Baba Ganoushadillas

Ilian recently developed a taste for Baba Ganoush (and red pepper hummus), and besides growing about 50 baby eggplant plants to honor this, we have explored ways to incorporate the new food into our meals.
Here’s one: vegan quesadillas. How? Isn’t the main point of quesadillas the queso? Sure, but if you think about it, what you get from gooey, melted cheese is a creaminess binding the tortilla and its loose, finely chopped ingredients together.
Hummus or Baba Ganoush will do the same! Plus, this version is far lighter in calories and guilt 🙂

Ilian opted to play outside on the porch, doing “garderning”, so no pics with a little helper today. I hope you enjoy the result as much as we did though!

 

And the first baby Robin took flight yesterday! The four of them are so big now I was wondering when it would happen 🙂
But still can’t believe it’s been a mere 12 days since the first egg hatched…

 

• Servings: 3
• Difficulty: intermediate
• Print

Ingredients

• 3 corn tortillas (we use Trader Joe’s 100% corn tortillas)
• 1 container baba ganoush (we love Oasis’ product!)
• 1 lb mushrooms
• 4 cups fresh spinach, tightly packed
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• 1 TBsp canola oil

Directions

1. Chop mushrooms into small cubes. Wash and drain spinach thoroughly, then chop into small pieces.
2. Heat canola oil over medium heat in large pan with lid. Add mushrooms and spices, cook for about 3 minutes, stirring frequently.
3. Add spinach to pan in batches: Fill pan, cover with lid, let cook for half a minute or longer, until spinach is wilted. Stir, add next batch.
4. Once the mushroom-spinach mix is done, set aside to cool.
5. In the meantime, wrap tortillas in aluminum foil and heat in oven at 350F for 10 minutes, until soft, pliable, and fragrant.
6. Mix mushroom-spinach mix with baba ganoush, using as much baba ganoush as you like.
7. OPTION 1: Spread filling onto half of a warm tortilla, fold over, cut in half, and serve.
8. OPTION 2: For a slightly unhealthier version that is closer to the original quesadilla style, add 2 tsp oil to a non-stick pan and fry a warm tortilla for a minute. Spread filling onto half of the tortilla, fold other half on top with spatula. Fry for half a minute, flip over, fry for a few seconds. Take out of pan, cut in half and serve.
9. Enjoy either way!