Oven-Roasted Pumpkin Enchiladas

I have had Pumpkin Enchiladas on the brain and finally found some time to bring my dreams to life. I absolutely love oven roasted pumpkin, it is the perfect balance sweet and subtle char and the best part: the pumpkin gets soft but stays firm. There are so many things that can be done with oven roasted pumpkin & I have several more recipes floating around in my head – just waiting for the opportunity to be eaten!

For this recipe, I kept the seasoning simple. I used my pre-mixed Taco Seasoning blend for seasoning the pumpkin, potatoes & the turkey. That short cut was a real time saver.

I also over roasted the potatoes ((and onions)) after cutting them into micro-cubes. Oh, you haven’t heard of the term “mirco-cube”? Well, it isn’t difficult, I just cube the potatoes and onions into a very small chunk. This allows them to roast in about 20 minutes ((which is a huge time saver)). Also, micro-cubes of potatoes fit into the corn tortilla better.

For the pumpkin, I prefer working with pumpkin pie pumpkins. I washed the outside, halved the pumpkin, removed the seeds and then quartered the halves. I rubbed the pumpkin sections with a little vegetable oil, sprinkled them with Taco Seasoning and roasted them on parchment paper for 30 minutes. The pumpkin skin lifts right off when the pumpkin is prepared this way! This makes working with a pumpkin so much easier.

I browned the turkey meat, seasoned it with my Taco Seasoning blend & salted to taste.

After all of the filling components were ready, I made the yummy pumpkin cream cheese sauce for the top of the enchiladas. Browned butter and freshly grated nutmeg made this sauce magical.

Kade is my boy who cringes at the sight of potato and I would imagine pumpkin would be received just as “well”. So I made Kade his own dish of Taco Seasoned Turkey Taquitos…that’s right…corn tortillas filled with grated cheese and seasoned turkey. He was happy that I didn’t subject him to my pumpkin daydream. ((I was happy too for the record)).

I set up an enchilada filling station and proceeded to fill each tortilla with a SMALL amount of turkey, potato, pumpkin & grated white cheddar. I rolled them up ((after heating the tortillas to make them pliable)) carefully and placed them in a baking dish that had about 2 cups of the prepared sauce in the bottom.

This may not look like 2 cups of sauce ((and probably isn’t, but it needed to be…my enchiladas were a little on the DRY side)).

In the background of this picture, you can see another dish of enchiladas. I made enough for mom & dad’s dinner too.

Cover the enchiladas with the pumpkin cream cheese sauce. Just when you think you have enough, add more. Try to allow the sauce to seep between each enchilada.

Cover the enchiladas with non-stick foil and bake them for 30 minutes until they are hot and bubbly. Remove the foil and allow the top to brown ((I used the broil function – but be careful! It can burn in a flash.)).

 My entire herd LOVED these enchiladas ((except for Kade who loved his taquitos)) and ate seconds! I had a few cups of leftover filling and used it later to make a simple cheesy taco pasta bake. If you have extras too – be creative and use them to make a yummy second meal later in your week.

Oh – and for all of my GF friends, this one is GF – happy day!