Global Palate 360: Veggie Quesadillas with quick Salsa & Guacamole

Hola foodies, hope you all are having a great weekend! Today, I will be sharing one of my favorite and easiest Mexican recipes of all time - Veggie Quesadillas with quick Salsa and Guacamole. It is one of the simplest and classic Mexican dishes that you can try to start your journey for the Mexican comidas (foods) or simply further your quest...

So what are Quesadillas? Originated from Mexico, the name Quesadillas come from Spanish word Queso means cheese and it literally translates to "cheesy little things". Traditionally the tortillas are toasted with melted cheese and sautéd vegetable or meat. I usually buy tortillas from the store as you can get many varieties that suits your need. In a quest to make this dish healthy, I try to buy whole wheat tortillas. You can also find them prepared from white flour, corn flour, or mix grains. This time I brought whole wheat tortilla with chia seeds. I love making these for my kid as I can add all sorts of veggies and sometimes beans too. These get eaten without any complains as they taste so yummm especially when I layer them with cheese!

Mexican meal is incomplete without Salsa, Guacamole and tortilla chips. No matter which Mexican dish I make, I always have these sides to make a complete dish. The combination of Salsa, Guac and crunchy tortilla chips is just something that I can never get enough of. So, I will also share a quick Salsa and Guacamole recipe to make with Quesadillas. I do have a special recipe if I am making them for a party or for guests. I will keep that recipe for some other time. :)

Most of all the health benefits come from the cheese and the type of veggies added to make the quesadillas. Cheese is healthy if eaten in moderation as it provides much needed calcium and protein to our bodies. Typically when I am preparing Mexican meal, I choose to go with four cheese Mexican blend (mix of Monterey jack, Cheddar, Asadero and Queso quesadilla cheese) which gives so much more flavor to the food. Veggies, as as you may know, have abundance of nutrients and are low in calories and fats.

Additional notes/ tips

Any assortment of veggies can be used for stuffing. In my opinion, the vegetables that taste best in Quesadillas are corn, spinach, mushrooms, squash, zucchini, broccoli, carrots, colorful peppers, onions, etc...
Cheese is an essential ingredient for this recipe. However, if you wish to keep this recipe vegetarian, you would want to pick some vegetarian cheese. A lot of cheese brands use enzymes from animal rennet in making cheese, so look for vegetarian rennet or microbial rennet on the ingredients label of the cheese.

Let's get started with this simple yet delicious Veggie Quesadillas with quick Salsa & Guacamole recipe...

Serves 4

Prepare time 10 minutes

Cook time 20 minutes

Ingredients

For Quesadillas

1 Pack Tortillas (6 ct)

1 Cup cheese

1/4 Cup Vegenaise (optional)

1/2 Corn (Boiled)

1 Medium Zucchini

1/2 Green pepper

1/2 Red pepper

1 Tbsp cumin powder

1 Tsp oregano

1 Tsp black pepper powder

2 Tbsp Oil for grilling vegetables

Oil for toasting Quesadillas

Salt to taste

For 5 minute Salsa (Mild)

2 Medium tomatoes

1 Small red onion

1 Small bunch cilantro

1/2 Tsp Oregano (Prefer Mexican oregano)

1/4 Tsp Black pepper powder

1/2 Lemon

Salt to taste

For 2 minute Guacamole

1 Medium Avocado

1/2 Lemon

1 Tbsp salsa

Salt to taste

Instructions

Evenly dice all the vegetables listed above for Quesadillas, i.e. red and green bell peppers and zucchini. Remove corn kernel from the cob.

Heat up oil in a pan and add all the diced vegetables and corn, and sauté them for about a minute.

Add salt, cumin powder, black pepper powder and oregano. Mix everything well.

Sauté the vegetables for 4-5 minutes until they turn slightly brown. Turn off the heat and transfer the veggies to a bowl. Let the stuffing cool down.

While the veggies are cooling down, let's quickly make the Salsa and Guacamole.

To make Salsa, roughly chop tomatoes, onions and cilantro. Add them to the chopper along with salt, pepper, oregano and lemon juice.

Chop everything finely and voila Salsa is ready. Transfer into a bowl and garnish with lemon slice and cilantro.

To make Guacamole, cut the avocado to half and de-seed it. Roughly chop avocado and add to the chopper along with salt, lemon juice and one spoon of salsa you just prepared.

Since avocados are soft, when you run chopper they will turn into smooth creamy dip - Guacamole. Alternatively, you can also make Guacamole without a chopper. Just use a fork to smash the chopped avocados and mix the spices. Transfer in a bowl and garnish with avocado seed. The avocado seed also helps to keep the Guacamole from turning black. Quick 2-minute Guac is ready to serve!

Getting back to Quesadillas, once the stuffing has cooled down, spread vegenaise on the tortilla. Just spread on one half of the tortilla as shown in the picture below. This step is optional, if you don't have vegenaise, just skip to next step. However, I recommend adding vegenaise to make the Quesadillas creamy!

Now spread the sautéd vegetables over the layer of vegenaise on the tortilla. Here you can add as thick of a layer of veggies as you desire.

Next generously spread cheese over the veggies. Again you can add as little or more cheese per your desire.

Fold the tortilla and keep it aside. Repeat the same process on the rest of the tortillas.

Next heat up the pan on a medium flame. Drizzle about 1 tbsp of oil.

Place two of the folded tortillas on the pan as shown in the picture below. Toast them for about a minute or until the tortillas are nicely toasted with brown spots at the bottom.

Flip them over to toast the other side. If you are comfortable, you can flip them inside the pan. Otherwise transfer them to a plate, flip them and slide back to the pan.