Recipe: Quesadillas stuffed with greens and feta

One of the challenges every working cook faces is weeknight dinner. You want to serve something with real flavor, but you don’t have a lot of time. Times Food editor Russ Parsons has one solution: quesadillas. Not the basic melted cheese and flour tortilla version, but versions such as this one, stuffed with quickly cooked braising greens such as kale, mustard and collard, some melting mozzarella and tangy, salty feta cheese cubes. Get the best corn tortillas you can find and you’ve got a terrific dinner on the table in less time than it takes for the pizza guy to arrive.

Quesadillas stuffed with greens and feta

Total time: 30 minutes

Servings: 4 to 6

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Oil

1/3 cup minced onion

1 pound mixed cooking greens, such as kale, mustard and collard

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper

2 teaspoons minced garlic

1 cup diced feta cheese

12 corn tortillas

1/4 pound low-moisture mozzarella, cut in small dice

1. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large skillet. Add the onion and cook until it softens and begins to color, 3 to 5 minutes.

2. While the onion is cooking, rinse the greens in a colander, but don’t dry them. When the onion is ready, add the greens along with any water that clings to the leaves to the skillet. Season with salt and red pepper, sprinkle with garlic and cook, stirring frequently, until the greens are quite tender, about 15 minutes.

3. Remove from the heat and stir in the feta.

4. Heat 2 teaspoons oil on a griddle over medium heat; use a spatula to distribute it so the surface is evenly covered. If you don’t have a large griddle, you can use a skillet, but you’ll have to cook the quesadillas in more than one batch. Add the tortillas and cook on one side until they have softened, 2 to 3 minutes. Flip them to the other side and spoon 2 to 3 tablespoons of the greens in the center. Sprinkle over some of the diced mozzarella and use a spatula to fold the tortilla in half around the filling.

5. Cook until the tortilla begins to brown on one side, 2 to 3 minutes, and then flip onto the other side and cook until the tortilla browns on that side and the mozzarella is melted, about 2 to 3 minutes more. If some of the melting cheese oozes onto the griddle, that’s even better. Repeat if necessary to use up all of the tortillas and filling.

6. Serve immediately, or keep warm in a 250-degree oven until all of the quesadillas have been made.

Each of 6 servings: 311 calories; 13 grams protein; 32 grams carbohydrates; 5 grams fiber; 16 grams fat; 7 grams saturated fat; 37 mg. cholesterol; 2 grams sugar; 840 mg. sodium.