Easy Homemade Healthy Enchilada Sauce is vegan, oil-free and easy to make in 10 minutes! Made with chili powder, maple syrup and spices. Perfect for vegan enchiladas!
HOMEMADE HEALTHY ENCHILADA SAUCE
One of my absolute favorite things in the world is enchiladas. I grew up eating them and I just love that spicy enchilada sauce that is smothered all over the corn tortillas. I love the enchilada sauce that has a very slight sweet note to it. Well, STOP buying store-bought if you do and make this vegan healthy homemade enchilada sauce, it is to die for!
I used to buy the canned kind and use it for my enchilada dishes years back, but these days I just can’t do it. The canned stuff has so many nasty ingredients and oil. This vegan enchilada sauce is fat-free and oil-free! In addition, this homemade enchilada sauce takes a whopping 10 minutes to make. Now, we’re talking.
HOW TO MAKE VEGAN RED ENCHILADA SAUCE
Add tomato sauce, water, chili powder, onion powder, garlic powder, cumin, brown rice flour, salt and maple syrup to a small pot. Whisk very well.
Heat over the stove on medium-high heat for 3-5 minutes, whisking continuously until thickened some. Let cool.
This vegan red enchilada sauce is perfect for making vegan enchiladas or even a casserole!
I’ve been making this homemade enchilada sauce for years now and I also like to dip potato wedges in it!
Can’t wait to hear what you think of this Vegan Homemade Enchilada Sauce! Be sure to leave feedback below after you make the sauce and what ways you used it or if you make the potatoes as well! I’d love to see your creations on Instagram. Add my hashtag #thevegan8 to your captions, so I don’t miss the notifications.
Homemade Healthy Enchilada Sauce (Vegan)
Ingredients
ENCHILADA SAUCE
- 1/2 cup (120g) tomato sauce
- 1 cup (240g) water
- 2 tablespoons chili powder
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/2-1 teaspoon salt, this will vary depending on your tomato sauce
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 2 tablespoons (20g) brown rice flour
- 1 tablespoon (20g) pure maple syrup
TO MAKE ENCHILADAS
- You can also use this sauce for homemade enchiladas. It's what I use, but I would double the sauce ingredients, just to ensure you have plenty for a large batch.
Instructions
- Add all of the enchilada sauce ingredients to a small pot and whisk until well mixed. Turn to medium-high heat and once boiling, whisk it continuously for 3-5 minutes until it has thickened some. Remove from heat let it cool.
We loved this sauce! So quick and easy to make and absolutely delicious! Not being American I am not that familiar with enchiladas but I am going to put them into my rotation. I made this sauce to use in the
Vegan Creamy Enchilada Lentil dish.
Thank you!
Simple to make and good. I used 1T regular chili powder and 1T ancho chili powder. Thanks for this oil free recipe!
Awesome Stephen!
This is SPOT ON! I wish I could give it 10 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️! Found it in the cookbook and whipped it for our enchiladas – DELICIOUS!!!
Thank you for the great recipe!
Woohoo!!! thank you!
Great recipe, thank you! I used AP Flour instead of brown rice flour, and 1 tbsp of cumin instead of 1 tsp. Just the right consistency and flavor for enchiladas. =)
This sauce was just what I need to make my enchilada casserole, I doubled it as suggested. It’s a great consistency and only took 10 minutes to make. I used tomato paste instead of sauce because that’s what I had and it worked great. I also added some ground red pepper, I always need some spice in my sauce. Thanks!
Amazing! You saved me in a pinch!
Wonderful to hear Jess!
Will any flour do okay? I hate to buy brown rice flour for one recipe. Thanks.
Never mind. I saw in the comments to use AP flour.
I haven’t made this yet, looks and sounds yummy. I was wondering what is the point of the brown rice flour?
It helps to thicken the sauce!
Brandi, I have been experimenting with a fajita pasta recipe but it was too dry. Then I came across this enchilada sauce! It was SOOO GOOD! It was perfect for my recipe and will be in my regular monthly rotation! Like others, I’ve never had enchiladas before. 🙂 I think I will try the sauce with the potatoes next. I love your recipes! Thanks for all you do!
Woohoo, so happy you loved this sauce Linda!!
This sauce is INCREDIBLE. I doubled it and made enchilada with black beans, sweet potatoes, bell pepper and spinach and they were SO AMAZING. Thank you again!!
Hi Brandi.
I’m going to make the enchilada sauce to go with another recipe because I have faith in your recipes. I hate the canned enchilada sauce. Anyway for the tomato sauce – can I just use plain tomato paste with water added?
Also I made your pizza sauce last night. THE best!!!
Thank you!
Thank you so much Ruth! You can try that, I never have, but you will need to dilute it until it is the consistency of a smooth tomato sauce.
DELICIUOS! Thank you.
KS
Thank you for posting this recipe. I made it along with comments from Chen and it is awesome! I’m making WFPB Mexican lasagna for a group of ladies that are omnivores and I wanted a salt, oil, and sugar free enchilada sauce for it. This is perfect!
Thank you so much Lisa, so happy to hear you loved it! Thank you to Chen as well!!
The only enchilada sauce my picky husband approves and enjoys….and I have tried several other recipes but none, he said, came even nearly close to your recipe. This is the only enchilada sauce I will be using from now on. Thank you so much Brandi! ❤💚💜💛💙
Yay! That makes me so happy to hear Chen! Thank you so much for the amazing feedback!!
Howdy Brandi, me again!!
A second quart (double batch) of Vitamix Version 2.1 just completed!
No salt this time, and the other spices were heaping spoonfuls (or should we call them, “loving spoonfuls”?!) instead of level.
I didn’t even cook it in the saucepan (one less pot to wash, right?!). It STILL came out nice and thick and OH so tasty! I am cooling it with the lid off the mason jar, so condensation doesn’t thin the robust richness that coats my potatoes the way ice cream used to coat the walls of my arteries 🙂
The key seems to be to whirl liquid and dates at high speed until hot, then add spices, whirl for another 30-45 seconds, then add the flour and whirl just until blended; it probably wasn’t even 20 seconds on high speed.
Not sure if the thickening effect of the flour would be destroyed by the whirring blades (I know wheat flour actually forms a mechanical bond with water during it’s thickening process, which I’m pretty sure would be altered by prolonged Vitamix abuse, LOL!).
I brought a pint of this to work and my co-workers ate more than half of it; most were eating it with a spoon, right out of the jar (no double-dipping, LOL!) and could not believe it was fat-free! Now I know how crack dealers get started! You give a little sample, and then have to beat your customers, er, co-workers, off with a stick!
I think this will be my last post on the enchilada sauce recipe. I’m going to have to go try your other sauces, so be prepared for your comment word count to go up!!
Love and Easy Enchilada Sauce,
Meg
Hi Brandi-
This recipe ROCKED!!!
Fortunately, I doubled the recipe as I was making it! I used salt-free veggie broth instead of water and used Mexene brand chili powder.
I used just two medjool dates and blended them in my Vitamix with the broth and the tomato sauce. I started concentrating on measuring out the spices and the next thing I knew, the contents of the Vitamix were pretty warm. So I thought, “what the heck!” and added the spices and rice flour to the whirling mixture for about a minute.
It might have thickened on it’s own, but I poured the mixture into a saucepan and brought it to a boil in less than 2 minutes.
Voila, 5 minute enchilada sauce!! It smelled so good I didn’t bother to ccok the potatoes; I took some cold diced cooked ones out of the fridge and poured the hot sauce right over the top. The sauce warmed up the taters to lukewarm and OOOOHHHHHH MAN!!!! Was my dinner ever delicious!
I’m storing the rest of the batch in a mason jar. This will probably be my new go-to sauce for my visit to Potato Island!!
Thank you again; you need to run this recipe again, or maybe make it for your YouTube channel. If I had one, I’d create my Vitamix version and link to yours. But I don’t know how to film or edit, so you’re on your own with that, LOL!
Covering you with blessings the way this sauce covered my potatoes, LOL,
Meg
Meg, this feedback absolutely cracked me up, you are so funny!!! I’m so happy you loved this enchilada sauce so much, thank you so much for leaving this comment!!
Been needing a fabulous vegan fat-free enchilada sauce for a couple of months; can’t wait to try this!
Do you have a favorite chili powder?
Chef AJ often uses a couple of dates as sauce sweeteners; I’m going to try blending the water with a couple of those and see how it works, in place of agave or maple syrup. I’ll keep you posted!
Hi Meg! I just use standard chili powder by McCormick or Fiesta. It doesn’t really matter as long as it is the American kind of chili powder which is a combo of different spices, whereas some countries “chili powder” is from habanero peppers and would be WAY too hot.
I’m so excited to make these potatoes! I have always made roasted potatoes with oil. I just found your blog and can’t wait to try everything since I’m trying to lower husband’s BP and Cholesterol and fix my digestive issues. We are in transition with Dr. Furhman’s Nutritarian Plan and looking for healthy, no oil veggie recipes. Thank Brandi!!
Thank you so much Lori!!