Black Bean & Veggie Quesadillas

These black bean quesadillas are a staple on my dinner menu! They’re so quick to pull together and I use whatever veggies in the fridge!

I LOVE Mexican food. Well, actually, let me rephrase that. I love certain Mexican food. Most Mexican restaurants in Winston-Salem serves food makes me sick; it’s greasy and upsets my stomach. (La Botana is the exception.) So unless I’m traveling, I’m stuck to making Mexican food at home. (Or, eating at a friend’s house who serves an awesome Cinco de Mayo meal.)

And I never do anything complicated or advanced, like mole sauces. I guess the beauty of Mexican food is that most of it is simple and hard to mess up. Rice, beans, sautéed meat, spices. So, I was really excited to receive a little cooking kit from IMUSA and McCormick with some of my favorite spices…

AND a tortilla press!!!!! I’ve attempted home-made tortillas but couldn’t get them thin enough so I cannot wait to try this out!

Until then, my frozen tortillas will suffice and I’ll be going through these spices like mad. Here’s the most recent way I used them!

Black Bean & Veggie Quesadillas

• Gluten-Free Tortillas
• 1 can black beans
• 1/2 zuchinni, chopped
• 1/2 yellow squash, chopped
• 1 onion, chopped
• Spices: This is a good way to get creative and get more comfortable cooking without a recipe. Use your taste buds and add more and less as you like. I did a combo of these spices. If you’re uncomfortable winging it, start with about 1/2 teaspoon each of cumin and chili powder and 1/4 teaspoon each garlic powder and oregano and increase from there.
  • Cumin
  • Chili Powder
  • Garlic Powder
  • Oregano
• Yodeling Goat Gouda (or favorite cheese for quesadillas. I’d go for a sharp white cheddar if I could eat it. 🙂 )
• Serve with your favorites: Hot sauce (my favorite kind), cilantro, avocado, guacamole, sour cream

Add a little oil to a large sauté pan (I used coconut oil) and toss the veggies juuuust until they just start to soften a teensy bit. Add your spices, tasting to adjust to your palate preferences, and cook for 2 more minutes. Remove from heat, but leave in pan to keep warm. This should leave you with veggies that still have a little teensy bit of crisp bite to them, which I like. If you prefer soft veggies, cook away until they’re soft.

Heat your tortilla with a little cheese. If I’d had more cheese, I probably would have like quintupled this. But alas.

You can sub flour tortillas if you like, but I LOVE these GF ones, found in the freezer section. They are great soft or you could cook them in a pan longer and they get crispy.

Add your veggies and then fold your tortilla over. Smash it a little. It just tastes better that way. 😉

Serve with guacamole, avocado, hot sauce, sour cream, whatever you like!

Are you comfortable winging it in the kitchen or do you follow recipes to a T? I’ve definitely gotten more comfortable throwing things together. Using fresh, simple ingredients really helps – it’s hard to mess up quality ingredients! And just using your senses – smell things together to see if they’d work together, taste things and adjust as necessary. Start light and add more.

What’s your favorite Mexican dish? Tacos and tamales have my heart. But I haven’t had a ton of probably super traditional Mexican food.

Note: This post was not sponsored, but I did get the spices and cooking goodies for free. The recipe and cheese commentary are mine. 🙂