Home-made shrimp quesadillas spice up your life

My first-ever home-made quesadilla

Hot spices boost your metabolism

Add spice and you’ll burn off the fat in your meals that much more quickly.

I add hot chili sauce to my eggs in the morning, just for fun. And my veggie stir-fries are always livened up with hot peppers, garlic, onions, or ginger.

Here’s a spicy recipe from Cooking from the Heart. that uses home-made ingredients to create an awesome quesadilla. You can use processed foods instead to save time. But the home-made version is incredibly delicious.

Spicy Shrimp Quesadillas
Makes two 10-inch quesadillas

Home-made refried black beans

• 1 can black beans, drained (2 cups)
• 3/4 cup chicken broth
• 1/4 cup onion, chopped (I used a Videlia)

1. Heat a skillet to medium heat.  Add drained beans and chopped onions.  Let cook for  2 minutes for the onions to soften.
2. Add chicken broth and cook for about 6 minutes until beans start to look mushy.
3. Remove from heat and mash the beans with a potato masher to create refried beans.

Avocado spread

• 6 ounces plain low-fat Greek yogurt
• 2 avocados, diced
• 1 chipotle (from can, below. Also, see my note)
• sea salt and pepper

1. Add yogurt, avocado, chipotle, salt and pepper to a food processor.
2. Puree until thoroughly mixed together.

Spicy shrimps

• 1/2 pound peeled shrimp, coarsely chopped (about 10 biggies)
• 1/2 can chipotles in adobo sauce (I used 2 tablespoons chipotle sauce, instead)
• 1 small jalapeño pepper, diced
• 1/4 cup small red onion, diced
• 1/2 package spicy taco seasoning (or 2 tablespoons of homemade spice mix, below)

1. Heat skillet to medium heat.
2. In a bowl, mix shrimp with taco seasoning.
3. Combine all the ingredients in the pan and cook for 2-4 minutes until shrimps are pink and firm.  Discard the whole pieces of chipotle if you used them.

Quesadillas

• 4 whole-wheat tortillas
• 1 1/2 cup crumbled goat’s cheese (it has less fat than other commonly used cheeses and I love the taste… but use whatever cheese you like)
• dash of butter or your favorite oil (I used coconut oil)

1. Create an assembly line of your prepared ingredients.  This recipe is for 2 large quesadillas so use half of each mixture for each quesadilla.

     2. Take the bottom tortilla and spread avocado mixture on it.

     3. Then add shrimp mixture.

     4. Top with half your cheese (3/4 cup).

      5. Spread bean mixture on the second tortilla and put it on top of the first tortilla, bean side down. If the beans don’t stick well, sprinkle the bean mix evenly on top of the cheese on the first tortilla, then top it with the second one, like a  sandwich.

     6. With a little oil in a heated nonstick skillet, cook quesadilla on each side
for 2 to 3 minutes until golden brown.

     7. Slide quesadilla onto plate and cut into fours with a pizza cutter.

8. Serve with a dollop of low-fat sour cream or, better yet, with Greek yogurt.

 

For a pretty presentation. put the dollop of Greek yogurt on the quesadilla before you cut it.

Vinny’s Notes

If you can’t find the canned chipotles, chili sauce works, too. What I used, though, was chipotle sauce. Wonderful.

Also, replace packaged taco seasoning, with home-made. It takes three minutes and you’ll have some left over for your stir fries.

Taco seasoning
Makes about 3 tablespoons

• 1 tablespoon chili powder
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/4 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 teaspoon black pepper

1. Mix together all ingredients. Feel free to personalize. I prefer cayenne over red chili flakes. I can take or leave the oregano. Leave the salt out if you want to. It’s magic. When you make your own stuff, you are in control!
2. Store in an air-tight container until ready to use.

The verdict

This dish is easy to make. But it takes time. And it gets messy. Be prepared to devote an hour to getting it all together. Take time at the beginning to prepare all your ingredients. That way, you won’t feel rushed. And clean up as you go along.

This dish is  worth the trouble. I found the flavor warmed the mouth, but pleasantly – nothing painful. Just delicious! I could taste the beans, but lightly. The creamy avocado was a nice contrast to the spicy shrimps.

The only fat I used was about a half teaspoon every time I fried something new in the pan – perhaps a tablespoon of coconut oil in total. The goat’s cheese was a light touch, too – quite mild.

Everyone thought this recipe deserves to become a family staple.

Related

• Yackity’s life-ever-lasting Tibetan pie  Super lean meats are the starting point for a life-everlasting Sherpa’s pie, another main dish you might like to try.