Though we love spending time in our kitchen, most weeknights we’re not up for much of a challenge. We generally save our cooking adventures for the weekend (though sometimes we find some unexpected mid-week inspiration!).
Here’s some mid-week inspiration for a dish that’s incredibly easy to put together, but seems inspiring none the less. (And, you can capitalize on local winter greens, if they’re readily available in your area!)
Quesadillas are a common go-to meal for us, but we’d never tried them with Mediterranean flavors. Turns out the quesadilla lends itself well to ethnic interpretations (much like our experiments with Mexican and Greek pizza). We can’t wait to try some new countries – but for now, Greece certainly does the trick!
The recipe below includes the ingredients that we used, but it is easy to customize to your pantry ingredients and individual tastes. We found the most essential ingredients for the Mediterranean taste were the feta cheese, oregano, and red onion, so we’d recommend keeping those. (But, if you are opposed to olives like one of our taste testers, you can feel comfortable that you will not be missing too much of the flavor!)
Thanks to Homestead Growers for the spinach (at the Indy Winter Farmer’s Market)!
- 8 whole wheat tortillas
- 2 cups fresh spinach
- 1 red onion
- 1 jar roasted red peppers
- 1 can black olives
- 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
- ½ cup feta cheese crumbles
- 1½ tablespoons fresh chopped oregano (or 2 teaspoons dried)
- Red pepper flakes (optional)
- Chiffonade the spinach. Thinly slice the red onion and the desired amount of roasted red peppers and black olives. Chop the fresh oregano (if using).
- For each quesadilla, place a tortilla on a plate and evenly spread with ¼ of the spinach, red onion, roasted red peppers, black olives, mozzarella cheese, feta cheese, and oregano. Sprinkle with a few red pepper flakes (if using).
- Heat a large non-stick skillet over medium heat for a few minutes. Place the loaded tortilla on the griddle and place another tortilla on top. Cook until browned on the bottom, then flip and cook until browned on the other side, a few minutes per side.
- Remove the tortilla and cut into wedges with a pizza cutter. If making several quesadillas at once, keep them warm in a 300°F oven.
50 Comments
Bob
January 5, 2012 at 1:54 pmLooks good
Anonymous
May 29, 2015 at 8:20 pmI top it with a couple spinach leaves, cucumber sauce, red onion sliced thinly and an olive! Voila
Krissy {Krissy's Creations}
January 5, 2012 at 4:56 pmI love the twist on Quesadilla and making them Mediterranean. It’s great when you make something quick and easy and it still be equally satisfying as a time consuming meal :). Great recipe Sonja!
Cookie and Kate
January 6, 2012 at 12:28 amQuesadillas are my go-to quick meal. I never thought to add olives! Yum!
Miranda @ Living One Bite at a Time
January 6, 2012 at 4:08 amOh mannn this looks SO good!! Awesome idea.
Juls
January 6, 2012 at 7:58 amWow! These look delicious – I’d never really thought about making quesidillas inspired by countries other than Mexico so now a whole realm of possibility is opened!
sara
January 6, 2012 at 10:27 amGreat recipe! I love making quesadillas with less traditional fillings, and these sound really delicious! Thanks for sharing – I will definitely have to try this out! :)
CulinarilyCourtney
January 6, 2012 at 10:47 amI love Greek flavors, but have never cooked a Greek recipe, believe it or not. This recipe might be a good way for me to get my feet wet through the all-too-familiar vehicle of a quesadilla. Thanks!
Hannah
January 6, 2012 at 1:06 pmThis looks so great! I cant eat spicy food anymore, and I miss mexican food SO MUCH but this seems like a great alternitive (if not better!). Thanks again!
Annie
January 6, 2012 at 3:02 pmI LOVE this idea. These look so amazing, I can’t wait to try them! The moment I saw the name in my reader, they were bookmarked before I had even read your post :)
anna maria
January 6, 2012 at 8:04 pmI can’t wait to try these!
Hannah
January 6, 2012 at 10:44 pmMade this for dinner tonight and blogged about it!
http://therecipebox-hd.blogspot.com/2012/01/greek-quesadillas-from-couple-cooks.html
Debs @ The Spanish Wok
January 7, 2012 at 12:21 pmI love Quesadillas and have not had them for ages, thanks for the reminder, may have to try this recipe soon.
andie
January 8, 2012 at 4:06 pmlooks healthy and delicious. can’t wait to try it.
almostveg
January 8, 2012 at 7:06 pmNice twist on the Mexican go to… try these quesadilla options at http://omnivore-almostveg.blogspot.com/search/label/quesadilla
Lesley MacMichael
January 11, 2012 at 3:03 amWow, these look so good and great to find your blog. Lovely photos.
Heather
January 14, 2012 at 8:36 pmI just made these for dinner for my mom and me, and they were absolutely delicious! I thought we’d both eat one each and have left overs tomorrow, but they were so good we scarfed down two each! Amazing recipe, I will definitely be making these again. Thank you!
Sharon
January 14, 2012 at 9:29 pmLove Greek food so this sounds interesting & delicious. Thanks
Secret Diary of a Foodie
January 15, 2012 at 5:44 amI’d love these for breakfast right now!
Ranu
January 18, 2012 at 9:31 amWow, this looks amazing and so yummy!! Photography is gorgeous too, I’ll need to try this!
Elly
January 18, 2012 at 3:07 pmThis looks amazing! I’m gonna have to try it out :)
Brooke Guevara
January 19, 2012 at 2:51 pmThese quesadillas looks delicious! I just read the ingredients and my husband and he wants them t o n i g h t. hehe. Thanks for the dinner inspiration.
Lyndsey
January 24, 2012 at 8:24 pmThese are AMAZING. So easy to make and I had almost everything in the house. I forgot the oregano and red pepper flakes but did put a white beam hummus on the each tortillas before cooking. I also used both roasted red peppers and sundries tomatoes. Thanks so much for the recipe. I will definitely be making these often. I also think it’ll be great to cook up beforehand and take for lunches.
Sonja
February 11, 2012 at 10:50 pmHummus sounds like a great idea – we’ll have to try that next time!
Jocelyne
January 26, 2012 at 8:50 pmI made these for dinner tonight and wondered where they had been my whole life. They were incredible. My boyfriend and 2yr old scarfed them. I’ve added them into my dinner rotation.
Thanks!
Sonja
February 11, 2012 at 10:50 pmHaha, we wondered that too! Glad you enjoyed them! :)
Katie | GoodLife Eats
February 10, 2012 at 8:14 pmJust stopping by to let you know I’ve made this a few times now and love it! So easy and tasty. Thanks for a new quesadilla recipe. We usually get stuck with Mexican ideas.
Sonja
February 11, 2012 at 10:49 pmOh, so glad you enjoyed them! We had been stuck in that rut before these – now there are so many possibilities :)
Kevyn Holden
March 13, 2012 at 12:38 pmThis recipe looks awesome! I love quesadillas. They don’t take a lot of time to prepare and you can literally put anything in them you want! Thanks for this recipe, I am definitely going to try it out soon!
Shela
March 17, 2012 at 1:42 pmThis quesadilla is really fresh tasting. It needs more spices though!
pamrip
March 20, 2012 at 7:45 amThese look really good! They use a lot of my favorite ingredients. I was wondering, are they hard to flip over in the frying pan?
Sonja
March 21, 2012 at 9:56 amGood question! A little bit + we try to keep a spatula handy to help :)
Kevin (Closet Cooking)
March 23, 2012 at 6:43 amThese are some tasty sounding quesadillas!
LiLiane
April 3, 2012 at 2:56 pmthe recipe is so delicious …you can also use the Quesadillas with Mozzarella cheese & ham & mushrooms & black olives & green pepper … and you can also , use it with chicken (boiled or grilled )marinated with garlic and lemon, bake it for 5 minutes
Bon appetit
Rachel Ropper
April 10, 2012 at 1:13 pmWe made these tonight for dinner and they were excellent! We used sundried tomatoes rather than peppers and added a little salsa, as we happened to have some leftover on the fridge. We also had leftover sour cream so we dolloped that on top of the slices of quesadilla when we served them, and my fiancé added jalapeños to his. It took a couple of tries to get the balance between too little filling and too much, but this is definitely one we’d make again. Thanks for the great recipe! I found your website via Pinterest and will definitely be checking out more of your recipes.
Beth
April 27, 2012 at 5:39 pmWe (me, husband and 2.5yo) just had these for dinner–so delicious! I’ll be making these again and again. Thank you!
lamck
August 18, 2012 at 8:43 pmSounds great. I would probably grill these. I have done this with Cuban ques.
CJ
October 5, 2012 at 5:17 pmI made these this week, and they were AMAZING!!! My newest way to enjoy quesadillas! Thanks for posting. YUM!
Laura
October 17, 2012 at 4:19 amMade these today, loved them, thanks for the recipe!
Manon
November 5, 2012 at 4:34 amI tried these and they are absolutely wonderful. Thanks for the great recipe :)
Sonja
December 1, 2012 at 5:37 pmGlad you enjoyed them!
Julia
November 29, 2012 at 11:09 amThese looks delicious as do all of your recipes!! I just spent the last few minutes pinning a bunch of them & can’t wait to try them out. Beautiful pictures by the way.
Sonja
December 1, 2012 at 5:35 pmThank you so much! :) Hope you enjoy the recipes!
Sylvia Tryon Goeltz
January 14, 2014 at 2:29 pmThese sound great. We love Greek food and use these tortillas all the time. We often make Mexican but lately have made pizza quesidillas . Meat or meatless, peppers, onions, mushrooms, sauce cheese. Very yummy. Takes care of my pizza craving w/o so much fat and carbs.
Terrie
January 19, 2014 at 7:17 pmJust made this and the family loved these, even my picky son. Thanks for posting this–they were simple, didn’t take much prep time, and delicious.
Alex
January 19, 2014 at 7:26 pmGlad you enjoyed them!
Tammy Ross
March 30, 2014 at 11:21 amLunch:)
Rick
June 21, 2014 at 3:57 pmThe Kalamata olive is far superior in flavor than black olives. Use Kalamata’s and THEN it’ll be a Greek quesadilla!
Sandy
September 2, 2014 at 5:22 pmThis look delicious. I rarely eat olives but don’t mind when I do and my mom likes them so I’ll have to make this some time ^_^.
Jennifer
January 10, 2015 at 6:24 pmFantastic simple and yummy recipe. Thanks for sharing!