Quesadillas Recipe
A favorite five-minute quesadilla - corn tortilla, egg, a bit of cheese, fresh herbs, and a dollop lemon-zested Greek yogurt or creme fraiche. The egg helps make it more substantial and extra good.
This is what I've been making for lunch lately. My five-minute lunch. Literally. It's also a great, quick dinner. I thought it would make sense to share it, in part, because it's ridiculous how often I make it. Or some slight riff on it. It's a quesadilla - sort of. I don't really like all-cheese, white tortilla quesadillas, so this is my take. Corn tortilla - unda style, a bit of cheese, fresh herbs, and a dollop lemon-zested greek yogurt or creme fraiche. The egg helps make it more substantial and extra good.
It's occurring to me that you might not know what unda-style means. I didn't until a couple years back. But there's a kati roll place nearby that makes kati rolls "unda-style" - which means, for an extra dollar, they throw a beaten egg down on the grill and top it with buttery-flaky roti bread. It sets, they fill and roll it. We joke around the house that I make everything unda-style now - crepes, quesadillas, anything flat and round.
The best part about this style of quesadilla is that you can skip the cheese-fest. A little cheese? Great. But I'm guessing a number of you will agree with me - lots of quesadillas are just overkill in that regard. Instead, I try to work in a bit of creaminess through something like the yogurt. Or a smear of avocado. I made another version last week with a handful of smashed beans, avocado, a bit of grated cheddar, and roasted tomato salsa. But I like this version in particular, the crunchy, toasty capers and cream are nice, and a tad bit unexpected.
Premium Ad-Free membership includes:
-Ad-free content
-Print-friendly recipes
-Spice / Herb / Flower / Zest recipe collection PDF
-Weeknight Express recipe collection PDF
-Surprise bonuses throughout the year
Quesadillas
This recipe makes a single quesadilla, feel free to scale it depending on how many you'd like to make.
zest of one small lemon
a generous dollop of creme fraiche, sour cream or Greek yogurt
fine grain sea salt2 heaping tablespoons capers
small splash of olive oil1 small egg
1 corn tortilla, room temperature
a bit of freshly shaved Parmesan
chopped fresh chives or marjoram
Whisk the lemon zest, yogurt, and a pinch of salt together in a small bowl. Set aside.
Now, take the capers, rinse them, pat them dry with a paper towel, and pan fry them over medium-high heat in a small splash of oil until browned and crinkly. Remove from pan and set aside. The should get a bit crunchy as they cool.
Beat the egg and a pinch of salt in a small bowl. Beat the egg really well, so it's uniform in color.
In your smallest skillet, over medium heat, add a tiny splash of oil. Let it heat, then add the egg to the pan let it set for just 10-15 seconds. Place the corn tortilla on top of the egg, the top of the egg should still be a bit runny, so it should attach itself to the tortilla as it sets. When you feel like the egg has set enough not to run, flip everything. Sprinkle with Parmesan, and some of the fresh herbs if you like. Cook until the cheese is melted and the tortilla is nicely browned.
Fold the tortilla in half, top with the yogurt, the capers and more herbs.
Serves 1.
Prep time: 2 minutes - Cook time: 3 minutes
Comments are closed.
Apologies, comments are closed.
Comments
Wow. Looks amazing and so delish! What a creative twist to the cheesy quesadilla.
I love that you use egg in this quesadilla. I'm thinking that it gives this lunch some staying power w.o being overloaded in the cheese dept.
Andaa-style anything makes my stomach smile. I agree with you on the cheese- too much of it really is an over-kill. This quesadilla reminds me of the many breakfasts my family and I have together. Always a spicy omelet with a very light touch of cheese, cucumber raita, and parathas or roti. Perfect meal for any time of the day.
I totally agree with you on the cheese. I rarely order quesadillas at a restaurant but make them at home sometimes when I have left over roasted veggies and love them with eggs.
so delicious - and i love the look of those capers! yum.
What a great idea to make quesadillas without so much cheese! I'll be giving these a try for sure, and love the idea of fried capers.
These are great. I made them with lime zest instead of lemon, and a simple lime-tabasco guacamole. (Why have creme fraiche or avocado when you can have both?)
I've been looking for an alternative to the cheese-bomb style quesadilla-thanks for this! This reminds me of a Chinese/Taiwanese breakfast that's called a scallion pancake, but it's really a corn tortilla, submerged in egg and scallion and fried on both sides. Dip in soy sauce for breakfast or sriracha for lunch.
For a filling, try roasted (or microwaved) sweet potato smashed and smeared, together with some mashed black beans (from a can) scented with cumin, maybe a little cilantro. The tiniest bit of Monterey Jack cheese enhances - but is optional. Quesadillas are my grab and go lunch for taking to work. They are healthy and take less than 5 minutes to assemble in the morning. Just soften the tortilla, smear on the fillings, wrap in wax paper. It doesn't get cooked until I put it in the microwave at work. Quesadillas are a great place to put leftovers too. Would love to hear other recommendations for fillings.
Hey Heidi, I've been a big fan of your work and make them quite often, so I'm sure that this will be great. This seems like a well balanced dish. I really look forward to making it. Maybe a nice combination might be using some roasted garlic and some thyme in the quesadilla? Kartik
My family is from Kolkata, so kati rolls are a really big deal in our house. Growing up, everything I ate was unda-style, so I was confused to learn that most wraps and burritos weren't actually supposed to come with an egg ...
I am grinning here seeing this recipe on your weblog Heidi... Unda in Hindi language is Eggs and we make such quesadillas with leftover chapati flat breads , the herbs we use are local Indian herbs and in the north of India it is a staple breakfast for many... Loving the capers and the unda style quesadillas ...:)
that looks like the best at-home lunch ever! mmm crispy, creamy, tangy, yum!
My taste buds are very excited to eat anything involving fried capers and Greek yogurt with a zest of a lemon, although my mind is like, inside a corn tortilla enrobed in an egg? No kidding. I can't wait to meld these flavors from around the world into a lunch that takes less than five minutes to make. Quite excited, indeed!
Eeek! I'm tired of being vegan now. ;)
Just curious, is there a big difference here between a small and a large egg? I've never bought small eggs, I bake a lot so I get large eggs. I want to try this but I wouldn't want to have too much egg in it. HS: it depends on the size of your pan, and the size of your tortilla, but the goal is to not have too much overrun of the egg, if that makes sense. No big deal if you do though, it just doesn't look as nice.
Yum. This looks great. It reminds me of something I was eating all the time for a while. I don't know if this explanation makes sense, but I would basically fry an egg in between two corn tortillas and eat it topped with plain yogurt and some sort of salsa or hot sauce. I had forgotten about that.
I practically lived on quesadillas when I was pregnant with my daughter 7 years ago. Now, she loves them! I like to sneak new foods to her inside other foods that she already loves and quesadillas are an easy mechanism for that. Black beans, grilled onions, and chopped tomato often make their way into the ones I make. The zested Greek yogurt is a great replacement for sour cream as well.
This sounds unbelievable! I love roti, so this is something I know I would like. The technique of topping the egg with a tortilla is such a great idea!
Quesadillas are one of my favorite foods. These look like the best ones I've ever seen!
Comments are closed.
Apologies, comments are closed.