Delicious feta and vegetable quesadillas, seasoned with garlic & sesame oil. Quick & nutritious, they’re easy to make, easy to eat!
We recently had a lovely holiday in Israel. Since we were last there a couple of years ago, the quality of restaurant food seems to have improved immensely. (Unless we were just eating in all the wrong places last time). We had some truly spectacular meals.
Street food?
On our first night in Jerusalem, we went to a street fair not far from where we were staying. The road was closed to traffic, and there were stalls, music, costumes, and all manner of entertainments. Unfortunately thought, the only food we could find seemed to be popcorn, candy floss, and corn on the cob.
Fortunately, the street itself was home to a number of cafes, bars and restaurants. So when the time came for dinner, we chose a place with outdoor tables and sat down. It was near to a stonking blues band, fronted, rather incongruously, by an observant Jewish guy with a big beard and dangling tzitzit. Perfect dinner entertainment!
The food was absolutely delicious! I had pasta with vegetables, sesame oil and feta, and it was wonderful. It was a combination of flavours that I would never have thought to put together otherwise, but I’m glad someone else did. YUM! The chef had also added enormous whole cloves of garlic to the dish which were fantastic!
Holiday at home
Now we’re home, it’s time to try and recreate some of our holiday yummies. I couldn’t remember exactly what went into this dish – we were having too much fun at the street fair to make detailed notes! But I decided to make the delicious vegetable and feta combo but put it into quesadillas instead of on pasta. We’ve been eating tons of pasta recently and I just fancied a change.
What are quesadillas?
A quesadilla is a Mexican dish consisting of tortillas, filled with cheese and sometimes other ingredients, which is heated to melt the cheese. Traditionally cooked on a griddle, it can also be warmed in the oven, cooked in a sandwich press, or even microwaved! A basic quesadilla contains only cheese, but you can add any additional items you like – vegetables, sauces, beans etc. We like to cut our quesadillas into wedges and scoop up a bit of salsa with each bite. So good!
Traditionally, a ‘full’ quesadilla is made by sandwiching two tortillas around a filling. The quesadillas I’ve made here are ‘halves’ made by folding a single tortilla over the filling to create a half moon shape. Personally, I think one folded tortilla with plenty of filling is enough for a meal. But if you’re still hungry, by all means have another!
Feta and vegetable quesadillas
My holiday-inspired feta and vegetable quesadillas were deliciously good. I cooked them in the oven but you can fry them or use a panini/sandwich press. You could also just serve the vegetables and feta minus the tortilla as a side dish, or tossed through some pasta. So many options!
The recipe made four feta and vegetable quesadillas. We scoffed the lot!
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📖 Recipe
Vegetable quesadillas with feta
Ingredients
- 1 medium onion
- 6 cloves garlic
- 2 carrots
- 1 green pepper
- 1 small aubergine or half a large one
- 100 g cherry tomatoes
- 2-3 tablespoon sunflower oil
- 2 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
- 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
- 4 tortilla wraps
- 100 g crumbled feta cheese
Instructions
- 1 medium onion, 6 cloves garlic, 2 carrots, 1 green pepper, 1 small aubergine or half a large one, 100 g (3 ½ oz) cherry tomatoesPeel the onions and cut into thin slices. Peel the garlic cloves and cut each one in half. Peel the carrots and cut into julienne strips. Deseed the pepper and slice. Cut the aubergine into small chunks. Wash the tomatoes and halve any larger ones.
- 2-3 tbsp sunflower oilHeat the oil in a large skillet and add the onions and garlic. Cook over a low heat for 5 minutes until soft.
- Add the carrots, pepper, aubergine and tomatoes, increase the heat, and cook, stirring for another 5 minutes.
- 2 tbsp toasted sesame oil, 1 tbsp balsamic vinegarRemove from the heat and add the toasted sesame oil and balsamic vinegar. Mix well.
- Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F).
- Place a tortilla on a non-stick baking sheet and spread a quarter of the vegetables over one half of it. Top with a quarter of the feta. Fold the tortilla over to enclose the filling and squash down to close.
- Repeat with the remaining tortilla wraps, vegetables and cheese.
- Bake the quesadillas at 180°C (350°F) for around 8 minutes, until heated through and browning at the edges. Cut each one into 2 or 3 wedges, and serve.
Notes
Nutrition
More delicious quesadillas
If you have some tortilla wraps leftover, why not try these fabulous sweet quesadillas with nutella and banana, biscoff spread, or blueberry cheesecake filling?
The November Tea Time Treats challenge, hosted by Lavender and Lovage and The Hedgecombers, is on the theme of bonfire night. I wish I’d thought to make these quesadillas on bonfire night as they would have been the perfect warming and delicious thing to eat before watching the fireworks! Next year…
I’m also entering them into Family Foodies, hosted by Louisa at Eat Your Veg and Vanesther at Bangers and Mash, which is after delicious vegetarian dishes.
Eat Your Veg
Now there’s a tasty sounding Quesadilla! We make quite a few round here and strangely hadn’t thought of adding roasted veggies and feta, which is always a winning combination in my book! Thanks so much for entering your recipe to November’s Family Foodies.
FFF
Thanks! And thanks for hosting Family Foodies – lots of lovely inspirational recipes 🙂
HedgeComber
Yum, Yum, Yum! I love holiday inspired dishes, and this one looks particularly tempting. Thanks so much for sharing with Tea Time Treats 🙂
Janie x
FFF
I think I need to go on more holidays, just for the inspiration!