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Enchilada Sauce
Vegan, nut-free, refined sugar-free, soy-free
Yield
2 1/2 cups
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
With a homemade enchilada sauce so easy and tasty, you’ll never buy store bought again! Use this sauce in my Next Level Enchiladas.
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons (30 mL) vegan butter or extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 tablespoons gluten-free all-purpose flour, all-purpose flour, or white spelt flour
- 1 1/2 tablespoons chili powder
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1 scant cup (8 ounces) tomato paste
- 1 1/2 cups (375 mL) low-sodium vegetable broth
- 1/2 teaspoon pink Himalayan sea salt or other fine sea salt
Directions
- In a medium pot, melt the vegan butter over medium heat or simply add the oil and increase heat to medium.
- Stir in the flour until a thin paste forms.
- Stir in the chili powder, garlic powder, cumin, onion powder, and cayenne pepper until combined. Cook for a couple minutes over medium heat until fragrant.
- Stir in the tomato paste followed by the broth. Whisk until smooth.
- Bring to a simmer over low-medium heat. Stir in salt to taste and continue simmering until thickened for about 5 minutes, or longer if desired.
My family love this sauce although i do make it less spicy for sensitive taste-buds ? we have it with the next level enchiladas and cashew sauce. I discovered it last year during our annual Daniel Fast. We aren’t vegan but eat a lot of vegetarian/vegan food and only white meat a few times a week. I have made the enchiladas with chicken once but the vegan recipe is so so good we don’t even miss the meat! Thank you for your awesome blog, I really enjoy reading it!
Blessings from Steph, Australia.
This recipe is ridiculous! So easy. So delicious. I used Earth Balance vegan buttery spread.
I used mild california style chili powder and it turned out with just the right amount of spice.
I always do 1/2 of the red pepper (cayenne) in any recipe to start, and adjust to taste. We don’t all like spicy food at our house. This was perfect. Thanks!! and the avocado cream is a new level of limey goodness
I just combined the tomato paste and veg. broth, then added all the spices. Super simple and still came out great.
If I just add everything to the pot at once will it work out the same?
Hey K, It could work, but I haven’t tested it all at once yet. My only concern is whether the flour would be clumpy. Please let us know if you try it out..I’m curious now! :)
Can’t wait to try out this recipe! For how long can you keep this sauce either in fridge or freeze?
Hi Tamara, This sauce should last in an airtight container in the freezer for up to a month, and in the fridge for around 5 days. Hope you love it!
I have made tons of your recipes, both from your blog and your cook book which I own and love but this recipe in particular didn’t live up to expectations. The sauce tasted like spicy tomato paste, even after anticipating this as a possibility and using only 5 oz of tomato paste instead of 8 oz. The stuffing that goes into your enchiladas is great but I’ll keep looking for sauce alternatives.
Thanks for all of your other great recipes – I’ll certainly keep making them!
I used this recipe tonight to make vegan fajita pasta. Was great. Thanks for the recipe.
I’ve made this sauce several times and I do love it. But I use much less chili powder (maybe mine Is just crazy spicy) but I also find that it’s way too thick and I wonder if there is a lot of variation in how concentrated different makers of tomato paste are. I use the one from Trader Joe’s and usually find I often need to put about double amount of broth to thin in out.
Hey Amy, So happy you like it! Regarding the consistency, are you including the broth in the mix? That helps thin it out, but there could totally be differences in tomato pastes too I’m sure. :)
Hi Angela
Was trying a new vegan and glutton free enchilada recipe that called for canned enchilada sauce. I live in Canada, and that proved to be very difficult to find. So, I stumbled across your recipe, and with the addition of cocoa suggested in the enchilada recipe, It was a huge hit!
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Thank you
CJ
Hey CJ, Oh I’m so glad you found the recipe and loved it so much! I’ll have to try cocoa powder next time…yum.
Making your enchiladas tomorrow night for a family gathering! Do you think Regular sprouted spelt flour would work instead of white spelt flour?
Thanks in advance!!
xX Rita
Hey Rita, I hope I’m not too late for your reply! You can use whole grain spelt flour, but I might suggest sifting it first to get the larger spelt pieces out of it? I’d love to hear how it goes!
Hi, is the tomato pate the same as tomato puree ?
Many thanks.
Hey cb, Great question! Tomato paste is much thicker. I found this online from a website called Livestrong: “Tomato paste is made by cooking tomatoes slowly for several hours, simmering them down to a rich paste. Tomato paste has a sweet, intense tomato flavor similar to that of dried tomatoes. Tomato puree is made by cooking tomatoes briefly to soften them before processing them. Tomato puree has a mild, fresh tomato taste and a thinner consistency.” I hope this helps!
Hi Angela,
I have made your enchiladas many times but this time I want to free up my time just before serving to visit with my guests. Can I make the enchilada sauce and avocado-cilantro sauce a few hours (or even the day before) and save until later?
Love every recipe I have tried from both of your cookbooks!
Thanks,
Beth
Rating should have been 5 stars not 4 (not sure what happened)
Hey Beth, Oh I’m sorry when I went to change your rating from a 4 to a 5, it wouldn’t let me add the rating anymore. If you’d like to comment on this thread with a new rating you can do that and I will approve it. :) Sorry about that!
Hey Beth, Thank you so much for your kind words and support for my cookbooks…that means the world to me to hear. :)
You can definitely make the enchilada sauce in advance. Since avocado spoils quite fast, I tend to think that it is best made fresh whenever possible. If you do make it ahead, I would suggest placing a piece of plastic wrap directly on top of the sauce in a container or bowl to prevent it coming into contact with air. If you try anything out please let me know how it goes. I’m so happy you love this recipe so much!
My family is having an enchilada party tomorrow. I cannot wait to make this for my vegan enchiladas. They are all meat eaters, but me. I can see the entire recipe and directions.
I have made this several times and just love it. Thank you for this wonderful recipe!
This recipe is really awful. Who in the world gave it such good and raving reviews?
First of all, you cannot make a “thin paste” out of 2T oil and 2 T flour. You end up with a glob. Then you have to add a bunch of powders to it, such as garlic and onion powder, chili powder, cumin, salt, etc, and cook it further until aromatic. Really? Then you add a cup of tomato paste, (which is also a thickening agent), then, finally the broth. I had to add at least another 1 1/2 cups water, plus another T of cumin, plus another 2 tsp chili powder, just to give it a hint of flavor, as it had absolutely none! I wonder if anyone actually followed this recipe as written.
Hi, I just need a quick clarification. When you say chili powder in both this and the enchilada recipe are you referring to the powdered red chili’s (nothing but ground red chilis) or are you referring to the American Chili powder that has a mixture of things in it like cumin, oregano, coriander, garlic, chilis etc.? Maybe this is where some of the others are confused and don’t get the same turn out as well? I am about to make this and just wanted to clarify before I mess it up. Thank you.
Made this today. Only tweaked by adding a couple canned chipotle peppers and a teaspoon of cocoa. Really excellent enchilada sauce. Thank you for posting!
I love most of your recipes, but this one isn’t great. The lack of chiles means that it’s not even enchilada sauce.
So, for anyone looking for legit enchiladas, don’t use this recipe. Find one that uses dried chiles!
Made this last night, both my husband and I love spicy food, but this sauce had way too much chili powder. I’ll reduce it by half next time.