These Vegan Stretchy Melty Cheese Quesadillas are super satisfying, full of plant-based goodness, and really fun to customise.
I've been so into this vegan stretchy melty cheese recently, and since first making it for this grilled cheese, I've used it for these nachos and now these quesadillas!
The cheese is made with white beans and mochi! This recipe came about as I wanted to create a properly stretchy, melty vegan cheese made from natural ingredients. I happily managed to do this thanks to the magical ingredient that is mochi.
Mochi are Japanese sticky rice cakes, which are made from pounding rice until it becomes sticky and glutinous (don't worry, despite the name it is still gluten-free). It is sold in many different forms, one of them being in small, hard blocks. When these blocks of mochi are melted, they become incredibly sticky, stretchy and gooey…like real cheese!
You can buy mochi in Asian supermarkets, some local health stores, or online - just make sure you get the hard, firm type that's sold in blocks.
One word of caution: melted mochi is very sticky, so once you have removed the sauce from the pan, please soak your pan in boiling water immediately - otherwise you'll have a very tricky washing-up situation on your hands!
For flavour, I added umami-rich miso, nutritional yeast for cheesiness, and vinegar for a little tang. Incidentally, all of the ingredients I used happen to be oil-free and nut-free too!
Then I added some slightly caramelised, subtly-spiced red onion and sweet red peppers, and sandwiched it all between tortillas. I used a frying pan for this, but you could alternatively roast them in the oven too.
Then you can finish off these Vegan Stretchy Melty Cheese Quesadillas by adding all the toppings you want. Ones I recommend include:
- Mango salsa: crisp cucumbers, sweet tomatoes, juicy mangoes and tangy red onion
- This garlic and herb dip - super creamy, perfectly tangy, with a hint of garlic
- Guacamole: buttery avocado with hint of zingy lime
- Thinly sliced sweet red peppers for extra crunchy sweetness
- Thinly sliced jalapeños or green chilli for a kick of heat
- More coriander for extra flavour
Looking for more vegan cheese recipes? You might like my:
- Vegan White Bean Mac and Cheese
- Vegan Stretchy Melty Grilled Cheese
- Vegan Stretchy Melty Cheese Nachos
If you try out this recipe or anything else from my blog, I'd really love to hear any feedback! Please give it a rating, leave a comment, or tag a photo #rhiansrecipes on Instagram! Thank you.
Watch how to make the cheese
Vegan Stretchy Melty Cheese Quesadillas (GF)
Ingredients
For the cheese:
- 60 g (2oz) tinned white beans, drained and rinsed (haricot beans, cannellini beans or butter beans)
- 30 g (1oz) mochi (the hard firm mochi sold in blocks)
- 1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
- 1 teaspoon miso (ensure gluten-free if necessary)*
- 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar (ensure gluten-free if necessary)
- Salt + pepper to taste
For the quesadillas:
- 1 tablespoon oil (olive, rapeseed or vegetable)
- 1 red onion, finely sliced
- 1 red pepper, cut into matchsticks
- ½ teaspoon paprika
- ½ teaspoon ground cumin
- Salt + pepper to taste
- 2 tortillas (gluten-free if necessary)
To serve (optional):
- Mango salsa
- Garlic and herb dip
- Guacamole
- Thinly sliced red peppers
- Thinly sliced jalapeños or green chilli
- Coriander (cilantro), roughly chppped
Instructions
For the cheese:
- Place the mochi in a pan with 50ml (just under ¼ cup) water and cook on a low heat for about 5 minutes or so until mochi has melted and become sticky – until soft enough to stick gently pierce with a fork
- Add the white beans and continue to cook for a couple of minutes until heated through
- Turn off heat and add nutritional yeast, miso, vinegar, salt + pepper
- Use either a blender, food processor or hand-held stick blender (this is the easiest option as you can just do it in the same saucepan) and whizz until completely smooth
For the quesadillas:
- Heat up oil in a frying pan
- Once hot, add the onion and fry for 10 minutes until softened and slightly caramelised
- Add paprika and cumin and fry for about a minute, until fragrant
- Add red pepper and fry for a further few minutes – I prefer mine slightly crunchy, but cook for as long or as little as you like
- Place tortillas in frying pan on medium heat and heat each side for about a minute, until warmed
- Spread half of the cheese and cooked vegetables across one tortilla and place another on top
- Cut up tortillas into slices and serve with suggested toppings
Video
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Anonymous
Will try these soon!
Rhian Williams
Thank you!