is amazing. I made it for many non vegetarian friends and they ask for the recipe.
Wonderful, Shelly! Thanks for making another one.
Is there a reason this is different than your cookbook recipe with homemade enchilada sauce? Is one of them better?
Thanks!
Hi Robin! They are two different recipes with two different type of sauces. That’s it! :)
This sounds delicious! Could I prep this over the weekend and then bake during the week?
I don’t usually have luck with pre-prep without baking. Maybe try the filling, then assemble when ready.
Reallllllly yummy recipe – oddly enough, this saves pretty well. Yes, the tortilla is a slightly soggy, but I found this really great for a week of meal prep because it’s so easy to just grab a slice and put it into a container. Reheating dishes like this may be blasphemy to some, so I apologize if this offends anyone.
Make sure you add the red onion, sour cream, AND CILANTRO – they complement the dish wonderfully. This dish is VERY filling, too!
Thanks for sharing this is a great meal prep option for you! Thanks for the detailed comment and review, Brooke.
I made these tonight and they were amazing! I halved the recipe, and cubed the sweet potato. I cooked the sweet potato in the oven until all the other ingredients were ready for the filling and let them finish cooking in the enchiladas. they can out perfect! This is the third recipe I’ve made off this blog and they have all been incredible. So happy I came across this blog.
Thank you for sharing! I’m glad you are enjoying the recipes, Kristin.
We’ve made these four times in the last couple months. We’ve slowly transitioned to vegetarianism and your blog has been such an amazing resource. Thanks for your lovely recipes!
You’re welcome, Kathryn!
My husband eats like a five year old (think chicken tenders and pizza every night) and HE WENT BACK FOR SECONDS!! First time since we’ve been married I’ve found a vegetarian recipe he’s eaten. I think this might be the most vegetables he’s eaten in a single serving since we met. Thank you so much. I can’t wait to try another recipe from your site! Xxxx
I love that, Rach! Thanks for sharing. Way to pick a great one for them!
Just made these and they were DELICIOUS! Perfect spicy kick and so flavourful. Only thing I forgot was the cilantro and that would’ve put it over the edge — I won’t forget it next time!
Can’t wait for leftovers!
Leftovers of this recipe are good! Thanks for your review, J!
Made this tonight for a meal train and family dinner. It was amazing. I went light in the salsa and cheese on top. A little heavy on the jalapenos for some extra kick. So good. Loved it. Will definitely put it in the dinner rotation!
Great! Thanks for sharing, Karen.
This was an AWESOME Sunday night meal in our house last night. We cut out the green chiles, jalapeno, and cayenne to make it more palatable for our 2 year-old twins, and found a mild green chile salsa. We also ran the black beans through the processor so that our son wouldn’t pick them all out (he recently made the arbitrary decision that he doesn’t like the texture of beans- it’s a toddler thing, I guess). We also chopped up some avocado and threw it on top.
The enchiladas were a HUGE hit! They were gobbling it up, garnishes and all. Aside from the deliciousness of this meal, the best parts were: 1. We have leftovers for tonight so we won’t have to whip up dinner in the after-work, after-preschool rush. 2. This recipe was easy enough for my husband, the VERY amateur cook, to handle on his own. He was so happy this morning when our daughter said, “Daddy, I wuvved the enchiwadas yesterday!”
I’m glad you were able to make this work so well with your littles! I love the creativity. Thanks for your review.
This recipe was absolutely delicious, thank you for sharing! The only thing I substituted was the the green chilies. I had to do a can of fires roasted tomatoes & green chilies because I couldn’t find cans of diced green chilies. We loved all of the flavor combinations.
You’re welcome! Thank you for sharing what you did, Stephanie.
I want to make this vegan since my husband does not eat animal products; what do you recommend for a cheese substitute?
Hi Marlyn! You could try this with it: https://sooka.info/vegan-queso-recipe/%3C/a%3E and or this one too! https://sooka.info/vegan-sour-cream-recipe/%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E