I was craving a super quick lunch the other day. I had so many things on my to-do list, and making an elaborate lunch wasn’t one of them. I initially considered pasta, because it’s easy, filling and mighty delicious – but, I was out of pasta.
Dang.
So, I stared in my pantry for a few minutes and then I spotted the tortillas. Ding ding ding!
I almost always have soaked cashews in my refrigerator, since I cook with them a lot, and thankfully, I had some this day, and used them to make the yummy cashew cheese for this quick meal.
The only thing that took awhile was cooking 4 quesadillas, since they take about 5-8 minutes each. But other than that, this was an easy lunch to throw together, using ingredients I already had on hand.
I’d also like to mention that these vegan quesadillas are kid-approved (and that’s saying something, since my kids want to eat nothing but chocolate, bread, and plain pasta)!
I used vegan sour cream to dip my quesadillas in, but you can also used mashed avocado (or guacamole!), hummus, vegan nacho cheese, or just eat them plain. No matter how you eat them – they are damn good. Try some for lunch today!
- Cashew Cheese
- 1 1/2 cups raw cashews (soaked for at least 2 hours)
- 1/4 cup water
- 3 tbsp lemon juice
- 2 1/2 tbsp nutritional yeast
- 1 garlic clove
- Salt & freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- Quesadillas
- 8 flour tortillas
- 3/4 cup cooked black beans (if using canned, drain and rinse first)
- 3/4 cup corn (I used frozen)
- 1/3 cup black olives, sliced
- 3/4 cup tomatoes, diced (I used 1 large beefsteak tomato)
- 1/4 cup parsley, chopped
- 3 tbsp green onions, chopped small
- 1 large avocado, pitted and sliced
- 1 tbsp coconut oil
- Add all of the cashew cheese ingredients into a food processor or high-speed blender and process/blend until smooth. Refrigerate until ready to use.
- In a medium bowl, mix together the black beans, corn, olives, diced tomato and parsley. Set aside.
- Add a generous layer of cashew cheese to a tortilla, top with the black bean mixture, then cover with another tortilla, press down lightly, then set aside. Repeat with remaining tortillas.
- Heat a large pan over medium heat, add 1/2 tbsp oil, and add your quesadilla. Cook until the bottom of the quesadillas is golden brown (3-4 minutes), then flip and cook until the other side is golden brown. Repeat with remaining quesadillas.
- Plate your quesadillas, and sprinkle some green onions on top of each one. Serve with vegan sour cream, mashed avocado, or whatever else you like with your quesadillas.
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