31 August 2011



I love it when I come across a recipe that combines ingredients or flavors that I would have never thought to combine.  This recipe combines roasted sweet potatoes with sweet caramelized onions and creamy, salty cheese.  I would have never thought to put these flavors together, but it totally works! This was our meatless meal of the week.  It's a slight adaptation of one I saw at Food For Thought.


Sweet Potato and Caramelized Onion Quesadillas


Ingredients:
2 sweet potatoes, sliced into ¼” thick rounds
2 tbsp olive oil, divided
½ tsp salt
1 onion, thinly sliced
4 (8”) flour tortillas
1 (6 oz.) package Laughing Cow Light Garlic and Herb Cheese
Cooking spray


Directions:
Preheat oven to 450°.


In a large bowl, toss the sweet potato rounds, 1 tbsp of the olive oil, and salt until potatoes are well coated.  Arrange the potatoes on a baking sheet in a single layer.  Bake the potato rounds in the oven for 25 minutes, flipping after 15 minutes.


In the meantime, heat the remaining 1 tbsp olive oil in a skillet.  Sautee the sliced onion strips for 5 minutes on medium high heat, stirring often.  Cover the pan and lower the heat to medium, stirring every 2 minutes until onions are golden (about 10 minutes).


Coat a large baking pan with cooking spray.  Arrange the tortillas on the baking pan and evenly divide the cheese among the four tortillas.  Spread the cheese to ½” from the edge of each tortilla.  Layer the sweet potatoes on one half of each tortilla.  Divide the onions and layer on top of the sweet potato layer.


Fold the tortillas in half to cover the potatoes and onions.  Lightly spray the outside of the tortillas with cooking spray.  Bake the quesadillas for 5 minutes.  Flip and bake for 5 more minutes, or until golden brown on both sides.  Remove the quesadillas from the oven and let cool at least 5 minutes before cutting and serving.  Serve with your choice of garnish.


Makes 4 servings.

I absolutely love caramelized onions.  I am always so surprised to discover how incredibly sweet they become after being cooked this way.  I have to admit, though, that this was my first time making them myself. I had a little trouble with them, and they took way longer than what the original recipe said (6-8 minutes), but I think it's because I forgot to put the lid on the pan.

I didn't think my husband would be very excited about this dish because he doesn't really like onions.  He'll put up with a few here or there, as long as they're cooked, but overall he just doesn't really care for them.  I was surprised when I told him what we were having for dinner and he told me that it sounded awesome and that he couldn't wait to try it.  When building the quesadillas, I did go easy on the onions on his, but there was still a good amount on there.  He loved the quesadillas.  Raved about them.  Yay!

The original recipe didn't specify what size of tortillas to use, and while I had all three sizes in my pantry, the large ones were the only ones I had enough of, so I used those.  I was only able to make three quesadillas out  of the large tortillas, so I think the medium is the right choice for this recipe.

The combination of the sweet potato, the sweet onions, and the garlic and herb cheese is so good!  I really like Laughing Cow cheese, but would never have thought to put it in quesadillas.  These quesadillas don't stick together as well as ones made with some kind of shredded cheese, but they stay together well enough.

I served these with roasted asparagus, mostly because I just needed to use it up before it went bad.  Nobody missed the meat in this meal and I know I'll be making it again.

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