Mike and the kids took me to eat at a Mexican restaurant called Maiz in downtown Ypsilanti for Mother’s Day.  They had so many choices for both tacos and enchiladas that Mike and I had tons of fun trying each other’s food.  He ordered three different kinds of tacos and I had three different kinds of enchiladas, all of which were unique and super tasty.  I fell in love with their zucchini and potato hash, which was a pleasant surprise.  I tried to get an idea of how they prepared it, but when the waitress came back from the kitchen all she said was, “It has onions, potatoes, zucchini and spices.”  Spices? I thought.  That’s pretty generic.  Hmmph.  Needless to say I came home craving their enchiladas and determined to figure out how to make something similar at home.

While we don’t eat vegetarian food every often, I don’t think it’s a bad idea to have a meatless dinner every once in a while.  I would love to be able to have a vegetarian meal at least once a week, but I haven’t found enough recipes that my family loves enough yet.  I’m working on it though. 🙂  This recipe is combination of other people’s recipes that I put together in an attempt to mimic the enchiladas I had at Maiz.  The filling comes from Lisa’s Vegetarian Kitchen.  The tomatillo sauce is from Tyler Florence.

It seems like there are a lot of ingredients and just as many steps to this, but it really comes together pretty quickly.  The filling all comes together in one pot and the sauce is just blended altogether.  If you want more hash you can always add an extra potato or two.  The original recipe called for four potatoes and the first time I made this I only used three and had a ton!  I cut back when actually writing this so that there would be less potatoes and therefor more seasoning for the filling.  If you like your food extra spicy you can leave the jalapeño seeds and ribs in, but we found that with the seeds and ribs removed the tomatillo sauce is sightly sweet in contrast to the slightly spicy hash.  My kids asked for seconds and Michael assured me this had his approval to be blogged. 🙂

Ingredients

• corn tortillas
• oil for frying
• 1-2 cups Mexican cheese mix or shredded cheese of your choice
• sour cream (optional)

For the sauce:

• 1 pound tomatillos, husked
• 1 white onion, peeled, sliced, quartered or whole
• 4 garlic cloves
• 2 jalapeños, seeded
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup chopped cilantro leaves plus more for garnish
• 1/2 lime, juiced

For the Filling:

• 1 14 oz can pinto beans or black beans
• 2 medium potatoes, chopped
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 green onions, green and white parts, sliced
• 1 bell pepper, seeded and chopped
• 2 jalapeños, seeded and chopped
• 1 small zucchini, chopped
• 2 teaspoons chili powder
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon sea salt, or to taste
• fresh ground black pepper
• 1/4 cup vegetable broth (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 400F degrees.
2. Boil the potatoes for 10 to 15 minutes — depending on the size of your pieces — or until just tender.
3. While the potatoes are boiling, make the sauce.  On a baking tray, roast tomatillos, onion, garlic and jalapenos for 12 to 15 minutes. Transfer the roasted vegetables and any juices on the bottom of the tray to a food processor. Add the cumin, salt, cilantro, and lime juice and pulse mixture until well combined but still chunky.
4. Lower the oven to 350F degrees.
5. Heat the oil in a large non-stick or cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat. Add the potatoes and cook, stirring frequently, for 10 to 15 minutes or until lightly browned. Stir in the onion and the white parts of the green onion, and continue to sauté for 5 to 6 minutes or until the onions are softened. Now stir in the drained beans, bell pepper, jalapeños and zucchini, and fry for 3 to 5 minutes or until the vegetables are softened.
6. Toss in the chili powder, ground cumin and dried oregano, and stir to coat the vegetables and beans. Remove from heat, stir in the salt and season with black pepper.  (If you want your hash chunky and dry, then you’re done.  If you want the vegetables slightly moist and more mashed together you can add 1/4 cup vegetable broth and use a fork to mash them up a bit at this point.)
7. Heat canola oil in a small frying pan over medium heat.  Dunk corn tortillas for about thirty seconds and then pat dry on paper towels.
8. Put about 1/3 cup of tomatillo sauce in the bottom of a 9X13 pan and spread it around so the enchiladas don’t stick to the bottom of the pan.  Add two spoonfuls of hash to each corn tortilla, roll them and then place into a 9X13 pan.  Cover with tomatillo sauce and sprinkle with cheese.  Bake for 20-30 minutes or until cheese is melted and sauce is bubbling.

Notes – Depending on the size of your potatoes, this makes a lot of hash.  I was able to feed my family enchiladas twice and still have leftovers.  For the third time around, it made a delicious addition to breakfast burritos!