When I was looking over the recipes I had planned for 2018, I knew I wanted to do some type of enchilada sans corn tortilla. After discussing it with Lauren she suggested zucchini and I’m sure I gave here a look of disgust. I have firmly planted my flag in the anti-zucchini noodle camp in our household, it’s not the taste, but whenever I eat zucchini noodles (I also refuse to call them zoodles) my stomach burns an hour later.
Maybe it’s the acid from the tomato sauce that usually accompanies them, or the fact that all 15 calories burnt off, but I never felt satisfied after those meals. So you could say I was skeptical when I began prepping the ingredients for this recipe, all the way through shooting the pictures. However, when I sat down with a plate of two enchiladas, I made my way through the first one and was stuffed. I was pleasantly surprised with how filling each enchilada was, and I hope you with be too!
I’m a far stretch from a farmer or gardener, but one year Lauren and I planted zucchini in our backyard garden. Not knowing much about gardening, we planted four zucchini plants, and our yield was, to be modest, nothing short of prolific. We could not eat them fast enough, we were making zucchini bread, zucchini this, zucchini that, I would give them away to my parents, I sent several to my sister to puree into baby food. Even giving them away we would end up with baseball bat sized zucchini’s, because we couldn’t even pick them fast enough. So if you have even a mildly green thumb and the space I would encourage you to grow your own zucchini’s. That way you can control everything about what goes into them, since zucchinis are so high in water percentage, they can absorb any contaminants and pesticides in the soil used by conventional farming practices. If you don’t have the space, time, or energy to garden, seriously consider buying organic zucchini whenever possible.
Zucchini’s have a ton of super awesome nutritional benefits, but when I was researching for this post one fact kinda sorta blew my mind. Did you know zucchini’s are technically a fruit, more specifically a berry? Just one of these long green “berry’s” boasts nearly 50% of your daily vitamin C which promotes cardiovascular health and as well as your immune system. To read more on all the nutritional benefits of zucchini, check out the links below:
Organic Facts – 5 Amazing Zucchini Facts
Tomatoes and Zucchini: Fruits or Vegetables?
Keto Zucchini Enchiladas
A classic mexican favorite, with a low carb twist!
Prep time:
Cook time:
Makes: 4 Servings
Ingredients:
- 1 lb chicken, boiled and shredded
- 1 medium onion, sliced (165g)
- 1 4 oz can green chilies
- 3 zucchinis (285g) cut into strips
- 1 tbsp oil
- 8 oz shredded jack cheese
- 1 cup enchilada sauce
- sour cream
- guacamole
- pico de gallo
- jalapeno
- cilantro
optional toppings:
Instructions:
- Preheat broiler to high heat.
- Heat oil in a medium skillet over medium heat, saute onion 3 to 4 minutes until soft. Stir in green chilis and shredded chicken, remove from heat and stir in half of the cheese.
- Cut the zucchini into long flat sheets using a mandoline or vegetable peeler. Layer 4 pieces slightly overlapping and place 1/4 cup of filling at the end of the strips. Carefully roll up and place in a cast iron skillet.
- Top the zucchini enchiladas with the enchilada sauce and the remaining cheese. Broil in over for 5-7 minutes until cheese is bubbly. Serve with desired toppings.
**Info listed is per serving and an estimate. We use PaleoTrack.com to calculate macronutrient content.
The flavor of this dish is good but I think largely comes from the enchilada sauce. The rolling of the zucchini impossible. I ended up layering the zucchini and turning it into a casserole. When doing so however, the presentation isn’t great. More of an enchilada blob.
You are not the first person to have trouble getting the zucchini to roll. I hope it wasn’t too frustrating and I’m glad you enjoyed the flavor.
After reading your comment, this is what we did… One double layer of zucchini, then the meat, then another double level of zucchini, then the meat, then a final double layer of zucchini, topped by enchilada sauce and cheese. Cooked it one minute longer than the recipe called for (so 8 minutes). It was perfectly delicious (although I definitely had zucchini left over for another use). More like a zucchini pie. It was delicious.
This was amazing! So delicious. Thank you.
Wow- those look amazing and juicy!! Being allergic to chicken, I will use pulled pork. What enchilada sauce do you use?
(I’m so sorry- I have to point out that the plural of zucchini is zucchinis. Not zucchini’s. Apostrophes denote possession , not plurals. It’s a huge pet peeve of mine. I apologize if it comes off as pedantic.)
We typically use Frontera’s red enchilada sauce