Merry Christmas Eve! In my family, for whatever reason, it’s tradition to make homemade Mexican food on Christmas Eve. Sometimes we do simple cheese enchiladas (my mom is making these Green Chile Sour Cream Enchiladas this year), sometimes we’ll do fajitas, and sometimes we’ll mix it up with a taco bar. As long as it’s sort of Mexican-inspired, it’s all good.

In the last couple of years, with my husband’s group of friends and all the wives & kids, we’ve started doing a Friendsmas with—you guessed it—Mexican food. My husband usually makes the meat and we’ll get chips, salsa, beans and rice from a local restaurant. One of the other women in the group is a vegetarian as well, so I’m always happy to whip up a special vegetarian dish!

This year I went with a super simple Vegetable Enchilada Stack. You honestly don’t even need a recipe for this—just layer on the sauce, tortillas, cheese, beans and veggies and call it a day. If you’ve never made something like this before, I’ve lined out a simple recipe for you below.

Side note: you’ll see below that I added sour cream, salsa and lime juice to a can of enchilada sauce. I did this because canned sauce can be quite overpowering, but this certainly isn’t required. If you want to stick with the canned stuff without doctoring it, by all means!

INGREDIENTS

Corn tortillas (you’ll probably use at least 20)
Enchilada sauce (around 16 oz).
Sour cream
Mrs. Renfro’s Black Bean Salsa
Low-fat sharp cheddar cheese, 8 oz.
Pepper jack cheese, 8 oz.
Red onion, diced
Red bell pepper, diced
3-4 mini sweet peppers, diced
Poblano pepper, diced
4 garlic cloves, minced
15 oz. can black beans
15 oz. can dark red kidney beans
4.5 oz. can diced green chiles (use half the can)
8 oz. can fiesta corn
Green onions, diced
Lime juice (about half of a large lime)
Cumin, chili powder & smoked paprika
Salt & pepper, to taste
Olive oil

STEPS

1) In a large bowl, combine the enchilada sauce, sour cream, lime juice and salsa. The amount of each is really to your preference, but I’d suggest using about 3/4 the jar of enchilada sauce, three heaping spoonfuls of sour cream, 1/2 cup salsa and the juice from half of a large lime. Whisk well to combine.

2) Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. In a large skillet over medium-high heat, sauté the red onion, red bell pepper, sweet peppers, poblano pepper, garlic, beans, corn and chiles until the onions become translucent and the peppers are soft. Season with chili powder, cumin, smoked paprika, salt & pepper and stir to combine.

3) Pour a bit of the sauce onto the bottom of a 9 in. x 13 in. dish and use a spatula to coat evenly. Cover with a layer of tortillas; use whole ones when possible, but you’ll want to tear up others to fill in the gaps.

4) Add half of the vegetable mixture onto the first layer of tortillas and spread evenly. Sprinkle with both cheeses. Pour on a bit more sauce and use a spatula to make sure it’s distributed evenly.

5) Repeat the process with another layer of tortillas, the rest of the veggies, cheese and a bit more sauce. Coat evenly.

6) Finish off the dish with a third layer of tortillas. Add the rest of the sauce (this should be the layer with the most sauce) and sprinkle with the remaining cheese. Bake uncovered for 45 minutes and top with diced green onions before serving.