Tag Archives: mushrooms

Portabello Salad with Maple-Mustard Dressing

Posted on April 28, 2012 by Julie • 2 Comments

I’m leaving tomorrow for a weeklong business trip. I still haven’t finished unpacking from my Florida trip last week (to be fair, I’ve been home nearly a week, so that’s really on me). Whenever possible, I usually spend the day before I leave on any trip in the kitchen trying to make a few dinners for Nor to have while I’m gone, as well as getting my fill of healthy, homemade food before the inevitable streak of takeout begins. This portabello salad was just what the doctor ordered today – light but hearty, filling but healthy.  It was the perfect quick, simple Saturday lunch, but it could just as easily be an entrée or a side dish for a fancy meal.

The meaty mushrooms, rich avocado, and protein-packed chickpeas elevate the humble salad to nutritional powerhouse status, and the creamy dressing has a slight kick balanced by a bit of sweetness from maple syrup. I see this becoming a regular fixture in the rotation around here, whether I’m trying to load up on healthy food pre-travel or just craving a dinner salad (this happens a lot). Add slivered almonds for some crunch and even more protein, or crumbled feta cheese – the possibilities are endless, one of the many reasons salad rules.

Portabello Salad with Maple-Mustard Dressing
5.0 from 1 reviews
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Category: Main Dish, Side Dish, Salads
Prep time: 10 mins
Cook time: 40 mins
Total time: 50 mins
Yield: 4 main dishes or 8 sides
A hearty green salad with portabellos, chickpeas, and avocado. Hearty enough for an entrée.
Ingredients
  • 1 cup cooking wine (I used Marsala)
  • 2 Tbsp olive oil
  • 1/4 cup soy sauce
  • 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 4 large portabello mushroom caps
  • 1/4 cup Dijon mustard
  • 3 Tbsp vegetable oil
  • 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
  • 2 Tbsp maple syrup
  • 8 cups mixed baby greens
  • 1 ripe avocado, sliced
  • 1 small red onion, thinly sliced
  • 1 15 oz can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 400 F. In a baking dish, combine cooking wine, olive oil, soy sauce, balsamic vinegar, and garlic. Place mushrooms in the baking dish (stem side up) and spoon some marinade into each mushroom. Set aside for about 20 minutes.
  2. While the mushrooms are marinating, make the dressing. Combine mustard, vegetable oil, red wine vinegar, and maple syrup and whisk until smooth and creamy. Set aside.
  3. Cover baking dish with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Remove the foil, flip the mushrooms, and bake for another 10 minutes. Cool for ten minutes, then slice thinly.
  4. Mix greens, avocado, onion and chickpeas in a large bowl. Add dressing and toss. To serve, place a generous helping of salad on each plate. Top greens with sliced portabello.

Source: One of my favorite cookbooks ever, Veganomicon.

Filed Under: Main Dish, Side Dishes, Vegan

Mushroom and Leek Quiche

Posted on January 3, 2012 by Julie • 0 Comments

Take a leek.

Being able to make that joke each and every time I make this may in fact be the only reason I like leeks. It’s hard to dislike food that so easily lends itself to 12-year-old humor. In fairness to the leek, though, this is quite good even without the lame jokes. Leeks are milder and sweeter than onions, and are a great way to impart an onion-like flavor without the tears and inevitable halitosis. They also contain less of the sulfur compounds that make onions difficult for some people to digest, and thus make a good substitute for people who don’t tolerate them well. And that is why the leek shall inherit the earth.

Okay then. Now that I’ve indulged my insatiable need to pun, let’s move on. This quiche is a staple for us – although the total prep-and-cook time is close to an hour and a half, it’s all easy, and extremely satisfying to boot. And I’m saying this as somebody who isn’t really a quiche person – my general rationale is along the lines of “if you’re going to throw a bunch of eggs together and call it dinner, why not make an omelet and save us all the hassle?” But this isn’t a quivering three-inch-high egg pile like some quiches. The rich flavors of the roasted mushrooms and leeks are the real stars here – the eggs just quietly hold it all together. Serve with a simple green salad and as many bad leek puns as you can think of.

Mushroom and Leek Quiche
Ingredients:
1 pound mushrooms, quartered or diced (I use a combination of cremini, shiitake, and portabello)
1 bunch leeks, washed and sliced
1 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup half and half or milk
1.5 cups grated Gruyere or Swiss cheese (about 4 ounces)
2 Tbsp chopped fresh thyme (or 2 teaspoons dried)
3 eggs
1 9-inch pie crust
Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 400 F.

Combine mushrooms, leeks, salt, pepper, and olive oil in a large bowl and toss to combine, making sure everything is well coated with the oil. Spread on a baking sheet and roast for 15 minutes. Return to bowl and stir in cheese.

Prick pie shell with fork and prebake for 10-12 minutes or until slightly browned. Remove and lower oven temperature to 350 F.

Lightly beat eggs in a medium bowl. Add the half and half and thyme, and more salt and pepper to taste. Spread mushroom mixture into the pie pan in an even layer and pour half-and-half/egg mixture on top. Bake for 45-50 minutes, until lightly browned and a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Filed Under: Main Dish

Portabella Steaks

Posted on December 18, 2011 by Julie • 0 Comments

Steak is steak. I will acknowledge that. Obviously a portabella steak isn’t that reminiscent of an actual steak – you don’t have to let it rest, you don’t have to sear it first, and you don’t have to ask your guests how they like it cooked, because it certainly will not have a cool pink center (if it does, there is something very wrong with your mushroom and you should immediately throw it away and send the grocery store a strongly-worded email). However, there really is something about a big juicy bite of a grilled portabella mushroom that reminds me of meat. Maybe that’s because it’s been years since I’ve eaten an actual steak and I’ve forgotten what they taste like, or maybe it’s because of the supposed umami* the mushroom embodies. Regardless, this is the one thing I feel like I can throw on a grill at a barbecue that doesn’t result in people casting sympathetic glances my way as they tear into their steaks. It’s hearty and fulfilling, and won’t leave you missing actual steak at all. It also goes from grocery bag to table in under 45 minutes (including marinating time). That being my first and pretty much only criteria for weeknight dinners, it’s heavily in the rotation around here.

*Umami is supposedly the fifth taste category that the human taste buds can discern – the one that doesn’t fit neatly into the previously defined sweet/sour/salty/bitter packages. Translated simply, it means “delicious,” but the umami flavor is generally defined as meaty, robust, or savory. Umami’s discoverer, Japanese researcher Kikunae Ikeda, identified the broken down form of the amino acid glutamate (L-glutamate) as the source of the umami taste. Guess what’s super-rich in glutamate and hence, really delicious when cooked? Yep – mushrooms. This is allegedly why mushrooms are so often used as a meat substitute, and why the texture and mouthfeel of a grilled portabella is so very steaky.  I’m not sure I buy all of that, because I’m a simpleton and my reaction is more along the lines of “chomp chomp chomp, were you saying something?”

Portabella Steaks
Ingredients
1 ½ lbs whole portabella mushrooms (about 6)
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
½ cup balsamic vinegar
1/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 Tbsp chopped flat leaf parsley
Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions
Preheat the broiler or fire up your grill. Or, if you’re me, put a grill pan on your stove and coat it with an equal mixture of Pam and your own tears, because you don’t own a grill and your oven is so old that the broiler is actually a drawer underneath the stove that licks tongues of hungry flames upon your food as soon as you open it, charring it beyond recognition and causing a cringing Pavlovian response every time someone says “broil.”

Place the mushrooms in a large, shallow dish (either a large baking dish or rimmed baking sheet will work well) Combine the olive oil, balsamic vinegar, lemon juice, garlic, and parsley in a bowl and mix well. Pour over mushrooms and season with salt and pepper. Marinate for 30 minutes, turning once.

Place the mushrooms on a grill grate (or aforementioned grill pan) or broiler pan (gill side down if grilling, gill side up if broiling) and cook for 4-6 minutes per side. The mushrooms should give off some of their natural liquid and be mostly firm to the touch. Serve hot.

Source: adapted from Williams Sonoma

Filed Under: Main Dish, Quick & Easy