Quesadillas de Flor de Calabaza
Folded tortillas filled with melted cheese and sautéed squash blossoms, onion and chilli, cooked on a hot griddle.
Photograph credit: Quesadilla de flor de calabaza by German matus · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons · this resized copy is shared under the same licence
In midsummer Mexican markets are full of bunches of orange squash blossoms, and the first thing a cook thinks of is a quesadilla. The flowers are delicate and nearly sweet, with a faint flavour of courgette, and they wilt in a pan in a minute. Combined with melted cheese, they make the best of the season.
Courgette flowers, available from farm shops and grocers in summer, work well. Clean them by removing the stamens and the green sepals at the base. Rinse carefully, pat dry, and tear into strips. Don't cook them for more than 2 minutes. They collapse and turn watery with overcooking.
Soften chopped onion and a small chilli in oil for 3 minutes, add the strips of blossom, and cook for 2 minutes, with a pinch of salt. A sprig of epazote adds a distinctive, herby note if you have it; coriander is a fair replacement.
Spread a handful of Oaxaca cheese or mozzarella over half a corn tortilla, add a spoonful of the squash mixture, fold, and cook on a hot dry griddle for 2 minutes on each side, until the tortilla is blistered and the cheese has melted. Serve with salsa verde and lime.
How to Make Quesadillas de Flor de Calabaza
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Tear the flowers into strips. Heat the oil and cook the onion and chilli for 3 minutes.
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Add the flowers and salt and cook for 2 minutes. Stir in the coriander.
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Heat a dry griddle over a medium-high heat. Lay a tortilla on it, cover half with cheese and a spoonful of the filling, and fold over.
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Cook for 2 minutes on each side until blistered and the cheese has melted. Repeat with the rest. Serve with the lime.
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Worth Getting Right
- Use fresh flowers the day you buy them.
- Do not overfill the tortillas.
- Add a little epazote if you can find it.
Common Substitutions & Variations
- Dried chilli flakes can stand in for the chilli. Heat varies a great deal between chillies and between jars, so start with a small pinch and add more to taste.
- Lemon is the everyday swap for lime in this kind of dish — the acidity plays the same role even though the flavour is not identical.
Pairs Well With
Salsa verde · Crema · Refried beans · Lime wedges
Storage
Best eaten straight away.
Nutrition per Serving
Per serving, calculated from the ingredient list with USDA FoodData Central figures (SR Legacy). A calculation, not a laboratory analysis: brands, cuts and how you measure change the real numbers. How the figures are worked out.
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Compiled by Turab
Checked by script for timings, diet labels and nutrition arithmetic. How the recipes are checked. Found a mistake? Tell us.
First published ; last changed .
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