This enchilada sauce is quick, easy, and can be customized to suit your family’s preferences. The best part is, it is made with real, healthy ingredients in the same amount of time it takes to get your enchilada filling ready, and leaves jarred enchilada sauce in it’s dust. 
I have a tendency to make things myself rather than buy their store bought version. Things like yogurt, hummus, granola, pizza dough, vegetable broth, and this enchilada sauce are all easy to make, and taste significantly better than their canned, boxed, or bagged counterparts. Making food yourself also means you can adjust the spices and seasonings to your tastes, and you can skip all the unpronounceable mystery ingredients and chemicals that often pass for food on the grocery store shelves. 
There’s nothing complicated about this recipe: enchilada sauce is really just a chili-spiced tomato sauce used to add moisture and flavor to an otherwise dry baked tortilla dish. I’ve been craving enchiladas and lasagna lately, and the more I think about it, the more I realize they are essentially the same dish with a different geographic twist. Lasagna relies on pasta, tomato sauce, and cheese, while enchiladas are based on tortillas, tomato sauce, and cheese. I’m not sure how this revelation will impact your life, but it was pretty critical for me. Especially because I prefer lasagna rolls over traditional layered lasagna, so the two dishes were starting to sound like the exact same meal in my head. Clearly I’m not interested in any January detoxes or juice cleanses…send all the warm, bubbly, cheesy, saucy carbs my way, please!
Okay, let’s talk about this sauce. To make it, you sautee onion and garlic in a sauce pot. Then you add spices like cumin, chili powder, and paprika and let them get fragrant in the pan. Finally, a can of fire-roasted tomatoes, tomato paste, salt, cornstarch, and vegetable broth (or water/chicken broth) get added to the pot. The whole thing bubbles for about 10 minutes, gets puréed in a blender or food processor, and is ready to smother your favorite enchiladas. 
Don’t have a favorite enchilada recipe? Don’t worry, I’m sharing my favorites soon. Spoiler alert: there’s roasted butternut squash involved, and I might need to make them a permanent fixture on our weekly meal plans this winter. They’re THAT good. For now, you can make this sauce and smother it on whatever enchiladas you love. Just stock up on extra tortillas, beans, and ingredients for this homemade sauce, because I’m predicting lots of enchiladas in our future. 
I hope your 2017 is off to a warm, cozy, cheesy, saucy start. Mine sure is.
Easy Homemade Enchilada Sauce
Ingredients
- 1/2 a small red or yellow onion
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 Tablespoon olive oil
- 2 Tablespoons chili powder
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 15- ounce can fire-roasted diced tomatoes with green chilies*
- 2 Tablespoons tomato paste
- 1/2 cup vegetable broth chicken broth or water both work well, too
- 1 Tablespoon cornstarch
Instructions
- 1. Roughly chop the onion and garlic. Add onion and olive oil to a medium-sized sauce pot over medium heat, and sautee for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- 2. Add garlic and all spices to the pot, and cook for another minute.
- 3. Pour the can of tomatoes and the tomato paste into the pot, and stir well. Measure out the vegetable broth and whisk the cornstarch into it. Then, pour the cornstarch-broth mixture into the pot.
- 4. Bring the sauce to a boil, then reduce to a simmer for 8-10 minutes. Transfer to a blender or food processor and puree until smooth.
- 5. Use sauce immediately, or let cool and transfer to an airtight container in the fridge. Sauce will last at least a week in the fridge, though possibly longer. You could also make a big batch of this and freeze it to pull out as needed over the winter.