A unique and delicious sweet and savory quesadilla recipe.
Pear Quesadillas
Ingredients
1 cup grated cheese (try cheddar, jack, or pepper jack)
1 cup pear slices (fresh or canned and drained)
½ cup finely chopped bell pepper (any color)
2 Tablespoons minced onion (any type)
4 medium whole-wheat tortillas
Directions
- Wash hands with soap and water.
- Rinse or scrub fresh fruits and vegetables under running water before preparing.
- Divide cheese, pears pepper and onion between the tortillas, covering about half of each tortilla. Fold each tortilla in half over the filling.
- Heat a skillet or griddle to medium (300 degrees F in an electric skillet). Place one or two folded tortillas on a dry skillet and heat until cheese melts and the tortilla browns slightly, about 2 to 4 minutes.
- With large spatula, gently turn quesadillas over and cook the other side until a little brown, 2 to 4 minutes.
- Remove to a plate and repeat until all tortillas are heated. Cut each quesadilla in half and serve.
- Refrigerate leftovers within 2 hours.
Notes
- Put pear cubes on a paper towel for a couple of minutes to help dry them out. This will help your quesadilla stick together!
- Out of pears? Try diced fresh apples, halved grapes, sliced bananas or peaches.
- Flavor boosters: add some chopped cilantro, or use pepper jack cheese.
- Try adding cilantro on top for more flavor.
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Comments
I tried this recipe for Pear Quesadillas because the Snap Ed/Food Hero folks in our office was making it for some youth they were working with. We truly enjoyed the recipe but I thought it was some what bland. I made this with canned peaches and loved the way the flavors popped.
In reply to I tried this recipe because… by Celia August
Celia, thanks so much for sharing your adaptation of the recipe for Pear Quesadillas. We added peaches to the list of fruit suggestions to try! From the Food Hero Team
The ingredients remain the same but we have revised the directions so it is a little easier to heat and turn the quesadillas - especially for kids!
The Food Hero Team
Update: We followed the above recipe, but added a few cooked black beans, and fresh baby spinach -- it was even better than before!
This is really good with gouda cheese!
Lots of people doubt this recipe but if you can convince them to try it (sample!) they are hooked. I tell other moms it is a great way to sneak fruits and veggies into your kiddos. You can sub zuchini or tomatoes for the peppers and sub apple for the pears if you've got them on hand. All combinations have been delicious!
These were a big hit with my classes, both teen and adult. It *did* take the teen chefs longer to prepare the recipe (30 minutes, not 10), and it was VERY difficult for both teens and adults to flip the quesadilla, when adhering to above directions. We even tried the "slide to a plate, then use the plate to flip the quesadilla", but that didn't prove much easier.
We found that instead of making one GIANT quesadilla (using 2 tortillas) it was easier to use one tortilla, folded in half. It was much easier to flip the tortillas when they were smaller, with one edge closed off.
Some students thought that pears sounded really weird in this recipe -- but then they tried it, and really liked it.
These are great! The pear really adds a lot to it!
These are so tastey! Love the Pear Crunch!
ou! this sounds interesting! I'll try it for dinner tonight!