Veggie Black Bean Quesadillas

Published by

Jasmine

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Today I’m sharing one of my favourite, maybe slightly-more-indulgent lunches on my Work From Home days: veggie quesadillas! There are a few substitutions here because honestly; Mexican groceries (cheese in particular) are not that easy to get here in Europe, but they do the job and there’s plenty of smoky flavour and cheesy goodness. It’s the naughty way to get your veggies and beans in…

INGREDIENTS

Vegetables:

Mushrooms (I used chestnut)

Red pepper

Carbs:

Black beans

Flour tortillas (corn can also work)

Herbs, spices and aromatics:

Red onion

Garlic

Jalapeño pepper (or any other mild-to-medium green chilli)

Fresh coriander

Oregano (Mexican oregano, if you can get it)

Chipotle chilli flakes (if you can’t get these – go for a half and half mix of normal chilli flakes and smoked paprika)

Ground cumin

Hot sauce (mine has a hint of mango)

Cheese:

Medium cheddar (or Monterey Jack, if you can get it)

Mozzarella (or Oxahaca, if you can get it)

Accompaniments:

I like to serve mine with my Avocado Crema (recipe here), without the Jalapeño (as it’s already in the quesadillas), but a nice dollop of sour cream or even just a squeeze of lime juice also work

TIPS

The tips are really all in the prep for this one. Essentially, you want to reduce moisture and ensure your cheese melts quickly! You’re going to want to wash your mushrooms, dry them off and leave them on a tea towel or kitchen roll to absorb any excess moisture. Additionally, I recommend draining and rinsing off the black beans to remove ‘juice’ then place them on some kitchen roll or a towel (spreading them out as much as possible), and gently pat them dry. I also like to rinse my coriander and pat it dry before chopping it up. This will stop the moisture in these ingredients from working against you.

The theme with the filling is to make everything nicely small. I recommend dicing up the vegetables into little chunks so we can pick up some colour without things getting too watery. I also like to finely grate my cheddar cheese / Monterey Jack and pull apart my mozzarella / Oxahaca into small pieces. This allows the cheese to melt down before the tortilla burns.

It’s important not to over-stuff your quesadillas, or they’ll be hard to fold and flatten or random bits will fall out into the pan. You probably bought a whole pack of tortilla wraps, so it’s better to made an extra quesadilla than try to pack too much into each. I like 2 quesadillas for a lunch or 3 for a dinner.

Finally, I recommend that when it comes to actually toasting up your quesadillas; I recommend using rapeseed oil, because avocado can make your tortillas green! Just make sure it’s unrefined, cold-pressed and organic.

Vegetable and Black Bean Quesadillas

  • Servings: 2 (4-5 quesadillas in total)
  • Difficulty: Easy / Medium
  • Print

A filled tortilla recipe with cheese and vegetables

No special equipment or advance prep needed


Ingredients

  • 1/2 a red onion (diced into small cubes)
  • 2 cloves of garlic (finely chopped, grated or crushed)
  • 1 Jalapeño pepper (finely chopped)
  • 80g of black beans (rinsed, drained and patted dry)
  • 100g of mushrooms (dried and diced into small cubes)
  • 1/2 a red pepper (diced into small cubes)
  • Large handful (c. 15g) of fresh coriander (dried and finely grated)
  • 1 tsp of oregano
  • 1 tsp of cumin
  • 1 tsp of chipotle chilli flakes
  • 1/2 a tsp of hot sauce
  • 100g of cheddar cheese (finely grated)
  • 50g of mozzarella cheese (pulled apart into small pieces)
  • 4-5 medium flour tortillas
  • Neutral cooking oil
  • Salt and pepper to taste


Directions

  1. Over a medium heat, in a large, wide-based pan, sauté the garlic and red onion with some salt and pepper until fragrant (2-3 minutes)
  2. Add the chipotle chilli flakes, cumin and oregano and stir together until there’s no loose oil in the pan
  3. Add the mushrooms and continue to sauté until there is no excess moisture and the mushrooms have picked up some colour (around 7-8 minutes)
  4. Add the black beans and continue to sauté until there’s no visible moisture (around 3 minutes)
  5. Add the red pepper and Jalapeño, sauté for a couple of minutes and then season to taste with salt and pepper and add the hot sauce
  6. Turn off the heat and stir through the coriander – set this filling mix aside and wipe clean your pan
  7. In the same pan, add a small drizzle of oil and add a tortilla
  8. Cover the tortilla in a sprinkling of the cheddar and mozzarella cheese mix
  9. After 1-2 minutes, the cheese should be just starting to melt, at which point you can add some filling onto half of the tortilla (in a semi-circle shape) – don’t try to pack too much into each quesadilla
  10. Using tongs / a spatula, carefully fold the tortilla exactly in half and press down to flatten it – fry for a further 2-3 minutes on each side until golden-brown and repeat with the remaining components
  11. Cut each tortilla in half to serve

Let me know if you try my veggie quesadillas!

See a step-by-step on how I build these quesadillas here:

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