BLACK BEAN & CHEESE QUESADILLAS

My obsession with black beans continues! These tasty beans made an appearance a few weeks ago in a blog post of mine and I have been craving them ever since. Loosely based on a Bill Granger recipe, the quesadillas below were constructed from the last remains in my fridge before the eating festivities of Christmas begin this Saturday. The pinch of chilli powder really gives them a kick of flavour as does the two different types of cheese. These quesadillas were unexpectedly filling and I found myself struggling over finishing my 4^th quarter (this is coming from the girl that can eat grown men under the table). Being so simple to cook and barely any preparation time required, this is a perfect after work meal to whip up- it sounds much fancier than plain old tacos and tastes infinitely better!

INGREDIENTS

• 2 x 400g tin blacked beans, drained & rinsed
• 75g reduced-fat feta cheese, crumbled
• 50g light tasty cheese, grated
• 1 spring onion, finely sliced
• 3 tablespoons fresh parsley, finely chopped
• sea salt
• pinch of chilli powder
• pinch of sea salt 
• 8 flour tortillas
• 2 teaspoons olive oil 

COOKING 

1. Combine the black beans, spring onion, parsley, both cheeses and sea salt in a medium bowl. Divide the mixture between the 8 tortillas evenly. Spoon mixture onto half of the tortilla, then fold in half, covering the filling. 

2. Preheat the oven to 140 degrees celsius. 

3. Heat a medium frying pan on medium heat, adding 1 teaspoon olive oil. Swirl oil to cover pan, then place 2 folded tortillas in the pan. Cook for 2-3 minutes each side or until browned. Place cooked tortillas on a lined oven tray in the oven to keep warm whilst you finish cooking the other quesadillas. (I found that I had to lower the stove heat to low after a few repetitions with cooking the quesadillas as the tortillas were browning very quickly. Also, try to only add olive oil twice in the cooking process, once to start cooking the quesadillas and once again when you are putting the 4th batch in the pan). 

4. Serve with avocado salsa (how to make this is on the 'Chicken Faijtas' post) and or light sour cream. 

x E