Grown-Up Manchego Grilled Cheese Sandwich Recipe

Name: Grown-Up Manchego Grilled Cheese Sandwich Recipe
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 10 min
Total time: 35 min
Yield: 4
Ingredients: 2 teaspoons unsalted butter (divided ); 1 tablespoon fresh thyme; 1 yellow onion (sliced thinly); 16 oz mushrooms (sliced - I used cremini); 2 tablespoons sherry (or white wine vinegar); 3 ounces Manchego cheese (shaved ); 2 cups Fresh baby spinach (stems removed); 2 tbsp Fig jam or chutney; 8 slices Sandwich bread of your choice

June 21, 2019 Updated: October 9, 2019 By Julie Menghini 100 Comments

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Manchego Grilled Cheese sandwich is sweet, savory and buttery. This grown-up grilled cheese is simple to make but fancy enough for company!

THIS POST HAS BEEN UPGRADED FROM 4/21/15 TO IMPROVE READER EXPERIENCE.

Grilled Cheese panini sandwich cut in half next to a spinach tomato salad on a gray plate

Manchego Grilled Cheese is my favorite grilled cheese sandwich. It’s nothing like I grew up eating. Manchego is a soft buttery cheese that melts everything together. Exactly what you want in your grilled cheese sandwich.

I grew up going to religion classes on Saturday mornings. I thought that was the biggest rip off because Saturday morning was when the best cartoons were on television. Not only that, the classes were so boring. All I knew is that I had to memorize a whole lot of stuff. If I didn’t, I could end up in a very warm place at the end of my days. Yikes!

When our classes were over, we went home to a lunch of grilled cheese and tomato soup. Tomato soup was from a can, and our grilled cheese was a skinny yellow piece of cheese on buttered white bread. I loved it. Of course, I loved anything drowned in ketchup.

The grilled cheese that I make now has grown up a bit. My little person self would probably turn up my nose. My big girl self just loves every single layer of my grown-up version of this grilled Manchego Cheese Sandwich. Oh, and it doesn’t need one drop of ketchup to improve its flavor.

A Manchego Grilled Cheese starts with great bread slathered with butter on the outside and a smear of fig chutney or jam on the inside. This yummy bread holds together a caramelized onion-mushroom mixture, fresh spinach, and all that buttery melted Manchego cheese.

Grilled Manchego Cheese Assembly

Photo shows Ingredients for a Manchego Grilled Cheese Sandwich including spinach, cheese, bread, sauteed mushrooms with onion, butter and fig jam and 4 shots showing the order for assembling it.

Butter the outside of two slices of bread.
Spread fig jam on the inside of one piece of bread for a slightly sweet sandwich or on both sides if you want it sweeter.
Add 1/4th of the sauteed mushroom-onion mixture.
Top the mushrooms with fresh spinach
Finish with a layer of Manchego cheese

What is Manchego cheese?

Castello Cheeses states Manchego cheese is from Spain and made from sheep’s milk. Manchego is aged from 2 months to 2 years. Manchego is a sharp, acidic, and nutty cheese.

What I love about Manchego cheese is that it’s nutty and buttery and it melts well without being real greasy like a cheddar often is.

Alternative cheeses – Cheeses that can substitute for Manchego

Parmigiano-Reggiano
Pecorino-Romano
White English Cheddar
Jarlesberg

What you may need to make a Manchego Grilled Cheese Sandwich:

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Panini Press – This is the one that I have. I like that the reversible grates become a griddle and that they can be removed for easy cleaning.
Slotted Spatula – Also called a fish spatula. I use mine for everything.

Stacked grilled cheese panini. The bread shows the grill marks and the sandwich has melted cheese oozing down the bread. It's all sitting next to a spinach salad with tomatoes

If you like this recipe, here are a few more I think you’re going to LOVE!

So, I may not have been great at memorizing my religion, but I aced grilled cheese! And, the tomato soup was there too, a bumped up big person version called Easy Tomato Florentine Soup!

5 from 11 votes