Vegetable Quesadillas

May 26, 2010 Ceri

Another day, another dinner. Another day or staring into the fridge thinking, “Dinner? Are you in there, dinner?” It’s like a Rubik’s cube: tomato, peppers, onion equals…. pasta sauce? Bleh. Stir fry? Nah. Quesadillas! Oh, yeah. Almost as adored by children as pasta, quesadillas are easy to make and fall in the kitchen sink category. Nearly anything can fit in as long as you’ve got lots of cheese to hold it all together. These quesadillas are made with wraps I had on hand. They’re made with spinach and are in fact green, that’s not just the bad lighting of my kitchen. I know I’m supposed to make these with corn tortillas, but honestly, I don’t like them as much and I find them less pliable than wheat wraps. But do as you like!

I also made some guacamole to have on the side. Most of it got eaten with corn chips as dinner was being made. Ben likes his guacamole with finely sliced red onion. I do not.

I was cooking so we had the no-onion version.

Vegetable Quesadillas

Ingredients

For the guacamole:
2 ripe avocado roughly mashed
1 clove minced very fine
1 tomato diced
juice of 1 lime
small handful of cilantro finely chopped
For the Quesadillas:
1 medium onion chopped
2 garlic cloves minced
1 red pepper chopped
1 yellow pepper chopped
3 portobello mushroom caps diced
A pinch of cuminand chili flakes
2 good handfuls of shredded cheese - I used Monterey Jack but you could use cheddar
4 tortillas or wraps

Method

Guacamole prep:

Mash the avocado.

Add garlic and lime.

Add tomato and cilantro.

Quesadilla prep:

Saute the onion and garlic

When they start to soften, add the peppers.

Give them a couple of minutes and then add the mushrooms

Add spices and stir.

Take off the heat and reserve in a bowl.

Wipe out your pan and over medium heat, put down your first tortilla and then spread the vegetables out evenly.

Sprinkle cheese evenly over the veggies

Cook like this for a maybe 3 to 5 minutes

Use a spatula to flip and repeat on the other side.

Turn out onto a cutting board and once they've cooled just a bit, cut into four pieces.

Serve with sour cream (or plain yogurt), guacamole (if there's any left).

Sweet Potato Chronicles

This is what I had in the fridge but you could also use zucchini, any kind of mushroom, chicken or beef. Just be sure that everything is chopped fairly fine and that all the pieces are about the same size.

This is the lovely Paderno pan I got for Mother’s Day. That may not sound romantic to you but I’d been wanting a new, non-stick for awhile and was very excited. It’s a fantastic pan – I barely need to use oil.

Place the second tortilla on top and use something to press it flat. You could use a cast iron skillet or McGiver something like I did. That’s a plate and a can of beans. Go with what you’ve got!