Plant-based Curried Sweet Potato Quesadillas

My hiatus is over! This past month has been utterly insane, but it’s really started to calm down (thank goodness). Thanksgiving weekend was a gong-show with about 18 of my family members staying in my parent’s house and on the Tuesday following I moved to Victoria, British Columbia! My boyfriend and I left with no place to live and no jobs and within a week we found a cute little apartment down on the seafront. We have been trying to make this place home and with some help from friends and family, it is starting to really come together.

Anyways! Enough with my personal banter, you’re here for a recipe! This quesadilla was my first blog recipe in my new home, and boy was it delicious! Completely plant-based and with an Indian twist, it makes for a delicious lunch, dinner, or anytime snack.

Begin by covering your sweet potatoes with water and bringing them to a boil. Cook the babies until a fork can pierce one with little to no resistance. Drain and transfer to a bowl. You’re going to mash these up with some nut milk and all the spices (including curry powder). Set them aside to prepare your spinach and beans.

Sauté your spinach with 1 tsp of coconut oil and garlic. I like to sauté my garlic for about a minute over medium heat before adding the spinach, because the spinach wilts in seconds.

Now you’ve just got to put it all together! What I love about this recipe is that it’s actually super easy, but the flavours make it seem like you slaved over this meal for hours.

You can eat it with salsa, guacamole, refried beans, hot sauce or some vegan sour cream, whatever you like! I had a perfecetly ripe avocado on hand that was to hard to resist.

*makes 1 large quesadilla

Ingredients:

1 small sweet potato, peeled and cubed

1 cup chopped fresh spinach, packed

1 clove garlic, minced

1/4 cup black beans, drained and rinsed

2 large whole wheat tortillas

1 tsp coconut oil

1 tbsp nutritional yeast

1 tbsp curry powder

1/4 tsp turmeric

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/4 cup nut milk of choice (I use cashew)

salt & pepper to taste

Add the cubed sweet potatoes to a medium sized pot and cover with water, bringing to a boil. Once boiling, reduce to a simmer and cook for ~10 minutes, until the potatoes are cooked through.

While the potatoes are boiling heat 1 tsp coconut oil in a frying pan over medium heat and saute garlic. After about a minute add the chopped spinach. Saute for another minute, until the spinach is wilted and the garlic is fragrant. Set aside.

Strain the boiled sweet potatoes in a collander and transfer to a medium sized bowl. Add the cashew milk, curry powder, turmeric, nutritional yeast, and salt & pepper to taste. Mash with a potato masher or with a fork until smooth.

Heat a fry pan (same one used to saute the garlic & spinach) over medium heat.

Spread the ashed sweet potato over the entire surface of both tortillas. on one tortilla, spread the black beans and then the wilted spinach and garlic on top of the sweet potato spread. Place the other tortilla, sweet potato side down (sandwich style), on top.

Cook on the heated frying pan for 5 minutes per side, with the lid on for the first 5.

Serve with fresh avocado and enjoy!