Creating an enchilada without gluten or dairy has to be a pretty daunting task — especially the dairy part, as cheese is one of the main selling points of enchiladas. But that didn’t stop Amy’s Kitchen from trying with their Gluten Free, Dairy Free Enchilada with Vegan Cheeze and Black Beans.
It probably goes without saying that we were pretty nervous about trying this one. We’ve had some pretty bad experiences with vegan cheese substitutes in the past, after all. Amy’s Kitchen makes some of our favorite frozen foods, so we really didn’t want this to be bad.
Well, the first sign of trouble struck when we pulled this out of the microwave and it smelled like wet cardboard. We then dabbed a fork into the sauce at the edge of the dish, and it had a slimey, snotty consistency. It tasted like burnt — no, not burnt anything, just plain burnt. It was like the burnt flavor of something that had burned minus the flavor of the thing itself.
But we are relentlessly thorough here at Freezer Meal Frenzy, so we didn’t stop there, even though we felt like running away at that point. Thankfully, things started getting better.
The gluten-free tortilla isn’t all that bad. It’s a bit hard around the edges and it lacks that grainy texture that a truly authentic Mexican-style corn tortilla would have, but it doesn’t taste anywhere near as bad as we’d feared.
And these enchiladas are loaded up with corn. If you can get a bite with some tortilla, some corn, and a helping of sauce, you’ll start to understand why the sauce tastes the way it does. It’s designed to work with the other ingredients here, not to stand alone. It actually works, though it won’t have you scraping the sides of the dish to get every last bite of sauce. Once the enchiladas are gone, you’ll want to abandon ship.
We can’t really comment on the vegan provolone-style cheese, because we really couldn’t find it. We believe the packaging when it says it’s in there, but we really weren’t quite certain what we were looking for. But there are black beans inside, as well as teeny little chunks of tofu, and those taste just fine.
There are dozens of frozen enchiladas better than Amy’s Vegan Cheeze and Black Bean Enchilada, but all of them have substantial amounts of dairy and most of them have gluten. If you’re avoiding those things, this meal isn’t half bad. It’s certainly better than 365 Everyday Value’s Vegan Lasagna.
To learn more about the nutrition and ingredients in this frozen enchilada, check out our package scans below.
