I love butternut squash. And I love kale. Together in a quesadilla...well, it's too delicious for words.

Heat 1 tablespoon butter and olive oil in a large skillet over high heat. Add squash and sprinkle with salt, pepper, and chili powder. Cook for several minutes, turning gently with a spatula, until squash is deep golden brown and tender (but not falling apart.) Remove to a plate and set aside. In the same skillet, melt 1 tablespoon of butter over medium-high heat and add in the kale. Toss it around with tongs and cook it for 3 to 4 minutes. Add in the cooked squash and gently toss together. Set aside. In a separate skillet, melt additional butter and lightly brown both sides of the 8 tortillas. Build the quesadillas one by one by adding a layer of cheese topped with a layer of the squash/kale mixture, topped with a second tortilla. You'll have four quesadillas when you're done. Brown each quesadilla on both sides, adding more butter to the pan to make sure tortillas are nice and golden and yummy. When the cheese is melted, remove each quesadilla from the skillet and cut it into four wedges. Serve with sour cream, cilantro, pico de gallo, salsa, avocado...or any sides you'd like! (Note: The butternut squash/kale mixture is also great tossed with a little pasta and olive oil, and topped with Parmesan shavings!)

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I am a passionate lover of butternut squash. I’ve written before about how a spoonful of butternut squash puree (spiked with a little bit of butter and maple syrup, of course) can make me close my eyes and be transported to a whole other realm. It’s serious. As in, I really do think there’s some kind of dopamine-elevating chemical somewhere in there.

While it’s a slightly different kind of love, I’m also crazy about kale…right along with four million thousand trillion other people in the world. Kale is such a trend right now—one knows this if one ever frequents Pinterest—and I try to stay away from trends because otherwise I feel like I’m trying to be one of the cool kids when deep down, I’m so not one of the cool kids. But with kale, I simply can’t stay away. It’s so wonderful. It makes me realize that sometimes trends are trends for good reason. It’s not always just for the sake of being a trend!

Kale is good for you. So, so good for you. And it’s got a nice texture, a strong flavor…when you eat it you can hear your body thanking you in nine different languages, only two or three of which you understand.

Butternut squash is good for you, too. So late yesterday, to celebrate my transition into another year of my life, I cooked up some squash and kale and got into lots of delicious mischief.

Here’s one of the things I made:





Start by cutting up a butternut squash, which is a little intimidating. But it doesn’t have to be! Just follow the next eighty-seven steps and you’ll be fine!

Just kidding. There aren’t that many steps.





First, lop off the top of the squash…





Then lop off the bottom.

Speaking of “lop,” I knew Marlboro Man were entering into another season of our life together when I got him loppers for his birthday one year.

If you do not know what loppers are, consider yourself lucky. I hope your man enjoys his bottle of Aramis.





Use a potato or vegetable peeler to peel off the skin, which comes off really easily.





I would like to take this opportunity to share that while my daughters were at their soccer practice in the big city on Saturday, I went to get a manicure. I’m so proud of it, I will be bending over backwards to show you my nails all throughout this post.





Keep working on the skin…





Until you see no more sign of it. Just pure, unadulterated butternut squash.





You can throw this away if you want, or throw it in the compost heap.





Now, cut the squash in half where the skinner part meets the larger part.





Slice both pieces down the middle…





Then use a spoon to scoop the seeds and pulp out of the larger pieces. (The other end of the squash doesn’t have any seeds/pulp, so you won’t have to worry about that.)





Slice the chunks of squash into large slices…





Then stack them up…





And cut the stacks into sticks.





Then rotate the sticks and cut them into a nice, neat dice!





No matter what your chunks look like, just cut them into sticks and cut the sticks into a dice…





Until the whole dang squash is diced.





I have a new manicure. Did you hear?





Throw some butter and olive oil into a big ol’ skillet…





And throw in the squash. I actually wound up doing two skillets because I wanted the squash to get some nice color and not be crowded.





By the way, did you know I got my nails painted?

And did you know my hand is actually not a hand, but a wrinkled baby Shar Pei puppy? Except not one of the cute ones.

What in the world is going on with my hand? I promise when Marlboro Man takes my hand on moonlit walks, it doesn’t look like this. And we don’t take moonlit walks. It’s way too cold. But if we did, and if he took my hand when we did, my hand would look nothing like the above photo.

Anyway, what I’m trying to say is this: Sprinkle a good amount of salt in the skillet.





Then add a good amount of pepper.





And then this: chili powder!

(Manicure sighting! Manicure sighting!)





It gives the squash a nice spice, a nice edge, a nice addition of danger, a nice level of risk. I’ll stop now.





Cook the squash over high heat, using a spatula to turn it over gently from time to time, until it’s nice and deep golden brown.





Remove it to a plate and set it aside for a bit.





Next, grab the kale! And oh…if you don’t know kale very well (or if your only experience with kale is halfheartedly admiring it as a salad bar garnish) you must dive into the world.





I just tear the kale off of the stalks in pieces…





Using my freshly manicured hand to grasp the stalks as I go.





Keep going until you have a nice big pile of kale.





Throw a little extra butter into the skillet and crank the heat to medium to medium-high.





Then throw in the kale…





And toss it around with tongs.





Cook it for a few minutes, then remove the skillet from the heat.

One of the things I love about kale is how well it holds up when it cooks. Even though I love spinach, it only takes a short time before it wilts, then just a little more time before it’s really soggy and mushy. Kale, on the other hand, stays crisp longer.

Oh, and it’s very kaley tasting. Which makes sense, I guess.





Next, just add the squash to the kale…





And gently toss it around. Isn’t this a pretty color combination?

(Pssst: After I made a quesadilla, I tossed the rest of the squash/kale mixture with some cooked bowtie pasta, some Parmesan shavings, and some crushed red pepper flakes for a different meal altogether. Delicious!)

Let this sit for a little bit.





Grate up some Monterey Jack cheese, because it’s yummy and melts real good-like…





Then lightly brown the tortillas on both sides in a buttered skillet over medium heat. I usually like to heat both sides of the tortillas before I assemble the quesadillas, because it helps facilitate the melting step, because it makes the quesadillas nice and slightly crisp inside and out, and because I’m weird.





Sprinkle plenty of cheese onto one of the tortillas…





Then top with plenty of the squash/kale mix.





Use your hand, which has been recently manicured, to place a second toasted tortilla on top.





Flip it over, and continue cooking it until the cheese is melted and the filling is hot.





Use a pizza cutter to slice the quesadilla into four wedges.





I’ve never been more excited about anything in my life.





Oh, dear.





Will you take a look at that?





I served it with a little sour cream and cilantro. The creaminess was really nice with the squash. If I’d had some pico de gallo, I would have thrown that on too, along with a few slices of avocado.

Try this (relatively) healthy quesadilla soon! Note that the kale flavor really asserts itself. If you’re a lover of kale, this is a very good thing! If you don’t have a lot of kale experience…be prepared for a nice, interesting change.

Here’s the handy dandy printable!