Spinach & Cheese Breakfast Quesadilla
Soft scrambled eggs with wilted spinach, folded into a crispy whole wheat tortilla with melted cheese. The eggs stay loose and creamy, the spinach barely cooks down, and the cheese pulls when you break through the toasted shell. Ten minutes from cold pan to plate.
506 calories and 25 grams of protein from the eggs and cheese together. The olive oil, egg yolks, and melted cheese create three layers of fat that make this feel more like weekend brunch than a Tuesday morning.
Ingredients
- eggs 2
- milk, 2% reduced fat 1 fl oz
- olive oil 1 tbsp
- spinach 2 handfuls
- tortilla wrap, whole wheat 1
- grated cheese 1 oz
Method
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Whisk the eggs and milk together in a small bowl.
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Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add the eggs and cook, stirring occasionally with a spatula. Once the eggs begin to set, stir in the spinach and cook until wilted. Remove from the heat and season with salt and pepper.
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Spoon the scrambled egg mixture onto one half of the tortilla. Sprinkle the grated cheese over the top and fold the tortilla in half.
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Cook the quesadilla in a dry skillet over medium heat for about 2 minutes per side, until golden brown and the cheese has melted.
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Cut in half and serve.
Stir the spinach into the eggs while they are still setting, not after. Cooking spinach directly in egg yolks means the fat-soluble carotenoids in the leaves sit right in the lipids that help your body absorb them. Research found eggs increased carotenoid absorption from vegetables by 3 to 8 times.
Why This Works
Behind this recipe
Can I use a regular flour tortilla instead of whole wheat?
Any tortilla works. The whole wheat version adds a slightly nuttier flavor and 2 grams of fiber, but a white flour tortilla will fold, toast, and melt cheese exactly the same way.
Does cooking the spinach reduce its nutritional value?
Heat reduces some water-soluble vitamins like vitamin C, but it also breaks down plant cell walls and makes other compounds more available. In this recipe, cooking the spinach in egg yolks and olive oil actually helps your body absorb more of the fat-soluble carotenoids like lutein. The fat is doing real work here.
How much of the protein comes from the eggs versus the cheese?
Two large eggs contribute roughly 12 to 13 grams of protein. The ounce of grated cheese adds about 7 grams. The rest comes from the whole wheat tortilla and splash of milk. Together they deliver 25 grams across the full meal.
