Cooking isn’t really my thing. If you want to know why then be sure to read up!
Every now and again I get brave and try my hand at it again. Maybe I’m a glutton for punishment. Or I’m just stubborn. Sometimes I get *really* brave (when I cook, like, once a month) and I just throw a bunch of stuff together in a pot or pan and see what happens. I hear this is what all genius cooks do, and it makes me feel professionally cool to do it. Usually it ends up tasting pretty weird and off. But my sweet husband just pours a bunch of hot sauce on it and makes it all better. Once in a while, my weird concoctions actually turn out. (these mushrooms!)……And hopefully so will the cinnamon apples I have now cooking in the crockpot. Don’t tell my husband but the apples were starting to go bad so I just made up some cinnamon apple recipe (which consists of more than just cinnamon and apples! WHO KNEW!?) on my own-since we didn’t have most ingredients when I Googled a recipe. If it turns out I’ll be sure to let you all know. If you don’t hear back from me then assume the dogs will be eating it… 😉
Anyway, since I have an intolerance or allergic reaction to so many foods (gluten, tomatoes, dairy, fruit, sugar, fructose) when we go over to my grandparent’s for holiday gatherings I have to be sure I bring over a bunch of food that my son and I can eat (He can’t eat gluten, either). This year for Christmas I decided to get fancy and try a bunch of stuff. I spent a lot of time online looking for foods and came across something that looked fairly easy-stuffed mushrooms! I had to change it up quite a bit because I couldn’t have all of the ingredients. I also simplified the recipe to better suit my, um, culinary skills. I thought this would make a good appetizer since I can’t enjoy the usual staples–veggie tray (because, who eats that without ranch [dairy] dip?), fruit, chips and dip {most dips contain dairy, or are tomato-based), wheat items like crackers.
If you don’t wish for vegan or dairy free stuffed mushrooms then you could just as easily substitute the items for “real” butter and “real” cheese.
What I love about these is that everyone at the party (nearly 20 people) all said that they were delish and they NEVER would’ve known they were vegan unless I’d said something! SUCCESS!
Ingredients:
- 1/4 c butter (I like to use Earth Balance)
- 3 gloves minced garlic
- kosher salt, to taste
- freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 1 1/2 pounds portobello mushrooms, cavities removed (about 2 packages of mushrooms)
- 1/2 c grated Parmesan-style cheese (I used Follow Your Heart Cheese alternative that I found in the vegan section at Publix, near the produce)
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Oil a baking sheet/coat with nonstick spray
- In a bowl, combine the butter and garlic. Since I use tub butter, I made sure that it was room temperature so that it nicely blended in without being too chunky. If it’s chunky after stirring then it won’t go nicely into the mushrooms. If it’s out of the fridge, I’d place it in the microwave for about 20 seconds just to soften it.
- Pour in cheese and parsley leaves and stir well together.
- Season with salt and pepper in the bowl to taste (Optional).
- Place mushrooms onto the baking sheet with the caps down.
- Spoon the ingredients into the mushrooms and light press down with the spoon.
- Place into the oven and bake for 12-15 minutes, or until the cheese is melted.
- Optional–when finished, you can garnish with additional parsley on top.
That’s it! There is going to be a LOT of butter spillage but not to worry, your mushrooms still have loads of butter flavor inside, too!
I also tried these using vegan cheddar cheese (because I ran out of Parmesan) and they were equally as good! I also tripled the recipe because I was feeding so many people, but the recipe above would serve as nice appetizers for about 3-5 people, depending on how many everyone ate. 😉
Seriously, this was the FIRST dish that I’ve made where I kinda just made some stuff up as I went and it it actually turned out really good!
Let me know if you decide to try this. I’d love know how it turns out for you!
Mommisadventures 