When I was growing up my family had a favorite Mexican restaurant, and I always ordered enchiladas. When they showed up, they were always covered in a big scoop of sloppy refried beans. I thought that was how enchiladas were served—with refried bean sauce. Sounds reasonable, and it was always delicious. It wasn’t until I started cooking that I realized, no, refried beans are not typically used as enchilada sauce. What’s more likely is that at my old favorite restaurant the refried beans were intended as a side and the cook carelessly slung them on the plate so they ended up on my enchiladas. So when I make enchiladas I always have the urge to smother them in beans. Finally I decided to go for it. I’m SO happy about this decision. There’s a lot of other stuff going on in these enchiladas, so let me say this: you don’t have to do it all! If you really want an awesome vegan Mexican dinner to wow someone (or yourself!) with, go all out. But if you want to use store-bought enchilada sauce, or store-bought refried beans, or even skip the refried beans altogether, it’s all good and you won’t hurt my feelings. On the same note: if you’re not into tofu, feel free to skip it and fill these enchilada with all plantains. If you’re not feeling the plantains, all-tofu enchiladas will work too. There are a million different directions you can take this recipe (but the one printed below is my favorite!). Make sure you get really ripe plantains. You want more black spots than yellow. This is important because (a) they’ll be nice and sweet, which goes great with the smokiness of the tofu and the spicy enchilada sauce, and (b) you’re going to need them to be nice and soft so you get some squish, which you’ll need when rolling these.
