Veggie Quesadilla

I recently was a huge nerd and decided to go to the public library to browse at vegetarian cookbooks. My mom and I stumbled upon a vegan cookbook with some super exciting recipes. Vegan you ask? Well, I only checked it out because the pictures of the food looked really good. That's it... no other reason.

Flipping through this vegan cookbook, I came across a recipe for quesadillas. The original recipe called for a wheat tortilla, hummus, scallions and salsa. I thought that was kind of boring, so I decided to spice it up a little.

Round One:
After creating the first round of this quesadilla, I opted to forgo the scallions because I thought they looked gross. Replacing the scallions were olives, black beans, cheese and tomatoes. I topped this referbished quesadilla with salsa and avocado.

Well, to my surprise the quesadillas turned out really delicious! I figured that I didn't get sick and my mom and Uncle D liked it, so I'll try it again.

Round Two:
Tonight I tried this recipe again. I named it "Veggie Quesadilla"... clever I know, but just go with it. In this round two of the veggie quesadilla I decided to spice it up a little bit more. With that said, this newly jazzed up recipe included one wheat tortilla (to be folded in half like a taco) filled with garlic hummus, black beans, tomatoes, mushrooms and fresh spinach.

My first step was to gather all my materials and get all the ingredients washed, cut and ready to go. I'm kind of a control freak, so having everything out in my view keeps me feeling in control... weird I know, but go with it.

Second, I coated the bottom of a flat pan with a little extra virgin olive oil. I spread a good layer of garlic hummus on the whole tortilla then added all my ingredients (in no particular order) to half of the tortilla. After that, I placed the tortilla into the pan and let it cook until it was a little golden brown. I flipped the tortilla in half and let it cook until it was a perfect golden brown color.

Lastly, I placed the quesadilla on my plate, cut it in half and topped it with cilantro salsa and avocado. I had some black beans left over, so I decided to add the beans as a side.

So here's how it turned it....



I do have to say that round two was MUCH better than my first attempt! Next time, I think I'll add some olives. Actually, the can of olives was out on the counter, but I forgot all about it.

To all the cheese lovers... you can certainly add some cheese. Like I said, this recipe was inspired by a vegan recipe and vegans don't eat cheese. To be perfectly honest, I really didn't miss the cheese.

So my version of the veggie quesadilla is a perfect vegetarian meal! I give it an A+!

Tomorrow, I'll be posting a recipe for a really great fruit smoothie... inspired by my mother.

Until then... happy cooking!

Alison