Black Bean Quesadillas

Each week I try to vary our diets in several ways. For instance, I always try to incorporate some sort of seafood for dinner one night. I also try to go meatless for at least one day too. I love regular meat and that is what I grew up on. However, I think it’s important to remember that our body needs a variety of nutrients and those can’t always be found in just meat. Our ancestors who foraged and hunted for their food were eating what they caught that day. Sometimes it was the fish they caught. Other days it was the beans and legumes they foraged in the woods. As we transitioned to whole foods we also tried to get back to a more varied diet. One of the recipes that came up when we first started were these black bean quesadillas.

Benefits of Black Beans

There are a lot of health benefits to eating black beans. With the potassium, calcium, and magnesium that they contain they are helpful in maintaining or reducing blood pressure. They can also help with blood sugar! Fiber-rich foods are helpful in maintaining low blood glucose levels. Black beans are full of fiber. Selenium, which isn’t found in many fruits or vegetables, can also be found in these beans and selenium has numerous effects on the body. It helps with liver enzyme function which can help to detoxify some cancer causing compounds in your body. Is it possible I can help to prevent cancer by what I’m eating? Sign me up!

Using Other Beans

We make them with black beans but I honestly think that you could make them with pinto beans too. That would be more of a refried bean flavor that would create a wonderful mexican taste to them. We typically eat refried beans with most of our mexican food though so to incorporate more foods we made these with black beans. It’s more to keep on hand but we order them in bulk from Azure Standard. Sometimes we all get into the food rut so I find when I keep other items on hand it reminds me to eat more variety. I guess what I’m saying here is- you can make these with whatever beans you want. We just prefer black beans so they are black bean quesadillas for us. 

Canned or Instant Pot Beans

The quickest way to make these is to just grab a couple cannes of the pre-mashed black beans. Old El Paso makes some that are just like refried beans except they use black beans. They are in the same area in the store even. Right by each other! The second easiest way to make these is to buy cans of black beans and mash them. The beans that come out of cans are already soft and ready for mashing. The third, and still pretty easy, way to make these is to do instant pot black beans. I talk all about making beans in an instant pot on this post. It’s still an easy process, I promise. I’ve also found that buying in bulk is cheaper so this the cheapest method and one way to ensure there are no toxins in your beans too. With the canned versions you run the risk of having BPA in your cans. I prefer to eliminate that risk by using the dry version and cooking them myself.

Ingredients for Black Bean Quesadillas

4 Large Tortillas (homemade recipe)

2 Cans Black Beans or ½ lb dry black beans 

1 packet taco seasoning or homemade mix

Shredded Cheese

Toppings- onions, tomatoes, lettuce, salsa, sour cream, avocado, guacamole, etc.

Directions

If you are using dry beans make sure to cook them first and mash them.

Put beans in a bowl and add the taco seasoning to the beans and mix. 

Spread beans on ½ of the tortilla.

Add cheese and any other toppings that you want cooked. This is important because I like lettuce on my quesadilla but I do not like my lettuce cooked and mushy. I add onions and tomatoes to the inside of my quesadilla but not my lettuce. You also want the cheese to be the last thing that you add. This helps the quesadilla stick together. 

Fold in half. 

Heat the pan and add your quesadilla.

Cook each side until crispy (approx. 2-3 minutes). 

Top with any other toppings you would like. This is where I usually add my avocado, lettuce, and salsa.

Dip into sour cream, plain greek yogurt, ranch, whatever sounds good! We typically use just plain greek yogurt in place of sour cream in our house. It might seem weird but they have pretty much the same flavor honestly.

I also used my homemade tortilla recipe to make these and they work perfect. I cut it down to about 7 large tortillas that are a little thicker. This adds another step to the process though so if you are looking for easy just use store bought. I found that it was easy enough to throw the tortillas together while my beans were cooking in my instant pot. 

These are also great for lunch too! We had leftovers when I made them and it was great to pack for my husband to take for lunch. Super simple and they heat up well. The beans in them are actually super filling as well. Sometimes vegetarian meals get a bad rap because they aren’t filling. This is not one of them. Prepare to have your belly filled!

Black Bean Quesadilla

This is perfect for lunch or dinner.

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Course Main Course

Cuisine Mexican

Ingredients

  

• 4 Large Tortillas
• 2 Cans Black Beans or 1/2 lb dry black beans cooked
• 1 packet Taco Seasoning Or use your homemade version.
• Toppings Onions, tomatoes, lettuce, salsa, sour cream, cheese, etc.

Instructions

 

• If you are starting with dry beans be sure to cook them first.
• Put black beans in a bowl and mash them. You can use a potato masher or an immersion blender with a little water.
• Add taco seasoning to black beans.
• Lay out all tortillas. Add beans to half of the tortilla.
• Add cheese to insides of tortilla and anything else you want on the inside. This portion will be cooked so I don't recommend anything like lettuce.
• Heat a frypan on medium heat.
• Fold each tortilla in half.
• Cook each tortilla until they are golden brown and the cheese is melted.
• Add toppings and serve.

Notes

I usually cook my black beans in the instant pot to make this process a lot easier. 

These are the best with avocados on top!

Keyword Quesadilla, Tortilla