Sara Jane: Summer Quesadillas

It has become a tradition, on both my side of the family and my husband's side of the family, to have our annual family reunions during the summer on the Oregon Coast.  This past week, we went to the coast for my in-law's family reunion.  It was the perfect vacation.  We built sand castles, played in the freezing ocean water, went to the touching ponds, watched a meteor shower and ate delicious food.

Penelope touching a giant sea cucumber (slug) and star fish at the Hatfield Marine Science Center.

Uncle Doug helping Ash in the touching pond.

 While on the family reunion, we each take an evening to make dinner.  For my dinner, I made hominy curry (since we have several vegetarians in the family). It was fantastic!  I'm not sharing that recipe yet but I will.  Instead I am sharing my SIL, Olivia's recipe.  She made the most delicious quesadillas with sweet potatoes, goat cheese and chard (I know at least one sister is gagging at this point).  I don't usually like sweet potatoes and never like chart but LOVED this meal.  In fact, I made it again last night only I used kale instead of chard because that's what came in our CSA.

Here we go...

SUMMER QUESADILLAS

Ingredients:

2 purple onions, thinly sliced
2 sweet potatoes
1 T garlic
4 ounces soft goat cheese, at room temperature
1 package tortillas (I used the ready-to-cook kind you can buy at Walmart), cooked
1 bunch of kale, chopped (any green will work)

Directions:

Slice your sweet potatoes into 1-inch thick medallions.  Place on a baking sheet and bake at 300* for 30 - 45 minutes, until soft enough to smash.  They should look something like this when they're done...

Cook your sliced onions in a tablespoon of olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat until the onions are soft and translucent (about 10 to 15 minutes).

When your onions are ready, add another tablespoon (or 2) of oil and add in your kale.  If it looks like a lot, don't worry.  It will cook down.  Add a few tablespoons of water and cover with a tight fitting lid.  Occasionally stir.  Cook for about 5 - 10 minutes.  It should look something like this when its done...

Take the potatoes out of the oven, peel off the skins and smash, like you would regular mashed potatoes.

Cook your tortillas.

When tortillas are finished, spread goat cheese over one side of two tortillas.  Next, on one tortilla, spread a thin layer of sweet potatoes over your goat cheese.  Then add a generous helping of the kale/onion mix on top of the sweet potatoes.  Finally, add the second tortilla, goat cheese side down, on to the top.

Slice with a pizza slicer and serve warm.

Enjoy!