Mushroom quesadilla with caramelized onions

This mushroom quesadilla recipe is seriously one of the best quesadilla recipes I have ever eaten! The filling is made with just 3 ingredients and it’s so delicious you won’t believe it. It’s made with sauteed mushrooms, caramelized onions, and gooey melted cheese. You’ve got to try this!

Ingredients:

This is what you need to make these delicious mushroom quesadillas:

• wheat tortillas (you could also use corn, but wheat works better here)
• baby bella mushrooms (cremini mushrooms) or button mushrooms (baby bella mushrooms have a little bit more flavor)
• onions (I used yellow)
• cheese – I tried this recipe with Gruyere cheese and sharp white cheddar – they both great! Gruyere has more flavor but cheddar has a nice tang that cuts through the richness of mushrooms and onions, choose what you have on hand! Here you can find more recipes using Gruyere cheese.
• clarified butter or vegetable oil for cooking the onions and mushrooms

Step by step instructions:

STEP 1: Prepare your ingredients: shred the cheese on the large holes of a box grater. Cut the onions and mushrooms into thick slices, about 1/4-inch (7mm).

STEP 2: Cook the mushrooms: heat 1.5 tablespoons of oil/clarified butter in a large frying pan over high heat. Add the mushrooms and don’t stir for about 2 minutes or until the mushrooms are browned at the bottom, then cook, stirring from time to time, until mushrooms are soft and browned (it will take about 10 minutes).

I’ve made this dish many times so I cook the mushrooms and onion simultaneously in two pans, but if you’re not experienced, cook the mushroom first, then the onions.

STEP 3: Cook the onions: heat 1.5 tablespoons of clarified butter/oil in a medium pot over medium heat, add the onions. Cook them for about 20 minutes, stirring from time to time, making sure they are not burning, until they are lightly caramelized – this means they are soft and lightly golden in color.

Note: to fully caramelize the onions you would need to cook them for 45-60 minutes, but since the onions are not the star of this dish like they are in the French onion soup, we can cook them for just 20 minutes. They have so much flavor anyway!

STEP 4: Make the filling: simply combine sauteed mushrooms, onions, and shredded cheese. Season with salt and pepper to taste (the cheese is already a bit salty).

STEP 5: Cook quesadillas:

Place some of the filling on a half of a tortilla. Fold the tortilla in half.

Cook the quesadilla in a pan on both sides until golden. You can cook it in a dry pan or with a small amount of oil for a more crispy and delicious quesadilla. Heat about 2 teaspoons of oil in a frying pan over medium heat, when hot add the quesadillas, move with them a couple of times making sure they are not sticking to the pan. Cook them until golden on both sides and the cheese is melted.

Take the quesadillas off the pan and sprinkle lightly with salt.

Cut into two or four parts (depending on the size of quesadillas) and serve.

Enjoy!

Another way to cook these quesadillas:

1. Bake the quesadillas instead of cooking them in a pan. Assemble the quesadillas as described above, brush them on both sides with melted butter and bake at 425°F/220°C for about 10 minutes or until golden.
2. Make sheet pan quesadillas! It’s a great way to make a lot of quesadillas with less work (on the photo below there is another filling on the tortillas).

How to do it:

• Use the same recipe but double the filling. You will need 6 large tortillas.
• Brush 9×13-inch (23x33cm) baking pan or baking sheet with melted butter.
• Arrange tortillas overlapping around the edges of the pan so that half of the tortillas overhang the rim and the entire bottom surface of the pan is covered.
• Spread the filling evenly over the tortillas.
• Fold the overhanging tortillas back towards the center, then place an additional tortilla on top so that all the filling is covered.
• Brush the top generously with melted butter.
• Bake at 425°F/220°C for about 10 minutes or until golden.
• Take out of the oven then let rest for 5-10 minutes so that the filling can set and is not runny.
• Cut into squares and serve.

What to serve them with:

I usually recommend some kind of salsa or yogurt sauce to serve with all my quesadilla recipes but to be honest this one tastes best just plain! The flavor of these quesadillas is rich and bold so I think they don’t need anything else and also salsa/dipping sauce flavor could be too overwhelming for them.

They taste great with beer or dry white wine on the side, though!

Storage:

These quesadillas taste best freshly made! You can store them in the fridge for up to 3 days and reheat them in a dry pan but they are rather mushy and soft. Better would be to store the filling and tortillas separately and assemble them just before serving.

More delicious quesadilla recipes:

• Easy breakfast quesadilla recipe
• The Best Vegetarian Quesadillas (sweet potato and black bean quesadilla)
• Chicken fajita quesadillas
• Broccoli cheddar quesadillas
• Chicken quesadilla recipe with mushroom bell pepper and corn
• Zucchini quesadilla
• BBQ Chicken Quesadillas

Check out all my quesadilla recipes here.

Did you make this recipe? RATE THE RECIPE or tell me in the COMMENTS how you liked it! You can also add a photo of your dish. It would make me very happy and will help other readers. Thank you!!