Spinach, Mushroom and Feta Quesadillas

As a vegetarian, I’m often asked what I eat from my omnivore friends.  A lot of them think I’m stuck with salads, vegetable pasta and raw foods, but there are actually a lot of options – many of which are delicious!  Since my husband and I decided to go off meat, I’ve been making an effort to incorporate as many different fruits, vegetables, legumes and spices as I can when I cook so we can have a well-balanced diet and keep it exciting.  Most nights, I’ll stick to recipes until I become more confident as a vegetarian cook.  But tonight, I threw some ingredients together from what we had in the fridge and found success in the form of spinach, mushroom and feta quesadillas – with lentils for added protein.

  To make this recipe, I started by cooking down about four handfuls of spinach in a pan with olive oil, sea salt, ground pepper and fresh garlic.  Then, I chopped up white button mushrooms, two jalapeno peppers and half a sweet yellow onion.  I sautéed the vegetables in a pan sprinkled with oregano, sea salt and ground pepper.  At the same time, I boiled one cup of lentils according to the packaged directions for about 40 minutes (I prefer to buy dry beans instead of canned because canned often contain high amounts of sodium as a preservative).  Once the lentils and vegetables were done cooking, I laid out small round corn tortillas on a skillet and layered the spinach, lentils, vegetables, shredded skim mozzarella and feta cheeses and covered it with another corn tortilla.  I cooked the quesadilla on both sides until the cheeses were melted through and then served with salsa.  So good!

I’ve found that toward the end of the week, I always have handfuls of different vegetables leftover from all the meals I’ve made.  Making a quesadilla, stir fry, pasta, soup or veggie pizza is a great way to use all the extra vegetables you may have on hand, and at the same time, try some interesting new combinations of foods.  I also like to experiment with spices in these dishes, often using turmeric, thyme or cinnamon with unexpected flavors.

Ingredients:

• Fresh spinach
• 1 clove fresh garlic
• Olive oil
• White button mushrooms (or any mushrooms)
• 2 jalapeno peppers
• 1/2 sweet yellow onion
• 1 cup cooked lentils
• Corn tortillas
• Salsa (tastes great with this dish but is not necessary since it already has so much flavor)
• A dash of oregano
• Sea salt and ground pepper to taste