Beef and Capsicum Enchiladas

It came to that moment where I knew I wanted Mexican influenced food for dinner tonight no matter what I had menu planned.  Needless to say the stirfry beef dish was tossed and helloooooo enchiladas!!

To be honest I haven't cooked much Mexican foods from scratch, I have mastered a pretty good salsa!  El Paso has always taken up residence in our pantry as it's a quick and easy take on such a flavoursome cuisine.  I have read many recipes  for enchiladas and couldn't find one that completely took my fancy so tonight's dinner was born from a combination of about 10 or so recipes.

This dish was awesome - full of flavour along with a hint of chilli leaving a tingle on the tastebuds.  Definitely filling, one enchilada was enough for me served with salad.

Beef and Capsicum Enchiladas

Serves: 8

ProPoints per serve: 7

cooking spray

2 medium red onions, finely diced

1 teaspoon crushed chilli

2 garlic cloves, crushed

2 teaspoons ground cumin

1 1/2 tablespoons dried oregano leaves

2 x 400 gram cans diced tomatoes

1 cup water

salt

freshly ground black pepper

500 grams beef strips

2 teaspoons sweet paprika

1 green capsicum, thinly sliced

1 red capsicum, thinly sliced

8 low fat tortillas

150 grams low fat grated tasty cheese

1 spring onion, finely sliced

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

Spray a large frying pan with cooking spray and heat over medium.  Add onion, chilli and garlic.  Cook for 5 minutes or until onion is softened.  Add cumin, cook stirring for 1 minute. Add tomatoes, water and 1 tablespoon oregano, season with salt and pepper, bring to the boil.  Reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes or until slightly thickened.

Spray a 10 cup casserole dish with cooking spray.  Spread 1 cup of sauce mixture over base of dish.

In a bowl combine beef, sweet paprika and remainer of oregano.  Spray another frying pan with cooking spray and cook beef in batches, quickly until browned.  Do not cook through.  Remove from heat. 

Respray pan with cooking spray and cook capsicums for 2 minutes, stirring, or until softened.  Remove from heat.

Cook tortillas in microwave for 1 minute.  Place tortillas on the bench.  Top with 1/8th of beef strips and 1/89th of capsicum mixture.  Top with 2 tablespoons of sauce mixture.  Roll up to enclose filling.  Place in casserole dish seam side down.

Top enchiladas with remaining sauce mixture and sprinkle with cheese.

Bake for 25 minutes or until golden and heated through.  Sprinkle with spring onion and serve with salad and sour cream (optional).

(click here for a printable version of this recipe)