Name: Enchilada noodles
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 5 min
Total time: 15 min
Ingredients: 100 g (~ 3 1/2 oz) spaghetti; 4 tbsp enchilada sauce ((shop-bought or homemade)); 2 tbsp tinned sweetcorn, (drained); 2 tbsp tinned black beans, (drained); 2 tbsp fresh coriander ((cilantro), chopped); 1 spring onion, (chopped); 30 g cheddar cheese, (grated (~ 1/3 cup when grated)); Your choice of toppings, (to serve (e.g. sour cream, guacamole, sliced avocado, salsa, etc).)

Total time: 15 minutes

Servings: 1 person

5 from 3 votes

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These enchilada noodles are a quick and easy pasta dish with lots of flavour - perfect with plenty of Tex-Mex style toppings!

Portion of enchilada noodles in a bowl topped with sour cream and cilantro

If there's one thing I love more than cheesy pasta, it's cheesy pasta that can be made in just 15 minutes. In fact, no - even better, cheesy Tex-Mex pasta that can be made in just 15 minutes. Basically all my favourite words in one little sentence. These enchilada noodles are quick and easy to make, and they taste incredible.

Quick vegetarian dinner

After a long, stressful day at work, there are probably some Wonderwoman / Superman-esque people who are totally happy to spend a long time cooking dinner. I am certainly not one of those people. 15 minutes is my limit some days.

When I want to make a super quick dinner, my go-to is usually pasta with pesto - just cook the pasta, mix through a dollop of pesto from a jar, and it's done. Delicious - but not the most nutritious dinner, and not the most exciting either.

These enchilada noodles are just as quick to make, and far more tasty. They do require a little more effort, but only as much effort as it takes to open a couple of tins and grate a bit of cheese. They're super easy.

You've basically got spaghetti with spicy enchilada sauce, lots of Tex-Mex inspired veggies, and plenty of cheese - it makes for a brilliant dinner.

Spaghetti in a saucepan topped with sweetcorn, black beans, spring onions and cilantro

No-cook veggies

One of the reasons these enchilada noodles are so quick to make is because I only add no-cook veggies - anything that doesn't require any individual prep.

I use tinned black beans and tinned sweetcorn, along with some chopped spring onions and fresh coriander (cilantro). None of it needs pre-cooking, you literally just need to open some tins and give the onions a quick chop. You could also add some quartered cherry tomatoes, pickled jalapeños, sliced olives, or whatever else you fancy.

Of course, you're welcome to add other veggies if you want to cook them in a pan quickly beforehand, but this will obviously add a little to the cooking time.

Homemade enchilada sauce

Then, add a good few spoonfuls of spicy enchilada sauce to coat the noodles.

I used the homemade enchilada sauce that I showed you how to make the other day. You can use a shop-bought sauce if you like, but the homemade stuff only takes a couple of minutes to make, and it tastes amazing. Plus, you can switch up the spices to make it taste just how you like it.

In my opinion, it's definitely worth making your own enchilada sauce! It's so easy.

A bit of grated cheese finishes off these enchilada noodles beautifully, and makes them nice and gooey. Such an irresistible dinner.

Dinner for one, or for a crowd

A great thing about meals like this is that the recipe is really easy to adjust - it makes an easy meal for just one person, or you can easily scale it up to feed your whole family. It's the same amount of effort either way.

You don't even really need to measure anything accurately - just tip in as much of each ingredient as looks right.

Portion of cheesy enchilada noodles in a bowl topped with sour cream and cilantro

One-pot dinner

Just in case the idea of a tasty, cheesy, 15 minute dinner isn't quite enough to convince you to give these enchilada noodles a try - this is also a one-pot recipe, meaning very little washing up!

It's perfect, because on days that I resort to a 15 minute dinner, I'm not going to then want to spend half an hour cleaning dishes. If you're feeling ultra-lazy, you could even eat it straight from the pan (stop giving me that look, I know I can't be the only person who does this).

Tex-Mex toppings

As with all of my Tex-Mex recipes, these enchilada noodles are even better served with some tasty toppings! I always feel like anything remotely Mexican-inspired is just crying out for a good dollop of guacamole or sour cream.

A few ideas for tasty toppings:

sour cream
guacamole or sliced avocado
fresh tomatoes or salsa
more fresh coriander (cilantro) and spring onions
grated cheese
chopped red onion
sliced jalapeños

Basically, anything that will complement the flavours of your enchilada noodles. My favourite is some sour cream - as you stir it into the noodles, it makes the sauce extra irresistible. Delish.