More food, but not the food I'd planned

[nwhiker]

I still need to talk about the tarts that I made over the holidays (well, the crusts and fillings etc) but we had a great dinner tonight that I wanted to share.

First of all, HT to M for this one. She tasted it at a local restaurant, described it to me, and I tried to re-create it from her description. It was delish.

Butternut Squash, Caramelised Onions, and Goat Cheese Quesadillas.

Roast a butternut squash. When it's done, scoop out the flesh, purée. Season with salt, pepper, a pinch of pumpkin pie spice, a pinch of nutmeg, a pinch of chipotle or the like. Or to taste. Or just salt and pepper. WhatEVER.

Sauté onions until caramelised.

Grate cheese.

Everyone has their own way of making quesadillas, but the idea here was to smear a layer of squash purée on the tortilla, sprinkle with onions, cheese, and goat cheese, and make it whatever way you usually do.

I ended up using a lot less cheese than for standard quesadillas. The creaminess of the squash and the melty goat cheese was wonderful.

M, does this sound anything like what you actually had? Heh.

Yup. Reasonably healthy too, and the kids all ate 'em.

Comments

[mariettashirk.livejournal.com]

Computer ate my comment. Mine was more chunky (chunk of squash, chunk of cheese, all melted by still distinct in certain places). If I do it your way though the kids might eat it.. You're right, it is DELICIOUS!

[nwhiker.livejournal.com]

Huh. So no extra seasoning to the squash? Interesting.

The goat cheese ended up in, well, not chunks, but melty bites, since it doesn't sprinkle.

To be fair, the kids said they didn't like the onions, the squash, or the goat cheese, but since they ate it anyhow, I'm not quite buying it.

What surprised me was how filling it was.

[camelsamba.livejournal.com]

I had a butternut squash & caramelized onion open-faced tart kind of thing at a potluck some years back - it was fabulous. My first attempt to recreate it was not nearly as fabulous, but it is quite a good taste combination. I should try again.

I wonder if Toby would eat a quesadilla like this? He's big into plain cheese ones, maybe I could convince him to at least try a bite... He surprised me a few weeks ago by announcing that he likes kohlrabi and purple kale - had them at school during a "farm to school" visit (from our former CSA farmers, it turns out). But not cooked lacinato kale, based on the experience of day before yesterday. Maybe he needs classmates around for it to work...