Muy Bueno: Fiestas 
Vegetarian Mushroom Queso Fundido
Spicy peppers, melted cheese, and meaty mushrooms combine flavorful forces in this delightfully vegetarian recipe for Queso Fundido with Mushrooms. If you’re in the market for an irresistible appetizer to replace your usual cheese plate, this is it!
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Why I Love This Recipe
This ridiculously simple recipe for Mushroom Queso Fundido is an ideal vegetarian appetizer. I can whip up a batch with just 15 minutes of active effort, and the flavors are guaranteed to wow.
Aside from being filled with rich, creamy, cheesy goodness, this easy queso fundido recipe requires just 6 ingredients (7 if you count the tortillas you’ll serve it with). It’s also completely customizable to whatever melty cheeses you have on hand!
This yummy vegetarian dish is free from most allergens including gluten, egg, soy, and nuts, meaning it’s appropriate for just about any group. Seriously, do yourself a favor and make this tempting dish of melted cheese-topped mushrooms. You’re sure to love it!
Ingredients & Substitutions
As promised, you only need a handful of ingredients to make a skillet filled with molten cheesy deliciousness. Here’s what to grab:
- Unsalted Butter – Butter + Cheese = A Beautiful Thing. It’ll also help to give your mushrooms a lovely golden exterior.
- Mushrooms – I used a combination of Baby Bella, shiitake, cremini, and oyster mushrooms, but feel free to use any variety you can get your hands on!
- White Onion – Yellow or red onion can also be used.
- Serranos or Jalapeños – Serranos pack a bit more heat than jalapeños, so choose based on your tolerance for spicy foods. You can always amp up the heat by adding extra!
- Cheese – I used a mix of mozzarella, tomato-basil, and Monterey Jack cheese, but you can use any combo of melting cheeses that you like.
- Fresh Cilantro – For a pop of color and some bright freshness to contrast with the richness of the melted cheese. If cilantro isn’t your favorite, swap in parsley instead.
- Tortillas – I like serving my queso fundido tucked into tortillas, like a make-your-own quesadilla. You can use either flour or corn depending on what you like. You’re also welcome to use sturdy tortilla chips instead!
How To Make Mushroom Queso Fundido
Step 1: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Step 2: Sauté Onion. Melt butter in a large skillet and add onion. Cook for 1 minute.
Step 3: Cook Mushrooms until they begin to soften, about 5 minutes.
Step 4: Add Cheese & Chiles over the cooked mushroom-onion mix.
Step 5: Bake uncovered for about 10 to 12 minutes, or until cheese is completely melted and slightly golden brown on top.
Step 6: Garnish & Serve. Sprinkle with fresh cilantro. Serve warm with corn or flour tortillas. Enjoy your cheesy bliss!
Optional Variations
If melty cheese is your love language, fear not — there are LOTS of muy bueno queso recipes. Here are some of my favorites:
- Vegetarian Queso Fundido with Mushrooms and Hatch Green Chile – Add sliced strips of spicy roasted Hatch Green Chiles to the top of your queso dip for an added layer of flavor.
- Choriqueso (Queso Fundido with Chorizo) – Love meat? Beef up your queso fundido with smoky, spicy Mexican chorizo.
- Chile con Queso – This is the queso I grew up eating — it is spicy, silky, cheesy, and perfect for a crowd!
Expert Tips
- Mushrooms will give off a lot of water when they cook, so be sure to choose a large enough pan to keep from crowding them. If you don’t, you can end up with soggy mushrooms.
- Grate your own cheese. I know buying pre-shredded cheese seems like a great time-saver, but to keep those individual pieces from melding back into a blob in the bag, they’re coated in a starchy powder that prevents them from melting well.
- Use cast-iron cookware to keep your queso nice and fundido. It retains heat better than any other type of pan material around!
Frequently Asked Questions
Queso fundido translates to “molten cheese” or “melted cheese,” and in my opinion, is so much more flavorful than a traditional queso dip. Essentially, it’s just a big pile of shredded cheese that gets melted down into a molten, spoonable form, often gussied up with the addition of rajas (poblano strips), browned ground meats, or roasted veggies and served with tortillas or tortilla chips to scoop it all up. In other words, it’s heaven in a skillet.
There are a variety of other cheeses that would work well here depending on what you have access to. Here are some possible options: cheddar, chihuahua, asadero, Monterey Jack, mozzarella, gouda, or havarti.
Basically, you want a cheese that is going to get good and melty. Avoid any crumbly cheeses like feta or cotija and you should be good!
When I eat queso fundido, I eat it with warm corn tortillas, literally making instant quesadillas — it’s the height of comfort food. You can also serve it with flour tortillas or chips, or even on toast. Doing the low carb thing? Eat it with a spoon!
If you’re feeling really saucy, add some to your favorite tacos or spoon it over refried beans. I mean, really, what isn’t made a little more delicious with a healthy dose of melty cheese?? The real question, I think, is how shouldn’t you serve it? And the answer is I honestly don’t know.
More Recipes For Cheese Lovers
Mushroom Queso Fundido
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 16 ounces sliced mushrooms, (I used a combo of baby bella, shitake, crimini, and oyster mushrooms)
- 1/2 cup white onion, chopped
- 2 serranos or jalapeños, diced
- 12 ounces melty cheese, (I used a mixture of mozzarella, tomato basil, and Monterrey Jack), shredded
- chopped cilantro
- 6 corn or flour tortillas, warmed
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Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Melt butter in a large skillet and add onion and cook for 1 minute.
- Add mushrooms, and cook until mushrooms begin to soften for about 5 minutes.
- Place the cheese and chile over the cooked mushrooms.
- Place skillet in the oven and bake uncovered for about 10 to 12 minutes or until cheese is completely melted and slightly golden brown on top.
- Sprinkle with fresh cilantro.
- Serve with corn or flour tortillas.
Notes
- Mushrooms will give off a lot of water when they cook, so be sure to choose a large enough pan to keep from crowding them. If you don’t, you can end up with soggy mushrooms.
- Grate your own cheese. I know buying pre-shredded cheese seems like a great time-saver, but to keep those individual pieces from melding back into a blob in the bag, they’re coated in a starchy powder that prevents them from melting well.
- Use cast-iron cookware to keep your queso nice and fundido. It retains heat better than any other type of pan material around!
