Now, to be fair, this meal had a bit of a bumpy start.
First, these quesadillas were supposed to be Swiss chard quesadillas. But my chard went to pieces on me, becoming all brown and soft before I ever had a chance to put them together into a meal! Not all is lost – we can compost them in our smart little kitchen compost pail – but still, my heart sunk at the realization.
And before that, before I’d even entered the house, the avocado I bought today for tonight’s meal somehow managed to fall out of the grocery bag, roll down the dark Alexandria street – while I chased behind, eyeglasses hanging halfway off my face as I scurried down the way – and then into the storm drain! Oh, I was not amused. Actually, I take that back – I was quite amused. I couldn’t stop laughing, in fact. I still keep giggling every time I think of it!
So by the time I got in the house and discovered the Swiss chard situation, I merely shrugged and moved right on to Plan B. Which, I might add, happened to be an excellent plan indeed!
First, I pulled out a nonstick pan and sprayed it with cooking spray. Then I diced half an onion – the other half from Sunday night’s Italian sausage extravaganza – and added it to the pan, setting the heat to Medium. Once it started to turn translucent, I added in several handfuls of sliced white mushrooms, the larger of which I broke in half.
I scanned the cabinets, looking for more ingredients. Then my eyes fell upon one of my very favorites – whole canned green chiles!
Onto the cutting board they went, where I roughly chopped them and added them to the mix. Finally, I added some ground cumin and chipotle powder to the veggies as well, let everything heat through and soften nicely, and then took then pan off the heat.
I like to bake my quesadillas – I find they stay crispy this way, and aren’t quite as unhealthy (or unwieldy!) as cooking them in the pan with oil. So I placed about a quarter of the onion-chile mixture atop a tortilla, then topped the veggies with cheese, and finally placed a second tortilla on top, spraying it gently with some cooking spray. Then I repeated the process three more times!
All that was left then was to bake the quesadillas for about 12 minutes at 450. By the time they were ready, they were crispy and slightly brown, and the cheese was bubbly. Time to eat!
I tossed a small side salad to accompany the meal, and we feasted with aplomb. The green chiles gave a tang to the quesadillas that I hadn’t experienced before, and the mushrooms and onions are always perennial favorites. The cheddar cheese was sharp enough to handle all of the competing flavors without losing any ground itself, and soft tortillas were a wonderful bed for every ingredient to rest upon.
I have no idea why it took me so long to try green chiles in quesadillas, but you can bet that they’ll soon be mainstays in this meal! And to think, all it took was some rotten Swiss chard and an avocado in the storm drain to get me to this point. I can think of worse outcomes!
:)