As great as a winter root vegetable beef stew is, nothing speaks comfort to me like the robust, deep flavors of Mexican food. What can I say… I’m Latina through and through.
I’m one of those old fashioned kind of mami’s who does not like to waste food. Something ircks me inside to even think about throwing nourishing meals away or any kind of good food for that matter. It’s usually no problem as Gabe loves leftovers for lunch, however, since we have both started on a fitness plan and have been reducing our portion sizes, we’ve had more leftovers to go around.
Instead of reheating beef stew, I decided to spice it up and make a Mexican inspired casserole.
All you need to do is make a batch of salsa roja para enchiladas, warm up some corn tortillas and layer lasagna style. Easy, delicious and nourishing. It feels great to know your eating a healthy and delicious enchilada when it’s made using real food at home.
Next time you have a big batch of leftover beef stew, try this enchilada casserole. You won’t be disappointed.
Enchilada Casserole Using Leftover Beef Stew
Ingredients:
- Leftover Beef Stew
- 1 batch salsa roja para enchiladas (red enchilada sauce)
- 1/4 cup chopped cilantro
- corn tortillas
- queso fresco cheese, sub cheddar or monterey jack
Method:
1.Preheat oven to 350F degrees.
2. Shred remaining beef from beef stew and dice the vegetables into small pieces.
3. Add beef stew mixture to a bowl and mix in cilantro.
3. Depending on how much beef stew you have leftover, mix in 1/2 cup to 1 cup salsa roja with the beef stew mixture. (To your taste)
4. In a 9×13 baking dish, add 3tbls salsa roja to the bottom of the dish.
5. Warm up 6 corn tortillas and place them on the bottom of the casserole dish to fill the bottom.
6. Add 1/2 the beef stew mixture on top of the tortillas and sprinkle with queso fresco.
7. Add another layer of tortillas followed by the last 1/2 of the beef stew mixture and queso fresco.
8. Add a final layer of tortillas and enough salsa roja on top to cover.
9. Top with queso fresco and bake for 20 minutes.
10. Serve topped with sour cream and diced avocados.
Buen Provecho!
This isn’t your typical leftover!! It’s a whole new meal!
I can’t wait to make beef stew again.
Your pictures make this dish look simply beautiful!
And I see my husband posted a comment. I think I’ll hold him to it and have him make it! Night off for me! 😀
What a great idea and lovely dish….loving it !
looks great and congrats on new site
I love everything enchilada. The combination of corn tortillas with salsa and cheese is great. I bet your leftover beef taste really good in the mix. 🙂
Hugs!
beautifully done looks delicious
I would love to have leftover like this for lunch everyday! Gorgeous!
I never thought about making beef stew into something else, but this looks so good! I’ve always enjoyed shredded beef with a smoky red chile sauce, so this looks like a great way to reincarnate last night’s dinner.
What a great idea! Whenever I make stew I end up with a ton leftover, and we can only eat it for so many meals before we start to get sick of it. I love the idea of totally changing it into a different meal. I think of Mexican food as comfort food too, but I’m from AZ.
What leftover?? When it is this cold, we finished the stew like there is no tomorrow. Have to make a new batch for this recipe. Looks great!
Well I’ve never heard a use for leftover beef stew like this before!!! It looks awesome! I may have to try it next time we have beef stew.
I’ve just come across your blog so hello! And I’ll be coming back to see the rest of your posts, your blog looks great =)
Those look great – if I had seen this yesterday I wouldn’t have eaten all the beef stew. Leftover stew always just tend to eat cold with bread. I’m British so will have to help me out – “sub cheddar” what is that, like a mild cheddar I’m guessing?
Great how you completely changed up the leftovers! I would have made beef potpie, but I love this total remake!
Wow, what a way to recycle leftovers. One wouldn’t even recognize that this beautiful dish was one a beef stew. You are very creative.
So very creative of you! Love your photos too!!!
This sounds fabulous. So comforting and flavorful! And I am so hungry right now. Thanks for sharing the recipe.
I made this tonight using store-bought enchilada sauce (I know, the shame, but I needed to make it quickly). It was delish and my kids, ages 3 and 8, also liked it. Great way to use up beef stew. I will plan this as a 1-2 dinner punch for the future. Sour cream added to the taste, and next time I’ll try to remember avocados for flavor and to make it healthier. Thanks for sharing!!
That’s wonderful! Thanks so much for sharing that! It’s great to hear your children enjoyed it 😀
I am single, so I have been eating my big batch of homemade stew all week & was a little tired of it. I googled what to do with the leftovers & this was the only thing that popped up that looked interesting. I tell you, I just made this & it was awesome!! The only thing different was I made an easy, 2 minute enchilada sauce because I didnt have any on hand:
RE: Can’t find enchilada sauce, is there a substitute?
Here’s one from Rachel_IN
Forget the canned stuff! From The Can Opener Gourmet: makes 1 3/4c.
15oz. tomato sauce
1tsp. sugar
1/2tsp. garlic powder
1/2tsp. onion powder
1/2tsp. chili powder
1/2tsp. dried cilantro
1/4tsp. ground cumin
1/8 to 1/4tsp. cayenne pepper (optional)
Mix all ingredients together. May be heated or served at once.
This enchilada sauce was also excellant, so i found 2 new great things today. (I subsituted the tomato sauce for Amy’s organic, low sodium tomatoe soup)
Thanks for the recipe!