“Make yourself a dang quesadilla.”
Oh, this was so good. I made a quesadilla last night, along with some black bean soup — jwa worked late and missed it all! Actually, he had some soup when he got home. But, back to the topic at hand here, I wouldn’t have thought to pair brie and mango up but, yeah, it works. I originally saw the recipe in Best 125 Meatless Main Dishes, by Sus Geiskopf Hadler — but really, it’s a dang quesadilla so it’s not that hard to piece together. Below is a brief recap of what I did, which pretty much follows the original recipe, eventhough the book was tucked away in the bookshelf while I prepared dinner. As such, you will probably read about this today and in some far off moment, think, “hmmmmm….brie & mango, tortillas…” and make yourself one of these lickety-split, using just basic quesadilla common sense & general cheese-goes-on-the-inside know how.
Brie & Mango Quesadillas:
1 medium ripe mango, peeled and cut into thin strips
Brie room temperature
3 green onions, chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
4 wheat tortillas
Prepare the mango. Mango can be tricky because it has that long, rectangular pit-like thing running through it. Find out which way that runs and then slice the pit-less cheeks from the fruit. Cut into thin pieces. Spread brie on two of the tortillas and sprinkle with green onion. Place mango slices on top of each and cover with another tortilla to make two quesadillas.
Heat olive oil in a pan and cook quesadillas on each side until golden and brie is all melty. Let cool for a minute then cut each quesadilla into four wedges. Serve with sour cream and salsa, garnish with cilantro leaves.
Look! Two recipes in one day! Excellent.
Quick Black Bean Soup:
2 cans black beans
1/2 to 1 cup chicken stock
1 tsp canola oil
1/2 onion, diced
1 tbsp chile powder
1 tbsp cumin
1 tsp orange zest
1 jalapeno
3 tbsp couscous
fresh cilantro, chopped
salt to taste
Sauté the diced onions in the oil, after 2-3 minutes, add the chile powder, cumin and a little salt. Contine to sauté until the onions start to get even more golden and you can smell the spices. Meanwhile, in a soup pot, combine the black beans and the stock. Bring to a simmer and add the onions. Add the orange zest and one finely diced jalapeno pepper (removing the seeds will make it less hot or only use one half the pepper if you prefer — or use red pepper flakes or tabasco if you have no jalapeno on hand). Add the couscous and let simmer until couscous is cooked and plumped up. Add more chicken stock if it’s too thick. Taste and salt as needed. Serve with sour cream drizzled on top, cliantro and the brie & mango quesadilla wedges.