Quesadillas

On the surface, this seems to be a relatively basic quesadilla with black bean spread, sour cream, cheddar cheese and salsa......or so you would think.

The black bean spread is nicely flavoured with a few spices, cilantro and lime, but do watch the salt level, especially if using canned beans. I don't mind a chunky texture so I merely mashed the beans instead of pureeing them in the food processor. The spread is layered with the other ingredients on a tortilla, topped with pickled jalapenos and grilled.

The star of this dish is the salsa....avocados and tomatoes combine to make a cool, fresh, creamy and fabulous tasting mouthful! Extra touches like soaking the sliced red onion in vinegar add a nice flavour and take some of the bite out of the raw onion at the same time.

The heat level of the beans and salsa is mild; most of the heat comes from the pickled jalapenos (my homemade are very hot!). This worked very well in my family as it made it easy to control the heat level of each quesadilla.

There was a bit of chopping involved in preparing this recipe, but once that's done, it makes for a very quick, fresh tasting, delicious meal.