Each week, fabulous recipes grace Debbie’s in-box and pop up on her computer screen, and she’s sharing her favorites with you.
You cannot imagine my excitement a week or two ago when I wandered over to the bread section of Trader Joe’s, to grab our usual Cinnamon Raisin Ezekiel Bread. One rack over, calling out to me with its crusty brown goodness and gluten-free-ness were brown rice tortillas.
I know, it really seems like a small thing, doesn’t it? Honestly, the corn tortillas are fine, but they fall apart when we try to substitute them in recipes that call for flour tortillas, and we have the same problem with the sprouted grain tortillas, which we so wanted to embrace because they are ridiculously healthy.
Who would have known that if you just add a little xanthan gum to brown rice flour that they’d be nearly as flexible as wheat flour tortillas? Again, very exciting for us. Hence the crazy quesadilla-fest that ensued… here are my favorite recipes I collected while searching for the ultimate quesadilla, but you’ll have to read through to find the two we ended up cooking.
I’ll tell you straight out that Keith would never try a bite of these, because they are brimming with olives. Owen and I on the other hand, would gobble them with wild abandon. Elise puts mushrooms, green onions, black olives, tomato, chicken and avocado into her quesadillas, and a brilliant combination it is.
This mushroom sweet potato quesadilla sounded a bit spicy for Owen, with its chipotle paste, so I was thinking of substituting some fire-roasted chiles.
I like the combination of eggplant, chicken, red onion and fresh cilantro in these grilled chicken quesadillas. The eggplant is unexpected in a traditionally Mexican dish, but so perfect. I can even imagine some hummus smeared into these tasting just divine.
So what did we end up making? Quesadillas born of our own evil minds….
The Italian quesadilla with pesto, sausage and caramelized onions was hands-down our favorite and it’s going to be hard to ever make a Mexican-themed quesadilla again. Don’t forget the drizzle of aged balsamic … perfection.
We also made a quesadilla stuffed with chunks of chicken, fresh cilantro, roasted red pepper, fire-roasted chiles, chopped scallions and avocado. Don’t forget to serve this one with salsa and sour cream. We did forget and we missed it.
Clacked by Debbie McDuffee
on Nov 30, 2009 @ 10:00 EST5EDT
