I love tamales & I love pie.
So today I combined them into a tamale pie and I’m telling you, this is going to be a staple in our house!
One of my passions since switching to a real food diet has been recreating recipes with whole ingredients. Problem is, there are just some dishes I don’t want to tackle.
Take tamales, for example.
Technically I *could* get some lard from pasture-raised pigs, get some masa harina from a local market, then figure out how to make tamales.
But, honestly, this tamale pie makes it SO much easier! And the benefit is that we can use up our tomatoes, fresh herbs & onions from the garden. Next year I hope to have avocados as well to grab from my front yard!
Comfort food vs. Whole food
If when you hear “comfort food”, you think “bad for me food”, you might want to rethink your approach to a healthy diet. While it’s true that stuffing our bodies full of junk, eating out, or buying lots of packaged foods aren’t the picture of perfect health, we need to realize how cooking with real ingredients changes everything.
In our home, we eat an insane amount of fruits & vegetables. We grow a lot of our own food, raise our animals organically, and really try our best to rarely go out-to-eat. We even take healthy snacks with us when we go out so we aren’t tempted to buy a “snack” out on the road.
But, when we cook dinner, we keep things hearty and comforting. We cook with butter, use cheese, and throw on a dollup of sour cream happily. We make things like tamale pie. (mmm)
The love of a whole food diet includes a love for balance. So, while we might snack on carrots, snap peas, and fresh pears throughout the day, we also eat our share of comfort foods around here, being careful to include real ingredients that our bodies can recognize.
This tamale pie recipe includes a homemade enchilada sauce, and trust me, it’s SO worth it!
You might be tempted to just purchase a can of enchilada sauce from the store, but what you’ll find in those are lots of polyunsaturated oils, soy fillers, artificial flavors, and not to mention, you are exposing yourself to aluminum when eating from canned foods.
In my first hair mineral analysis, my aluminum levels were off the charts, even though I use an aluminum-free deodorant. My doctor asked if I regularly ate canned foods or cooked with aluminum baking sheets. I sheepishly admitted to doing both of those regularly. Getting aluminum exposure down was really important in giving our bodies less of a toxic load to detox from. So in addition to stop eating canned foods (I stick with jarred foods only), I now cover my aluminum baking sheets with these silicone mats.
Here on the farm, eating clean means (most of the time) making our meals from scratch. It’s so much better for us and it tastes AMAZING. And you’ll be pretty proud of yourself knowing you’ve done this all by your little self. I’m pretty proud of how this turned out, can you tell?
Ingredients
- 1/2 c cornmeal
- 1 TBS honey
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 TBS baking powder
- 1 egg
- 1 TBS melted butter
- 1/3 c milk
- 1 c organic frozen corn
- 1 can green chilies
- ------
- 1 lb ground beef
- 2 TBS coconut oil
- 1 onion
- 2 c cheese
- 1 batch homemade enchilada sauce (see below)
- 2 TBS oil
- 2 TBS potato starch
- 4 TBS chili powder
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp onion powder
- 1/4 tsp cumin
- 1/4 tsp oregano
- 2 c broth
- 1/4 tsp salt
Instructions
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Start by mixing the cornbread batter (combine cornmeal, honey, salt, baking powder, egg, butter, milk, corn, & green chilies.)
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Pour into lightly greased cast iron pan and bake at 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes.
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While it's baking, prepare ground beef by chopping, then sauteing the onion in a pan with coconut oil.
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Add ground beef and cook until browned. Set aside.
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While the cornbread is finishing baking, make the homemade enchilada sauce by combining the oil, potato or corn starch, chili powder, garlic powder, onion powder, cumin, oregano, & broth in a saucepan and bringing it to a simmer/low boil.
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Once the cornbread is finished, remove from oven, then pour ground beef mixture over it and pour enchilada sauce on top of that. sprinkle with cheese and bake for an additional 10 minutes at 350 degrees.
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When it's finished, add any garnishes like green onions, cilantro, avocados, tomatoes, or sour cream.
Recipe Notes
Potato starch will thicken at a lower temperature. With corn starch you will have to bring to a boil in order for it to thicken.
Hi
Make this tamale pie recipe. I had to sub somethings but I had the majority of the ingredients for your recipe, and I didn’t have to go to the grocery store that afternoon. I recommend the recipe to be tried by all your subscribers it was delicious and we needed a change in our menus.
Thanks I enjoy your videos and will be enjoying more recipes. Will let you know my thoughts.
Mary from Canada
Looking forward to trying this recipe! We love tamale pie. Why don’t you soak the cornmeal first? Is it not necessary, does it not have the same things that need to be broken down in other grains? Just curious.
Thanks!
Hi Susan-
Yes you can definitely soak cornmeal, this recipe just doesn’t have that in it. If want to soak it you can check out the book “Nourishing Traditions” by Sally Fallon. She goes into soaking.
Thank you -Bobbi (DaNelle’s Assistant)
I already have some homemade enchilada sauce in the freezer. How much do you think you used? Thanks!
Hi Gabrielle-
About 2 cups should do it. Add a little more or less depending on personal preference. Thanks -Bobbi (DaNelle’s Assistant)
Wow This Is great recipe. I love Your Way of making Recipe. I am going to make this recipe for my family now.
This Is great recipe. Everything looked so yummy!
I’m curious why you use silicone.
Do you also use stoneware? (My preference.)
Thanks!
Yep, I use both!
Could I substitute arrowroot powder for the cornstarch?
Hi Monica. Yes, you should be able to substitute an equal amount of arrowroot powder/starch for cornstarch. Thanks!
Do you have a post on how you keep your pantry stocked? I live an hour from any grocery store and keep a lot of canned items like tomatoes, enchilada sauce and beans. I always buy frozen or fresh veggies. Would like to get away from canned foods.
We stick with jarred foods:)
I made this and it was delicious! I followed the recipe except one change, I added pinto beans to the meat after reading one of the other comments. I can’t believe how yummy the simple enchilada sauce was. Thank you!
Was the enchilada sauce supposed to contain any tomato products in the instructions? Wasn’t sure if there was supposed to be some that weren’t listed?
No, enchilada sauce doesn’t contain tomato sauce usually. Crazy, huh?
We do something very similar, but add chili beans to the mix.
And I LOVE cornbread for breakfast. I put butter, maple syrup (the real stuff), and our backyard applesauce on top!
This sounds delicious and will be on our dinner table this week. Thanks for the recipe and I enjoy reading about your farm happenings. 🙂
Looks fantastic!