Vegan Quesadillas With Mushroom Bacon

Packed with umami-rich mushroom bacon, melty vegan cheese, and a delightfully eggy tofu scramble, these quesadillas would be incredible at your next weekend brunch. But to be honest, these quesadillas are good any time of day! This recipe is customizable as well! Add sautéed peppers and onions, swap the mushroom bacon for Sofritas for a more protein-heavy meal, and eat them with your favorite homemade or store bought salsa. There are few ways to go wrong with these quesadillas! Table of Contents: 1. Why you’ll love this recipe2. Ingredient notes3. Step-by-step instructions: Mushroom Bacon4. Recipe card with notes

Why you’ll love this recipe

A few weeks ago, I made my Buffalo Chickpea Quesadillas for friends. Not to brag (okay, maybe a little bit), but they had to pick their jaws up from the floor. That’s how much they enjoyed them. So that got me thinking…what kind of other delicious quesadillas can I make? My first thought was “Why doesn’t anyone eat quesadillas for breakfast…I think that’s silly. You should be able to eat quesadillas any time of day.” My second thought was “what if I veganized a bacon-egg-and-cheese sandwich (and then turned it into a quesadilla)?” The bacon-egg-and-cheese is a staple of NYC bodega culture. If you’re wondering what a bodega is, check out this article from NPR. They’re so popular that at nearly any bodega in New York City, you can order a bacon-egg-and-cheese sandwich. I never ordered that particular variety (even in my pre-vegan days, I was not a fan of bacon), but I did order a bodega egg-and-cheese sandwich from time to time (i.e., when I was hungover). To sum up, these Vegan Quesadillas with Mushroom Bacon were born out of my love for quesadillas and my desire to replicate a NYC favorite in a new (and vegan) way.

Ingredient notes

Mushroom Bacon

If you haven’t tried mushroom bacon, you are missing out! It has all of the things people like about bacon – saltiness, smokiness, chewiness….but without the cholesterol and saturated fat. Plus, no adorable piggies had to die. Mushrooms. I think King Oyster mushrooms are the best mushroom variety for mushroom bacon, but they can be a bit hard to find, and shiitake mushrooms work really well too! Vegan Bacon Marinade. The mushrooms get marinated in a mixture of soy sauce, sesame oil, olive oil, smoked paprika, maple syrup, and liquid smoke. The soy sauce brings the umami factor, the liquid smoke and paprika bring the smokiness, and the maple syrup brings a very subtle hit of sweetness. If you don’t have liquid smoke, feel free to omit it (though it won’t have the same smoky flavor). To punch up the smokiness, just use a bit more smoked paprika than called for in the recipe. PS: If you want something meatier and more satisfying to add to your quesadillas, my Chipotle copycat Sofritas are a fantastic alternative.

Tofu scramble.

Tofu. I’m using extra-firm tofu, but firm tofu will also work. For the most eggy texture, I usually recommend pressing out the excess water in firm varieties of tofu, as is used here. It’s not absolutely essential, but it does improve the texture and removes any excess water. Kala namak aka black Himalayan salt. It’s a very pungent rock salt that smells very eggy, and therefore is used in vegetarian and vegan dishes to give a dish that distinctive eggy taste. The smells is pretty intense, but once it’s incorporated into the tofu, it adds just a subtle eggy flavor. If you don’t need your tofu scramble to taste like an egg scramble, go ahead and just use sea salt instead (it’ll still be tasty). You can find kala namak at South Asian grocers or online. Turmeric. Turmeric primarily lends the scramble a vibrant yellow color so the scramble looks like traditional scrambled eggs. That means it’s optional, but I love incorporating this anti-inflammatory, antioxidant-rich spice into my diet as much as possible. Nutritional yeast boosts the umami of this dish even more and gives the scramble a subtle cheesy taste.

Other essential fillings.

Store-bought shredded vegan cheese. Another umami boosting ingredient, and because what’s a quesadilla without the cheese? Avocado-Tomato Salsa. If you don’t want to prep any other ingredients, you can just use a store-bought salsa instead, but the combination of creamy avocados with fresh tomatoes and cilantro really takes this breakfast over the top and makes it the ultimate weekend brunch treat! Plus, this salsa recipe takes just five minutes to make, so it’s an easy delicious addition to this meal!

Step-by-step instructions: Mushroom Bacon

First, you want to gently scrub and clean your mushrooms. Then you’ll slice them pretty thinly (but not so thinly they’ll fall apart in the oven). Allow the mushrooms to marinate in a mixture of soy sauce, sesame oil, olive oil, smoked paprika, maple syrup, and liquid smoke for at least 20 minutes at room temperature. Once the mushrooms have been marinated, prepare your baking sheet. I used a large rimmed baking sheet and then fitted it with a wire cooling rack, then spread out a piece of parchment paper or aluminum foil on top. The combination of a rimmed baking sheet with a wire cooling rack, according to Serious Eats, is “an unsung hero in the savory world, offering air flow and circulation for even brining, cooking, and cooling.” Spread the mushrooms out in a single layer on the baking sheet. If they get very crowded, you might want to use two baking sheets; too much crowding will cause the mushrooms to steam and not get very crispy. Bake the mushroom bacon for 350 degrees F for about 20 minutes on each side. When the mushrooms are done in the oven, they should be a little crispy but a little chewy and nicely browned on the outside. If you try out these epic Vegan Quesadillas with Mushroom Bacon, be sure to leave me a comment below and tag me with your creations on Instagram!