Swaadista

This is my Indianized version of the classic Mexican quesadilla. It’s delicious and great for family dinners, paired with a side of mashed avocado and ranch!

In this recipe, the quesadilla filling is made with cooked black-eyed peas, onion, shredded mozzarella cheese, tomato, green chilies, savoy cabbage, spices, and coriander leaves. And instead of the classic corn tortilla, I have used homemade all-purpose flour and whole-wheat chapatis.

Cheese – I used mozzarella cheese, but any stringy, gooey cheese works. The classic combination typically includes Monterey Jack and cheddar.

Give this recipe a try and let me know how it turned out for you!

Print Recipe

Indian-Style Quesadilla with Black-Eyed Peas

Prep Time8 hours hrs

Cook Time45 minutes mins

Keyword: Black eyed peas, Dinner Ideas, Indian style Quesadilla, Quesadilla, Vegetarian Quesadilla

Ingredients

For filling

• 1/2 cup black-eyed peas soaked for 8 hours
• 1 1/2 cup water to cook soaked black-eyed peas
• 1 tbsp Peanut oil or any cooking oil
• 1 small red onion finely chopped
• 1 medium tomato finely chopped
• 1 green chili finely chopped
• 2 handfuls shredded savoy cabbage
• 1 tsp kashmiri red chili powder
• 3/4 tsp cumin powder
• 1/2 tsp black pepper powder
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• salt to taste
• coriander leaves for garnish

For flour/whole wheat chapatis

• 200 g all-purpose flour
• 50 g whole wheat flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• water
• 1 tsp ghee
• ghee for smearing, while cooking

Cheese

• Mozzarella cheese

Sides

• 1 large avocado mashed and mixed with lemon
• Ranch

Instructions

Cook black-eyed peas

• Add soaked and drained black-eyed peas into a cooking pot. Then add water and a little bit of salt and cook on medium-low heat until peas cooked through and tender.

  To make the process quicker, alternatively, you can pressure cook black-eyed peas too until tender.
  1/2 cup black-eyed peas, 1 1/2 cup water
• Once cooked, drain and keep the cooked peas aside.

Make the filling

• Heat oil in a pan on medium heat.
  1 tbsp Peanut oil
• Transfer the cooked black-eyed peas to the pan and mash it while stirring.
• Add onion, green chilies, all the spice powders (kashmiri red chili, cumin powder, black pepper powder, garlic powder), tomatoes, and salt.

  Saute for a couple of minutes on low heat, gently mashing, until everything comes together.
• Add cabbage and coriander leaves and stir for a minute or two, and turn off the heat.

Make chapatis

• Add all purpose flour and whole wheat flour into a mixing bowl, with oil, ghee, and salt and mix well.
  200 g all-purpose flour, 50 g whole wheat flour, 1/4 tsp salt, 1 tsp ghee
• Then add small amounts of water step-by-step and knead the dough until soft.
  water
• Cover the bowl and allow the dough to rest for 10 minutes.
• Make small desired-sized roundels of the dough. Roll them and cook on low heat on a cast iron girdle (tawa) on both sides, smearing ghee on either side.
• Repeat the process.

Assemble and cook Quesadilla

• Smear a bit of ghee on the same tawa.
• Place a cooked chapati on it and spread the shredded cheese over the whole chapati.
• Add the prepared filling to half of the chapati as shown in the video. Add more shredded cheese on top.
• Wait for the bottom chapati to brown as desired then gently fold the filling-less half of the chapati over the other side.
• Flip the quesadilla over, smear ghee, and cook on the other side too until browned as desired. Turn off the heat.
• Repeat the process for all other chapatis.
• Cut quesadillas into three triangles as shown in the video. And Serve with a side of mashed avocado (mixed with lemon) and ranch. Enjoy!

Video

Check out more lunch/dinner recipes here!

If you tried this recipe, let me know how you liked it by leaving a comment below or tagging a picture of your preparation on Instagram @swaadista

Happy cooking, happy eating!