Florentine-Style Stuffed Mushrooms

It wouldn’t be fair if I wrote a 1-in-3 series about mushrooms, without a stuffed-mushrooms recipe. They are one of the few vegetables that tastes great when stuffed, not only because of their shape, but also their rich flavour and texture.

The stuffing can be as decadent as a cream cheese or simple as seasoned bread crumbs. Here, I stuff my mushrooms with a layer of spinach, for nutritional value, and bread crumbs, for the crunch. They can be served as appetizers or a light supper with green salad. You can prepare them 12 hours in advance and bake them just before you need ‘em. This is ‘3’ of the 1-in-3 - Mushrooms.

When selecting mushrooms for stuffing, buy ones that are fairly large to hold the filling. I normally buy mushrooms that are labeled as 'Stuffing Portabella'. I find them regularly at Trader Joe’s.

Ingredients

Stuffing portabella mushrooms – 6
Onion – ¼ cup, finely chopped
Garlic – 2 cloves, chopped
Fresh or frozen spinach – ½ cup, cooked, if fresh and squeezed
Oregano –1 tbsp
Red pepper flakes – ½ tsp
Juice of a lemon
Bread crumbs – ½ cup
Thyme or parsley – 2 tbsp, finely chopped
Oil or melted butter – 3 tbsp
Salt
Pepper

Method

Preheat the oven to 375F. Grease a shallow ovenproof dish or a baking pan. The dish should be big enough to hold all the mushrooms in a single layer. Remove the mushroom stalks and using a small spoon, carve the insides of the mushroom caps, to hold stuffing.

In a pan, heat a tsp of oil, sauté onion and garlic. When onions become soft, add spinach, oregano, red pepper flakes and salt. Mix well and take off the flame. Add lemon juice to the mixture.

In a bowl, combine bread crumbs, thyme, pepper and oil or melted butter. Mix until the bread crumbs is moistened.

Arrange the mushroom caps, gills uppermost, in the prepared dish. Drizzle the caps with oil and season with salt and pepper. Divide the spinach mixture among them. Top with the bread crumbs mixture. Bake for 25 minutes, until the mushrooms are tender and the topping is golden brown.

Stuffed mushrooms served with sweet potato fries and cucumber slices – A simple summer lunch.