Amy's Black Bean and Vegetable Enchilada

Light in sodium.

Nice tasting tortilla for a heated frozen tortilla. The sodium content was just right, just salty enough. But, oh my glob this was a revolting dish.

The filling was way too dense. Lots tasteless sweet corn kernals, very few tiny pieces of zucchini, lots of tiny black olive pieces, lots of tiny pieces of tofu, just a few black beans, way too few.

The tomato sauce was way too thick. It seemed to be plain tomato paste with just a bit of water. It was too heavily spiced but did not have enough hot pepper heat.

The overall impression was like I stuffing my stomach with a caulking gun.

All vegan ingredients and says vegan right on the package. I didn't see any ingredients that were questionable. Vegan food can be delicious, but this product may give people the idea that vegan food is awful. It meets the stereotypes that people have of vegan food.

I wonder if we've eaten the same thing, cos I've enjoyed it.

yeah - I usually like them too - I heat them in the oven, not the micro though... I think stuff heated in the microwave turns out gloppy and tasteless.

they're okay (i also heat them in the oven), but small and definitely not very flavorful.

I heated in the microwave for 4 minutes (not 5 minutes as instructed). I put just a little slit in the cellophane as instructed (so as to allow water vapor o escape but prevent too much from escaping). By heating only 4 minutes in the mw, I limited moisture loss. When I took it out it was hot thru and thru but not boiling hot, and I transferred to a ceramic baking dish and I then heated for 5 minutes in a toaster oven, lower heating element only.

Forget the fact of the dryness of the sauce; it was all tomato paste; there were no pieces of tomato visible in the sauce. They were too cheap to buy some fresh or canned tomatos to give the sauce some texture. There just weren't enough black beans. There were probably only 10 black beans in each enchilada. Maybe only 3 tiny pieces of zucchini. And the sweet corn inside was moist, but it was poor-flavored corn. Judging by the corn's texture, I suspect they used canned corn rather than frozen corn.

Stuff that swims in sauce tastes just about the same when waved as it does when baked, as long as you wave it in a covered container.

Actually, baked potatoes taste moister in the mw, than if baked. I use an all polypropylene dish, with a tight-fitting polypropylene cover that I've poked a few holes in. (Vinyl covers soften and deform). I put a few tablespoons of water in the container, then put 2 potato-halves in it. Then I wave fro 2 min 30 sec to 3 minutes depending on the size of the potato. Comes out more like a steamed potato than a baked potato. Very moist.

I'm sorry, but they could have put some sweet red peppers inside, or some other juicy, savory vegetable, say some bok choy, or celery, and used used less tofu, more black beans, and seasoned the vegetables, not just the sauce, which was overseasoned. The vegetables tasted like they had no seasoning. Actually, "organic bell peppers" were listed in the ingredients, but I didn't see any. Perhaps they used green ones. Sweeter red ones would have added more flavor and color.

Tofu tofu tofu tofu. Vegan stereotype. I get the sinking feeling that all their vegan food has tofu as one of the ingredients. Plus nothing for the tofu to absorb the flavor of. No spices on the tofu. Not marinated in anything flavorfull.

Plus I paid nearly $5 for 9.5 oz of food. That translates to $8 per pound.

Plus the green onion, scallion, or chives that they sprinkled on top were not specifically mentioned. The ingredient list did say "onions" but it did not specifically say green onions or scallions or onion tops or onion greens. Onions implies onion root but green onion tops were clearly used.

regarding the sauce, enchilada sauce is liquid. it normally has more/better flavor, but it would be weird if it had tomato chunks (actually, i think it might often not even have tomato :think:).

Put hot sause on it and it is perfect!

I've always rather enjoyed Amy's enchiladas... maybe I'm just weird, but I have always thought they were amazingly good... and I'm Mexican and eat grandma's cooking all the time... just my opinion... also I love sauce...

I personally loved this. But when I made it at work, everyone said it made the break room smell like....well....they all used different words....but no one liked it but me.

I love this, too. I get the meal and bring it to work for lunch once a week. :lick: It's actually the only frozen vegan dinner that I like.

Look, the choice of seasonings is good. Note that the ingredient list just says "spices" and doesn't reveal what exactly they have used. yes, I smell lots of cumin, a frequent spice used in Mexican cookery. But there are other subtler things going on too.

That said, the actual content of the enchilada is deadly dull. Tofu. Not enough vegetables. Poor quality sweet corn from a can. Not nearly enough black beans. Not nearly enough pieces of zucchini; the pieces are too small.

On the one hand you're disappointed that they don't add enough vegetables and you'd like to see bok choy or other vegetables added, and tomato in the sauce. Personally I think they make a pretty tasty meal as is, but that's a legitimate opinion. On the other hand, though, you complain about the price, which imho, is actually pretty darned reasonable for an organic meal. If they did start adding things like organic bok choy, organic tomatoes, etc. their cost of production would go up significantly and that would translate to a higher cost being passed on to the consumer. I bet one reason they don't add tons more vegetables in the filling and sauce is to keep the price reasonable and competitive.

I tend to be left pretty cold with frozen meals in general.
They always have a strange aftertaste to me for some reason. I much prefer fresh food.

definitly not worth the money one has to pay for it. thats for darn sure.

Sorry to jump in, but this seems like a strange thing to argue about. I'm sure there are goods and bads about any food. Everyone's taste buds are different. I HATED all vegetables until my teen years. And now...? Mmmm! :p

"you're disappointed that they don't add enough vegetables and you'd like to see bok choy or other vegetables added, and tomato in the sauce."

Are you a social worker, lilac wine? :) That sounded very "trained in active listening." If not, disregard me. I'm just a nerd. :p

I think we can find far more worst things to complain about. If you don't like it instead of complaining on message board complain to Amy's Kitchen, maybe they will refund your money. They call it processed foods for a reason if you don't like it make it yourself, that simple.problem solved. I happen to love Amy's products they are okay when you are in a hurry otherwise I make my own meals. M

" if you don't like it make it yourself..."

That's what I've doing for 40 years now.

Well, I'd just like to add in that typically I haven't seen any enchiladas with a whole lot of anything. Most Mexican food is very simple... if you get an enchilada it's usually just cheese or chicken or beef straight up, with a ton of sauce, and then they bake it and everything gets bubbly with a nice layer of baked on top. A burrito would have more in it, though, lots of variety and way bigger pieces. But I just thought of that - maybe that has something to do with it.

I definitely think everyone has different tastes, and mine are mostly based on my nonexistent cooking skills ;) The stuff mom taught me to cook were things like Hamburger Helper and Rice A Roni... heh... at any rate, I don't think anyone has to like everything or anything at all, and they definitely have the right to complain. That's what a product review board is for, right? Discussion!

PirateAargh

"if you get an enchilada it's usually just cheese or chicken or beef straight up,"

At least use seitan then, inside the tortilla, not little more than plain semi-mashed tofu.

Really? A chicken enchilada usually has just cooked chicken bits inside the rolled-up tortilla. The chicken is not cooked with any seasonings at least, or even sauce?

Amy's has to come up with something better than plain semi-mashed tofu inside the tortilla. Plain tofu is very low in flavor, very subtle in flavor, so the tomato sauce on the outside of the tortilla, which is heavily seasoned, it way overpowers the tofu, making it taste like even less.

Zuchini is not the strongest tasting vegetable either. And there were so few black beans, you couldn't even taste them. I don't think you need both black beans AND tofu. A black bean enchilada would have worked out much better without being mixed with tofu.

I tend to be left pretty cold with frozen meals in general.
They always have a strange aftertaste to me for some reason. I much prefer fresh food.Agreed. I admit, I'm a lazy cook. I don't like cooking, so I tend to buy things premade fairly often. But I've pretty much decided that frozen foods, aka tv dinners, and their equivalent in pantry foods are, for the most part, just plain yucky.

Yesterday, I had the cravings for spanish rice and beans. So I heated up some Amy's Refried Beans (which were quite tasty, btw!) and some Fantastic Foods Spanish Paella. Here's what the rice is supposed to look like:
http://www.fantasticfoods.com/catalog/images/products/images/450/SPANISH_PAELLA.jpg

It ended up looking like it had engine oil in it and tasting about the same. *shrug* Live and learn.

I've got a couple of Amy's Indian dishes and Amy's tofu scramble in my freezer. As soon as I eat (or attempt to eat thoses), then I won't be buying anymore.

If you have been making your foods for 40 years then why are you complaining about Amy's. Make it yourself if you think the quality sucks.

The Fantastic Foods Paella was disgusting IMHO.

I think we can find far more worst things to complain about. If you don't like it instead of complaining on message board complain to Amy's Kitchen, maybe they will refund your money. They call it processed foods for a reason if you don't like it make it yourself, that simple.problem solved. I happen to love Amy's products they are okay when you are in a hurry otherwise I make my own meals. M

Soilman was reviewing a product for crying out loud. That's what the forum is there for.

Disclaimer: I've never tried a frozen enchilada, that I can recall. But people, if you want a company to add tomato chunks to the sauce, and bok choy to the filling, are you absolutely sure you're not expecting something other than an enchilada? "Enchilada" means "in chile", and I'm not talking about a bowl of Texas red. The chile sauce can be as simple as rehydrated chile pulp puréed with a little garlic, or a complex molé sauce, but generally it's not
tomato-based. Traditionally, Mexican cooks don't add too much seasoning or sauces to the filling, and I doubt any would consider adding cabbage.

Not that a bok choy-filled tortilla smothered in chunky tomato sauce wouldn't necessarily be tasty. I'm just saying I wouldn't expect to find that if I bought a packaged labeled "enchilada".