Black Bean Quesadillas

For Meatless Monday today, the day before Cinco de Mayo, I'm sharing my recipe for Bean Quesadillas. Well, really it was a non-recipe until I took the time to write it out. I can't remember when I made this up; I've been  making versions of this for years. Every time I serve it to anyone they comment on how good it is and it's so easy and quick to put together. Chances are you have everything you need in your pantry or fridge.

Customize the herbs and spices to your taste and of course choose your favourite toppings!

Black Bean Quesadillas

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

½ -3/4 cup medium prepared salsa (or to taste)

½ tablespoon vegetable oil

1 small onion (diced)

1 small bell pepper (any colour) (diced)

1 clove garlic (minced)

1-1½ teaspoons chili powder

½ teaspoon oregano

¼ -½ teaspoon red pepper flakes

½ teaspoon ground ginger

½ -1 teaspoon cumin

Fresh chopped cilantro, to taste

1 cup cheddar cheese, shredded

Flour tortillas

 

1. In a skillet, heat oil over medium heat; add onion, garlic and bell pepper, sauté for several minutes until onion is translucent and pepper is tender crisp.

 

2. Add beans and then spices and mix to combine, heat until beans are warm. Add salsa, adding more if necessary to make the mixture slightly saucy, but still chunky. Cook until heated through and slightly bubbly. Remove from heat. Stir in cilantro.

Sometimes I switch it up by subbing zucchini for the peppers. Those black strips are kombu (kelp) - I'll explain those in a separate post (they get taken out before eating.)

 

3. In a separate non-stick skillet on medium heat (use the same burner), place a tortilla and fold it over. Sprinkle some cheese on the half tortilla, top with bean mixture, then add more cheese. Fold over the tortilla. 

4. Repeat with a second one in the same pan. Once the first side is brown, carefully flip over and brown the other side.

 

This is a much less messy way to cook the quesadillas and flip them. As well they cut nicely without too much of the filling oozing out!

5. Once done, place on cutting board and cut with a pizza cutter (or knife), serve with your favorite toppings and additional salsa if desired.

By the way, the filling is a great anything goes recipe, it doesn't have to be used exclusively for quesadillas. You can use it burritos and roll them up or as pictured below I used it with corn tortillas spread with some guacamole; really yummy!

 

Have a Happy Cinco de Mayo!

© Kooks in the Kitchen. 2015.

Epic Kitchen Disaster

I shared this a couple of weeks ago with my online community of writers from a writing class I was involved in. One of our assignments was to tell a story about our worst kitchen disaster. At that time (early Februrary) I didn't have one, so I simply shared ones from people I know. To learn more about the Luscious Legacy Project, see this link: 

http://consciousbitesnutrition.com/the-luscious-legacy-project/

(As an aside, I highly recommend this writing circle for women who are interested in exploring their own food history and sharing with others from around the world. You recognize how similar we all are.)

Please take this as a Public Service Announcement; a reverse how-to: what not to do. And please make it a habit to check your smoke detectors regularly! 

So my chapter on kitchen disasters now has an epic story! Well it is to me; I set fire to my toaster oven, more precisely the tortilla in my toaster oven.

I was trying to be so good and instead of eating chips or the like, last night I decided to make cinnamon tortilla chips and use the toaster oven to be fast. It was going great and looked lovely after the toast cycle, but I wanted it to be a little bit crispier. So I set it again and went back to watching the show I had on TV. I sheepishly say it was Family Feud and it was one of those inane questions that I just HAD to find out what the answers were. 

Well...

big mistake, let this be a lesson...to me! Never leave a toaster oven unattended when you've got a hot buttered tortilla in there. 

Burned to a crisp - cinders I say. I had to wait until the flame died out (well my fire fighter aka husband came to the rescue, but seriously he was right on the next counter cutting up fruit, how did he not smell it with that nose of a blood hound??) 

So we had all the windows and front door open at almost 10 o'clock at night trying to get the blasted smoke smell out (out darned smoke, out.) At least we got around to testing our smoke detectors because they did not buzz; maybe it wasn't that bad? 

Oh no, it's bad! 

This morning I've got a pot of kitchen potpourri on the stove and several candles burning (I was a little reluctant to see flames again...) I keep dropping bits of this and that into the pot hoping it'll be the magic scent. By the end of it, after layering ingredients and scents I'll have a veritable witches brew of herbs, spices and citrus peels fit for any spell! And it's slowly smelling better in here! 

Kind of... 

Oh well I guess I'll have to bake something to mask it! ;)

This is what my crispy sweet tortillas were supposed to look like.

Here's the link to the recipe I took inspiration from to make these; do as it says, not as I do. 

http://www.recipelink.com/msgbrd/board_3/2012/NOV/12865.html

Moral of the story: don't put butter on high in the toaster oven and always keep an eye on cooking food!! Plus when you make these in the oven you can make a lot more!

Epilogue: The smoke detector was fine when we tested it. 

Weeks later I can still smell a faint smokiness when I turn the microwave on - I really have to soak those hood fan grills! 

A good reminder to be mindful, not just while cooking, but in everything we do.

We've been living just fine without a toaster oven...not sure that we need one anymore. :)

© Kooks in the Kitchen. 2015.