These are really a maxxed-out version of quesadillas, hearty enough for a main course. The first time we ate these it was a sweltering summer evening. We were just getting to know our hosts, a young couple who farm in the heart of the city of Buffalo. We found them to be simple and deep people with warm hearts. I remember eating these tortillas surrounded by small bowls of  cilantro, lime wedges, and sour cream, off their rugged table reclaimed from a door and being entirely satisfied with the brightness of flavors and the excitement of new friends.  They shared with me the recipe, taken from an amazing, creative, and conscientious cookbook  which I immediately went out and bought for myself!

Since then I have made this with an endless variety of alterations based on what I had in my refrigerator.  It is always delicious.

Only slightly altered from the recipe in Simply in Season.

Recipe:

1-4 cloves garlic

1 large onion

1 green, red, or purple pepper

2 cups fresh or frozen corn

1 small-medium zucchini

1 1/2 tbs. ground cumin

2 cups cooked black beans

1 cup chicken or vegetable broth

6 tbs. salsa

Flour or corn tortillas

Cheddar or monterey jack cheese

Directions:

1. Dice onion and pepper, mince garlic.  Saute in 2 tsp. olive oil until onion and pepper are crisp-tender.

2. Add corn, sliced zucchini, and cumin. Saute until all the vegetables are crisp-tender but not browned.

3. Add black beans, broth, and salsa.  Continue to cook until all excess moisture is gone.  Season with salt and pepper to taste and remove from heat.

4. Preheat a skillet with some oil or butter.  Place a tortilla in the pan and top with 1/4-1/2 cup of the vegetable mixture and as much cheese as you desire.  You can also add the  green onion/cilantro options.

5. Fry until tortilla is crispy and bubbled and then flip the empty side onto the filled side, press down gently.

Or fold in half over the filling and flip to brown the opposite side once the bottom half has begun to bubble…

6. Eat with sour cream, extra salsa, lime wedges to sqeeze, chopped cilantro, hot sauce and/or avocados!

14 Jul This entry was published on July 14, 2011 at 10:31 pm and is filed under Main Dishes, Summer. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.