Enchilada Pasta
All the flavors of cheesy enchiladas are tossed together in this quick and easy pasta dish!
Pasta dishes are a staple in our house. They’re easy to make and they’re perfect as leftover lunch the very next day. But there’s only so many times that you could eat spaghetti with marinara sauce. So in an effort to try something fun and different, I decided to make an enchilada pasta and boy, were we in for a treat.
This pasta comes together so easily, which is much needed during those busy weeknights. And with crumbled ground beef, corn, beans, avocado and red enchilada sauce, this gets baked to oh-so-cheesy, melted goodness. Best of all, this can be on your dinner table in 30 minutes or less!
Enchilada Pasta
Ingredients
- 16 ounces extra wide egg noodles
- 1 ¼ cups enchilada sauce
- 1 cup canned corn kernels, drained
- 1 cup canned black beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese, divided
- 1 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese, divided
- ¼ cup Greek yogurt
- 1 4-ounce can diced green chiles
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 pound ground beef
- 4 ounces cream cheese
- ½ teaspoon chili powder, or more to taste
- ¼ teaspoon cumin
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 1 avocado, halved, seeded, peeled and diced
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro leaves
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly oil a 9×13 baking dish or coat with nonstick spray.
- In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook pasta according to package instructions; drain well.
- In a large bowl, combine enchilada sauce, corn, beans, 1/2 cup cheddar cheese, 1/2 cup Monterey Jack cheese, Greek yogurt and green chiles; set aside.
- Heat olive oil in a saucepan over medium high heat. Add ground beef and cook until browned, about 3-5 minutes, making sure to crumble the beef as it cooks; drain excess fat.
- Stir in cream cheese, chili powder and cumin until cream cheese has melted. Stir in pasta and enchilada mixture until well combined; season with salt and pepper, to taste.
- Add pasta to prepared baking dish and top with avocado and remaining cheeses. Place into oven and bake until cheeses have melted, about 5-10 minutes.
- Serve immediately, garnished with cilantro.
Did you make this recipe?
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We have loved ALL Damn Delicious recipes except this one. It was not as tasty as expected and there were way too many noodles.
Are you sure you use 16 oz of noodles? I just made this and it took double the sauce recipe to ea
Yes, the amount is correct as listed in the recipe. However, you can always reduce or increase the amount of pasta to suit your preferences.
Is there a substitute for the cream cheese? I have all the ingredients but this one. 🙁
Unfortunately, without further recipe testing, I cannot advise an appropriate substitute that will not alter the overall taste/texture of the dish. Using a substitution may also result in a mediocre outcome.
What is the caloric intake and serving size? 4 servings doesn’t seem like a lot for 9×13 dish.
Nutritional information is provided only for select and new recipes at this time. However, if it is not available for a specific recipe, it is best that you use free online resources at your discretion (you can Google “nutritional calculator”) to obtain such information.
Damn…it’s delicious! Love this recipe because it’s easy to make, tasty, and left overs can be heated up for dinner the next day (if you’re a family of 2). I have adopted the following changes to “lighten up” the dish: increase the enchilada sauce to 2 cups, add 1 sauteed bell pepper, sub the canned chili peppers with canned re-tolo tomatoes and pepper, and add the juice of 1 lime.
This was soooo good!!! Halved the recipe since there is only two of us and we still have enough for leftovers. We loved it and definitely will be throwing this in the rotation. Thanks for the amazing recipe!!
This was sooooo good and so easy!! So far 5 for 5 of your recipes that are hits!! I only used 2 1/2 cups of the noodles had to use broad and had no Greek yogurt so I used sour cream. Glad I read the comments! I have two boys 2 and 6 and they loved it I omitted the green chile as my youngest is not good with anything spicy. We will be keeping this in our meal plan!!! Thank you!!
I adapted this tonight with great success. I used leftover brisket that I chopped up, real New Mexican red chile powder for the chili powder and reduced fat cheeses. Pinto beans for the black beans. My “I don’t like Mexican” son liked it. Yeah!
where is everyone getting the 8×8 pan? it cleary states 9×13…
Kids absolutely loved this! Asked to have it every night 🙂
Had to make a few substitutions and an omission due to lack of ingredients on hand but was still right on!
Thanks for a new dish in our regular rotation 🙂
I would like to try this but would you suggest I skip the avocado if I want it to keep for a few days for leftovers? I would assume it would get brown and mushy unless it was all eaten immediately.
Yes, I recommend omitting the avocado for leftovers.
Just made this. It is delucious. I even had enough left over to freeze for another week night dinner. I think when i cook the second batch i will add another can of corn and some spicy enchilada sauce.
Thanks for sharing this.
Made this tonight for dinner, but with chicken. Delicious! Big hit. And now I’ll have delicious leftovers to take to work for lunch tomorrow!
Why the olive oil when browning the meat? I use 96/4% lean ane never have to drain. Wondering why you’d need oil?
You would need the oil so that the meat doesn’t stick to the pan. Draining is also important so that you do not have extra grease and fat added to your dish.
This dish is SO yummy!! My kids loved it! This has become my go-to website for menu planning.
Pasta dishes are a good weeknight meal in our house too, especially those with bucket loads of cheese.
Dis anyone think this would be good with chicken?
Heather, feel free to substitute your favorite kind of protein in this dish.
Making this for my family’s dinner tonight. Your photos make me want to try most every one of your recipes. Everything looks so yummy!
This looks amazing! I have a question though. We usually make our enchiladas with refried beans because my mom is vegetarian. Would I be able to make this dish with beans instead of the ground beef?
I don’t see why not – sounds like an amazing substitution!
Hey, is mixing things in a separate bowl necessary? I made this, and felt like I made more dishes for myself by not just adding the things that belong in the bowl directly into the meat pan after it was turned off. Then again, my pan is pretty large, and these things would not all fit in a standard frying pan.
I would advise mixing in a separate bowl to ensure that everything is well combined and to really let the flavors shine through.
I made this tonight for dinner and now its a family favourite. I made a fair amount of changes, but it was still delicious; very light but still flavourful. I used regular noodles, made the enchilada sauce (http://www.budgetbytes.com/2012/08/red-enchilada-sauce/), and left out the beans, chiles, extra spices, cream cheese, and avocado. I subbed the greek yogurt with sour cream. I baked it in a 9×13 pan. I was a bit worried about all the changes, but it was still amazing! I’m seriously in love with this pasta.