These spinach and cheese stuffed portobello mushrooms are a decadent meatless meal everyone will love.
Alternately titled, “creamy delicious bites of heaven”. Seriously, this dish came out way better than anticipated. Make it.
In Florida we had this horribly phallic mushroom, apparently called a “stinkhorn” according to Wikipedia, that would occasionally grow in our front yard. As if it’s shape wasn’t bad enough, the smell it would give off was, let’s just say “appropriate” for it’s appearance. If that doesn’t make sense, google it.
How something like this can be related to the amazingness of an edible mushroom like a portobello baffles me. Fungus is a weird one.
I love mushrooms, at least edible ones. When I see grocery stores with a section for all types of wild mushrooms I can’t help myself. This is why it’s probably a good thing that there is no whole foods even remotely close to my house. Mushrooms aren’t cheap and I have no self control.
I’ve been craving a calzone lately and that gave me the idea to basically use the stuffing of a calzone but in a mushroom cap instead when I saw these at the store.
The thing is, I’ve made plenty of calzones at home before and they usually come out disappointingly bland, so I didn’t have incredibly high hopes for this. I shouldn’t doubt myself so much, these were amazing.
First, I just cleaned off the mushrooms and removed the stems. Drizzled them with some extra virgin olive oil and seasoned with salt & pepper.
Portobellos remind me of eggplant. They soak up a ton of olive oil. I was pretty generous with it because of this and I think all that olive oil gave it great flavor when roasting. I roasted them for about 20 minutes at 450°F.
In the meantime I got the filling together.
Added all these goodies plus some sautéed onion and garlic to about one and a half cups of ricotta.
I used whole milk ricotta. Could you use part-skim? Yes. Do I recommend it? No.
Ricotta is one of those things that I don’t think the “low fat” version tastes nearly as good. Mayo is another. There’s only one and a half cups of it, split among six mushroom caps it’s one-quarter cup per serving. That’s not enough to worry about in my opinion. Whole milk ricotta is so incredibly creamy and almost “sweet”. Part skim just doesn’t live up.
By this time the mushrooms should be all roasted and shriveled up.
They lose a lot of water while roasting. If there is any excess water in the pan, drain it out before stuffing them.
Want to know about the perils of food blogging? An ant climbed into the tray while I was taking these pictures outside! I’m a firm believer in the 5 second rule. I figured it was about to get roasted at 450°F for another 10 minutes anyway.
During the last minute or so, I sprinkled some bread crumbs on top to give it a little crunch. And voila!
I think the sautéed onion and garlic really helped bring out the flavors in the filling. And let’s be honest, when there are three cheeses involved it’s hard to taste bad.
This would be a great side to some grilled chicken or eat two and call it a day like we did!
Spinach and Cheese Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms
Ingredients
- 6 large portobello mushroom caps, cleaned and stems removed
- 1.5 cups chopped baby spinach
- 1.5 cups whole milk ricotta cheese
- 1/2 cup grated mozzarella cheese
- 1/4 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
- 1 14 ounce can artichoke hearts in water, drained & coarsely chopped
- 1/4 cup sundried tomatoes, chopped
- 1/2 medium onion, diced
- 2 cloves of garlic, minced
- extra virgin olive oil
- salt & pepper
- breadcrumbs, optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
- Arrange mushroom caps on greased baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil, season with salt & pepper.
- Roast mushrooms for about 20 minutes.
- While mushrooms are roasting, combine spinach, 3 cheeses, artichokes and sun dried tomatoes in large bowl.
- Saute onion & garlic until softened and then add to bowl.
- Mix to combine all ingredients and season with salt & pepper.
- Once mushrooms are done roasting, drain any excess water and then fill caps with stuffing generously.
- Put back in oven for another 10 minutes.
- If topping with breadcrumbs, do so in the last 1-2 minutes.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Fungi lover? Yes or no?
Gina Matsoukas is an AP syndicated writer. She is the founder, photographer and recipe developer of Running to the Kitchen — a food website focused on providing healthy, wholesome recipes using fresh and seasonal ingredients. Her work has been featured in numerous media outlets both digital and print, including MSN, Huffington post, Buzzfeed, Women’s Health and Food Network.
Oh YES. Mushrooms are the perfect food!
I like mushrooms…I definitely don’t eat them as much as I should. I kind of forget about them and find I mostly end up eating them when I’m out and they’re made for me. Those look delicious though!
Did you know that those mushrooms grow at the CT office? Fitting :)
I LOVE edible mushrooms too, but I can’t look at them too closely because they look of them freaks me out a little. Mike hates them, though, so I can only eat them when we go out. That recipe looks amazing.
Love mushrooms, can’t wait to try this! I’m so glad some of my fabulous sorority sisters like you, Anne and Alexis have started such health-focused blogs. I credit Anne (and now you!) with helping me eat more than just cereal for dinner :)
P.S. – where in FL did you live? I live in Tampa and have not seen those inappropriate mushrooms anywhere, thank goodness!
We lived in West Palm. I miss it so much! Yeah, according to Wikipedia they grow in wooded, shady areas. Obviously, that’s not what Florida is like so I have no idea why they chose our front yard but it was disgusting!
I was in Jupiter and West Palm for Thanksgiving, love it on the east coast! WHEN you move back :), look into the “Run for the Pies” on Thanksgiving morning. It’s a fun 4 mile race in Tequesta Park and if you finish, in like, the top 200 (not hard) you get a pie when you finish!
Mushrooms, ricotta AND artichokes?! I am most definitely making this!
Those look good. I never liek mushroom as a kid.. and haven;t really dabbled in them sicne. But since my tastes have matured in other areas.. it is quite possible I may like mushroom as well!
That mushroom is crazy!
I will definitely be trying these out. I love calzones too but always end up with a huge chunk of just dough and no filling!
You can add sour cream to that list of things where the fat free does not compare to the full fat! Its like fluffed plastic!
Yes! Sour cream is another. gross!
Haha that mushroom is hilarious! And those stuffed mushrooms look lush! :)
Bahaha, that first mushroom should cover itself. Alternative, the others look soooo yummy. I don’t make mushrooms a lot since the hubby won’t eat them, but I could see myself cooking those up just for me.
YES! That looks so delicious. I know what you mean about mushroom dishes usually disappointing, though, so I’m excited to try this one!