sinquesadillas

Last weekend I had a potluck to go to, so I wanted to make something delicious and easy to eat. I cracked open my cookbooks and settled on the Grilled Yuca Tortillas recipe from Veganomicon, which is basically a recipe for quesadillas minus the cheese. However, when I went to pick up ingredients, I ran into a slight hitch: my food co-op did not sell yuca. The grocery store down the street did not have yuca (although they did tell me they have it sometimes, but it's a "seasonal" item). The grocery store by the library did not have yuca, and Trader Joes was also a yuca free zone.

I decided four stores was enough searching for one lousy root vegetable and started contemplating substitutes. After some conversation with the manager at my food co-op, I decided to go with a mix of russet baking potatoes and Garnet sweet potatoes. The Garnet potatoes are lighter in color than the usual sweet potatoes you find in the grocery store and are not as sweet. I picked up about 3/4 lb. of the Garnet potatoes, 2 large russet potatoes, and also one very large regular sweet potato (I made two flavors of this recipe, details below).

For the first filling, I used 1 1/2 russet potatoes and all the Garnet potatoes. I boiled all the potatoes and left the skins on since a) I like the taste of potato skins b) they add some nice flecks to the mashed potato and c) hello, that's where all the nutrients are! This version was made according to the main directions in Veganomicon, and I added in 2 roasted red peppers and approximately 1/2 c. of corn salsa that I had from Trader Joe's. This made enough filling for 7 large white flour tortillas.

The second batch of quesadillas used the regular sweet potato and remaining 1/2 russet potato. I also added in approximately 1 c. of cooked black beans, a few teaspoons of cumin and a pinch of salt. This made enough filling for 6 large tortillas. After all the filling was in the tortillas, I had a massive and beautiful stack of no queso quesadillas waiting to be cooked:


Looks delicious, no?

Next, the recipe calls for browning the quesadillas on the stovetop. However, I only own a single frying pan and I didn't have all night to brown quesadillas. Instead, I turned my oven up to 350F, oiled a couple of baking sheets, and placed 3 tortillas at a time on each sheet. I then lightly oiled the tops of the quesadillas and popped them in the oven for 10-15 minutes while I primped for the party. When the tortillas were lightly browned on top, I took them out and cut each quesadilla in half. Everything was then nicely arranged on a platter along with a bowl of tropical salsa (mango, avocado, tomato, lime juice, cilantro, not pictured...sorry! I was running late!).

For comparison purposes, I did also cook a few quesadillas on the stove. Honestly, I thought the ones in the oven were a little better--they had more crunch and did not seem as greasy as the stovetop version. However, if I were only making 1 or 2 quesadillas, I would probably still go with the stovetop method rather than going to the trouble of turning on the oven.


Ironically, on my way to the party, I had to stop in at a fifth grocery store, and what do you think I saw staring me in the face from the produce section? Yes, yuca. Unbelievable.