Quesadillas with Spinach

Happy New Year, everyone! I wish you all the best!

Do you already know what you are going to do in 2015? Well, I for my part, I do have some thoughts and also some plans. But I’m not going to tell you anything. Firstly, because certain projects are still in the planning phase and secondly, because I don’t want to give anything away. These plans certainly are about my blog, so I’m asking you to be a bit patient.

For the moment, I’d like to present you with my first ever Quesadillas. Quesadillas are a Mexican dish and might remind you of pancakes with a savory filling. Anyhow, instead of pancakes you use tortillas, which you can get at any supermarket. Thus, this dish is easy and quick to make.

And, what’s more, the spices and the cheeses create a special flavor and are also quite filling. You can make the quesadillas in the oven, which is often recommended, as they are normally eaten with your fingers. But baking them in the oven might easily turn them into quite dry quesadillas and so I decided to make them in a frying pan with only a few drops of oil. And they turned out to be really soft without being greasy.

Try them! Serve them with my sour cream sauce and you will be delighted!

Quesadillas with Spinach

(serves 4)

300 g fresh spinach or pak choi
3 peppers (red and yellow)
2 tablespoons olive oil
about 8 spring onions
200 g smoked cheese (grated)
200 g Cheddar or similar cheese (grated)
2 cloves of garlic
1 tablespoon pine nuts
1 chili (red)
4 tablespoons coriander or parsley (chopped)
8 Tortillas
salt, pepper
some olive oil

250 ml sour cream or crème fraîche
½ teaspoon paprika powder
a pinch of cumin and caraway
1 onion (finely chopped)
1 clove of garlic (finely chopped)
salt, pepper
some olive oil

Preheat the oven to about 250-270°C (grill). Cut the peppers into halves and deseed them. Place them into an ovenproof dish and sprinkle them with olive oil. Put them under the grill until they are roasted and soft. Then cut them into squares of about 2 x 2 cm.

Cut the spring onions into thin rings and fry them together with the chopped garlic in some olive oil. Add the spinach and allow collapsing. Remove from the heat.

Mix the spinach, peppers, grated cheeses, pine nuts, chopped chili and chopped coriander or parsley in a bowl. Season with salt and pepper.

Spread ¼ of the filling on a tortilla but spare the edge of the tortilla to prevent the cheese from running out. Put a second tortilla on top and carefully press them together. Heat only a few drops of olive oil in a frying pan and fry one side of the Quesadilla. Use a plate to turn it over. Put the plate on the quesadilla and then turn the plate and pan upside down so that the quesadilla is now on the plate. Then let it slide back into the frying pan to fry it on the other side.

Make the other three quesadillas in the same way.

For the sour cream sauce fry the chopped onion and garlic in some olive oil. Then combine the sour cream with the fried onion and the spices and mix well.

Cut the quesadillas into quarters and serve with the sour cream sauce.

Here is the recipe for printing: