With a perfectly crispy exterior and an ultra savoury and cheesy interior, these spinach quesadillas make for the most delicious meal any day of the week! There’s lots of baby spinach, flavourful seasonings and both mozzarella and crumbled feta. This spinach quesadilla recipe is a must try!
It’s no surprise whatsoever how much we love quesadillas around here.
From black bean quesadillas to ground beef quesadillas and refried bean quesadillas, they’re always a favourite and sure to disappear quickly when they hit the table.
These spinach quesadillas have somewhat of a spanakopita vibe with the cooked spinach, feta and garlic. If you’re a fan of those flavours too, you’ll love these vegetable quesadillas.
On a side note: what’s the deal with spinach, anyway?
It’s so funny. You start with a huge amount only to be left with what seems like a tablespoon, lol.
In all seriousness, though, what’s left does pack a punch and works wonderfully with the other ingredients here. Plus, I kinda think the spinach balances out all the cheese (okay, not really, but I’m just gonna roll with it).
Why We Love These Spinach Quesadillas
- This easy spinach quesadilla recipe uses super simple ingredients.
- These quesadillas come together in about 25 minutes.
- The recipe can easily be doubled if you’re serving more people (or just you and your bud if you’re really hungry).
- They’re cheesy, savoury and simply delicious!
How To Make Them
Full details are in the recipe card below, but here are the basics:
- Start by adding some baby spinach, ground nutmeg and a little salt and pepper to a pan.
- Cover and cook until wilted.
- Use a fine mesh strainer (or clean tea towel) to remove all that excess moisture in the spinach. We’re not pressing the spinach through the strainer here, just using it to get rid of that extra water.
- Give the spinach a little chop.
- Place some shredded mozzarella cheese on one half of your flour tortillas.
- Top with some cooked spinach, crushed red pepper flakes, and oregano.
- Next top with more mozzarella cheese, crumbled feta and a little garlic powder.
- Fold over each tortilla so it’s a half-moon shape.
- Pan fry the quesadillas (in batches) in a greased pan on both sides until crispy on the outside and the cheese is nice and melty inside. There ya have it, cheesy and delicious spinach quesadillas!
Can I Use Frozen Spinach?
You most certainly can!
I do enjoy fresh baby spinach here, but thawed frozen spinach will work in a pinch.
Just cook in the pan with your seasonings and proceed with the recipe. You’ll likely get a little more moisture come out of the spinach, too.
Serving Ideas
For a quesadilla dipping sauce, I usually use Greek yogurt mixed with a little lemon juice, garlic, green (or parsley), salt and pepper. So good!
Another delicious option is tzatziki, which pairs wonderfully with these veggie quesadillas.
To make things even more substantial, try serving with homemade fries, Greek pasta salad, green salad, tomato salad or cucumber salad.
Tips and Variations
- Don’t skip removing the excess moisture from your spinach after cooking. You don’t want that moisture to make your quesadillas soggy!
- When cooking these spinach quesadillas, I prefer to have the heat on a medium-low setting so they crisp up nicely and the cheese melts. If the heat is too high, you run the chance of cooking the outside too quickly without having the mozzarella cheese melt inside.
- Some crushed red pepper flakes are used, but you can omit (or use more) depending on your love of spice (though, these aren’t spicy, if you ask me).
- Other delicious herb options for these cheesy quesadillas are parsley or dill.
More Delicious Quesadilla Recipes
If you try these spinach quesadillas, be sure to leave a comment below!
Cheesy Spinach Quesadillas
Ingredients
- ½ pound baby spinach, 8 ounces
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- pinch salt
- pinch freshly ground black pepper
- 4 ounces shredded mozzarella cheese, 1 cup
- ½ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
- ¼ teaspoon dried oregano
- 1.5 ounces crumbled feta cheese, about 4 to 5 tablespoons (opt for a vegetarian variety, if needed, to keep things vegetarian)
- ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
- 2 tablespoons olive oil, to grease pan to cook quesadillas (about 1 tablespoon of oil per batch)
- 4 flour tortillas, each about 7 to 8 inches in diameter
- Greek yogurt, for serving with (optional)
Instructions
- Add spinach, salt, black pepper and nutmeg to a 12-inch sauté pan over medium heat. Cover and cook until spinach has wilted, about 3 to 5 minutes.
- Remove spinach from the pan and squeeze through a fine mesh strainer to get all that excess moisture out so you don't make your quesadillas soggy. Note: You're not actually pushing the spinach through the strainer, you're just using to squeeze some of that extra moisture out. Alternatively, you can place the spinach in a clean tea towel and squeeze the moisture out.
- Chop the spinach.
- To assemble quesadillas, distribute half of the mozzarella cheese over one half of each tortilla.
- Next, distribute spinach over top of the mozzarella cheese. Then, sprinkle over crushed red pepper flakes and oregano.
- Top the spinach with the remaining mozzarella cheese, feta and garlic powder. Fold over each tortilla so it's a half-moon shape.
- To cook quesadillas, heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a large non-stick frying pan over medium-low heat. Gently swirl the oil around in the pan so you get a good coverage of oil before adding your quesadillas.Note: Cook the quesadillas in batches, two quesadillas at a time, adding more oil to the pan between batches.
- Place two quesadillas in the pan. Cook quesadillas for about 3 to 4 minutes on one side.
- Carefully flip quesadillas to the other side and continue to cook for another 3 to 4 minutes or until they're golden brown and crispy on the outside and the mozzarella cheese has melted inside (carefully watch to ensure they don't burn).
- Repeat process to cook remaining quesadillas.
- Once done, cut each quesadilla in half so you have 8 pieces. Great served with Greek yogurt. Enjoy!
Notes
- Don’t skip removing the excess moisture from your spinach after cooking. You don’t want that moisture to make your quesadillas soggy!
- When cooking the quesadillas, I prefer to have the heat on a medium-low setting so they crisp up nicely and the cheese melts. If the heat is too high, you run the chance of cooking the outside too quickly without having the mozzarella cheese melt inside.
Nutrition (ESTIMATE ONLY)
Nutrition estimate (if provided) is based on 1 Serving.
Nutrition information (if provided) is provided as a courtesy and should be considered an estimate only. Ingredients can vary and Girl Heart Food makes no guarantees to the accuracy of this information. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
A note on times provided: appliances vary, any prep and/or cook times provided are guidelines only.
Tried this recipe?
If you do make this recipe, thank you!! It would mean so much if you could leave a comment below. Love to know how you enjoyed it, and it helps other readers too!
