I love eating my meals in bowls. There’s just something about holding a bowl, wrapping your hands around it, that’s much more satisfying that using a plate. And it’s easier to mix all the components of your meal together in a bowl than on a plate. Honestly, that’s probably the main reason I prefer bowls, my love affair with one-dish meals and bowls, they’re meant for each other. These pork chile verde enchilada bowls are the perfect excuse to get out the big bowls.
I’ve started a bowl collection. All different sizes and colors, everything from matte black shallow pasta bowls to bright red ramen bowls to stark, white cereal bowls to earthy pottery-type bowls to small smoothie bowls. So many bowls, I’m going to run out of space! Our everyday dishes are all white, which really is my favorite because I think almost all foods look stunning on white dishes, but sometimes it’s fun to mix things up and sometimes, food just taste better when consumed from a bowl.
So get out your bowls for this enchilada bowl! I can’t get over the flavor bomb of roasted sweet potatoes, black beans, pork, and homemade chile verde sauce. A few years back I had a phase where I was making black bean and sweet potato enchiladas with verde sauce on a fairly regular basis, like weekly, and I was single, so all the leftovers were mine! As I was trying to plan dinners for this week, not my strong suite…(in the last two weeks I forgot about chicken thighs in the back of my fridge twice and had to toss them, total fail), I started thinking about those delicious enchiladas, then the thought occurred to me that they’d be even more amazing in a bowl, like a deconstructed enchilada bowl. And I was right, these are incredible!
For these Pork Chile Verde Enchilada Bowls, I recommend using a pasta bowl. There’s so much going on with this recipe that you’ll need a rather large bowl to fit everything and to have enough room to mix all the ingredients together. I mean, the dish looks beautiful with all the components of the bowl separate, but I don’t eat it that way, no one eats it that way, if you do, you’re missing out on the full flavor combo. I mix everything together and generally make a huge mess. It doesn’t look pretty but, damn it tastes good!
These pork chile verde enchilada bowls are packed full of flavor. The sweetness of the roasted sweet potatoes, tart lime black beans, crispy corn tortillas strips, seared pork tenderloin simmered in verde sauce, fresh baby spinach, and the whole ensemble topped with cotija, sour cream, avocado, and more verde sauce! Oh my gosh, doesn’t get any better! This meal does take some time to come together…or maybe I’m just slow when it comes to cooking…or maybe I should stop distracting myself by watching Grey’s Anatomy on Netlfix while I cook (but I’m addicted!)…. you could roast the sweet potatoes in advance to save time, even cook the pork the day before too. You could also buy premade verde sauce, especially if you have a hard time finding tomatillos, luckily I had some in my freezer from last year. However you decide to make these pork chile verde enchilada bowls, I hope you enjoy them as much as we do!
- CHILE VERDE SAUCE: 2-3 cups whole tomatillos with husks removed 1 medium onion halved, 1 bell pepper halved, hot peppers of choice (2-3 serrano, 2-3 jalapeños, 1-2 aneheim), 3-4 garlic cloves.
- 2 medium sweet potatoes peeled and diced
- 1/2 tsp cumin
- 1/2 tsp chili powder
- 1-1 1/2 lb pork tenderloin
- 1 can of black beans drained and rinsed
- Juice from 1 lime
- 4 corn tortillas sliced into thin strips
- 2-4 cups of baby spinach
- Olive oil
- Salt
- Pepper
- TOPPINGS: 1 medium avocado sour cream, cotija, chile verde sauce, lime wedges
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To make the chile verde sauce: Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Place tomatillos, onion, bell pepper, hot peppers, and garlic on a large baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast at 400 degrees for 15-20 minutes, until peppers are charred. ***remove seeds from hot peppers if you prefer a mild sauce
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While the tomatillos, onions, and peppers are roasting, peel and dice sweet potatoes. Toss in a medium bowl with olive oil, cumin, chili powder, salt, and pepper. Place on a greased baking sheet. Set aside.
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Place rinsed black beans in a small sauce pan with lime juice, set aside.
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Heat olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add tortillas strips, gently stirring until they begin to crisp and are slightly charred, about 5-8 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.
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When tomatillos, onion, and peppers have finished roasting, remove from the oven and cool.
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Place sweet potatoes in the oven as soon as you remove the tomatillos and peppers. Roast sweet potatoes for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally until soft.
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When the roasted vegetables for the child verde sauce are cool, place in a blender or food processor and pulse until smooth.
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Meanwhile, In a large, oven proof skillet, heat olive oil over medium - high heat. Once oil is hot, place pork tenderloin in the pan, turning to evenly sear all sides. Once pork tenderloin is seared, add in about 1 cup of chile verde sauce, enough to cover the tenderloin.
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Simmer pork tenderloin in chile verde sauce for 10 minutes, turning occasionally.
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When the sweet potatoes have finished roasting, remove from the oven and reduce heat to 350 degrees F. Cover sweet potatoes with aluminum foil to keep warm.
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Cover the oven-proof pan with the pork tenderloin with lid or aluminum foil. Place the pan in the oven to finish cooking.
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Bake pork tenderloin for 20-30 minutes, until cooked through and no longer pink.
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While the tenderloin is baking, heat black beans in lime juice in a small sauce pan over medium heat until warm, about 10 minutes
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When pork tenderloin is almost done baking, start to assemble the enchilada bowls.
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Arrange spinach, roasted sweet potatoes, black beans, and tortillas strips in pasta bowls.
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When the pork tenderloin has finished cooking, slice into thin rounds. Add pork to the enchilada bowls.
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Top with cotija, sour cream, chile verde sauce, lime wedge.
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