Easy Black bean Quesadillas (Vegetarian)
Black bean quesadillas are my go-to lunch (and sometimes dinner) when I'm in a hurry, but still want something filling. I mean, can you really beat a homemade, hot meal that takes less than 5 minutes and costs less than $5 a person?!
I've been making these vegetarian quesadillas for my family a lot lately, and they only take a handful of ingredients. Plus, it's a nice (and tasty) way to clean out the pantry / fridge.
Servings: 1
Cost: $5
Ingredients
- 1 flour tortilla 7 inch or 12 inch
- ½ cup of shredded cheese
- 2 tablespoons of minced onion red or white is fine - whatever you have
- 1 teaspoon of minced jalapeño
- ¼ cup of black beans
- sour cream optional
- shredded lettuce optional
- salsa optional
Instructions
- Heat a medium to large size pan on medium high heat with a little bit of cooking spray (or a tiny bit of oil). I usually use an extra virgin olive oil cooking spray.
- Then, toss your tortilla into the pan. I use these organic flour tortillas that need to be cooked on each side for 15-30 seconds.
- If you're using regular tortillas, put a tortilla in the pan and then flip it over after 10-15 seconds, just to heat it up on both sides and start getting a little bit of crispiness.
- Working quickly, add your shredded cheese, directly onto one side of the tortilla in the pan. Only fill one side of the tortilla with cheese because eventually, you'll be flipping the other half on top to make a half moon shape.
- Next, add your black beans.
- Then, add minced onion and jalapeño evenly on top of the cheese. Add a sprinkle more of shredded cheese if desired. I usually don't do this.
- Then, fold the empty half of the tortilla over all the toppings and flatten / push down the top a little bit with a spatula.
- Once you can see the cheese starting to melt (1-2 minutes), flip the quesadilla over in the pan.
- Remove from heat after another 1-2 minutes. Slice into 4 pieces and serve with sour cream, shredded lettuce, salsa, or even guacamole. Most of the time, I only have sour cream in the fridge. But when I'm feeling fancy, I'll add a bunch of shredded lettuce and some guacamole to make it even more filling.
Notes
Sometimes when I'm making quesadillas, I'll throw in some leftover turkey taco meat or the occasional leftover chicken. But for the most part, I use black beans as the protein for quesadillas because I usually have a can of them in the pantry. And they're super affordable.
Plus, they're vegetarian and I try to include more plant based options into meals whenever I can. This does have cheese though, so it's not a vegan meal, just vegetarian quesadillas.