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Tuesday, November 07, 2006

Fast Vegetarian Recipe For Yummy Quesadillas

This tasty quesadilla offers a garden-harvest version of a Mexican favorite. If you prepare your ingredients in advance and use frozen or canned black beans, this recipe is a snap to put together. You can make the entire recipe and freeze the extra or you can halve the recipe and eat for dinner tonight.

But if you have more time and prefer to cook your black beans from scratch, make sure to pick through the dried beans very well and discard any beans that have pinholes in them since that’s a sign of bug infestation. And you guys KNOW how I feel about BUGS! Just typing this paragraph is traumatic for me. I may have to go and see... Hold it! I refuse to let this bother me today. Let me finish my recipe introduction...
Also, discard any small rocks or twigs (although crunchy, one or the other is bound to break a tooth and then you can't have a smile like Your Smiling Chef) and wash your beans thoroughly several times (until your water runs clear).


VEGGIE QUESADILLAS (serves 6)


Your Ingredients:

2-cups cooked black beans
2-cups chicken stock, divided
salt and pepper, to taste
2-cups tomatoes, washed and diced
1-cup ripe avocado, diced
4-5 tbsp fresh cilantro, washed and minced
1/4-cup red onion, washed and diced
4 cloves fresh garlic, minced
2 jalapeno peppers (washed, seeded and minced)
4 tbsp freshly squeezed lime juice
1-tsp ground cumin
2-tbsp olive oil
2-cups zucchini, washed and julienned (cut into thin matchsticks)
2-cups fresh whole kernel corn (I prefer to slice kernels off the cob but frozen will be just fine)
salt and pepper, to taste
vegetable cooking spray
6 (8-inch) flour tortillas (3 bottoms and 3 tops)
6-ounces Cheddar cheese, shredded (more if you like)
6-ounces Monterey Jack cheese, shredded (more if you like)
fresh cilantro sprigs, washed


PREHEAT oven to 400˚F.

IF using frozen black beans, place your beans in a small pot with 1-cup of the chicken stock, salt and pepper.

BRING to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer 45-60 minutes or until tender. Drain off liquid and set aside.

IN a large bowl, combine remaining chicken stock with tomato, avocado, cilantro, onion, garlic, peppers, lime juice, and cumin. Blend well and set aside.

COAT a large skillet with olive oil and place over medium-high heat until hot.

ADD zucchini and sauté about 4-5 minutes until tender.

ADD corn to zucchini and sauté about 3 more minutes.

REMOVE from heat and stir in drained black beans. Blend well and set aside.

PLACE 2 tortillas on one baking sheet and 1 tortilla on another sheet coated lightly with cooking spray. (unless you have a baking sheet large enough to accommodate all three)

TOP
each tortilla with shredded Cheddar, then zucchini mixture and finally shredded Monterey Jack. Top with remaining 3 tortillas.

BAKE at 400˚F for 8-10 minutes or until quesadillas are crisp and the cheese has melted.

REMOVE from oven and allow quesadillas to rest a couple of minutes (so cheese sets for a bit and doesn’t just run out).

CUT each quesadilla into fourths (like pizza slices) and place 2 on each serving plate.

TOP each quesadilla with tomato mixture and garnish with fresh cilantro sprigs.


Always Enjoy!signature_small.jpg

1 comment:

alicuppy said...

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