Over-Stuffed Portabello Mushrooms

Another Meatless Monday meant having to come up with something creative for dinner.  I had four large portabello mushrooms on hand and Nick had ripped a Cheese-Stuffed Portobello recipe out of an old issue of Food Network Magazine - perfect!  Based on some of the CSA veggies we had on hand, I adapted the recipe a bit.

The Ingredients

The necessities:

• 4 6-inch portobello mushroom caps
• 4 cups spinach, chopped
• 1 eggplant
• 1 cup panko
• 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1 shallots - finely chopped
• 1 large tomato, diced
• 3 tablespoons grated pecorino romano cheese, plus shaved pecorino for topping
• 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling
• Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
• 1/2 cup ricotta cheese

To begin, I used my new favorite eggplant preparation trick - the "slice and salt" method - and allowed it to sit for a bit.

Salted Eggplant

Next, I chopped up the spinach so it would be ready to go.

Chopped spinach

Once the eggplant was ready, I lined the broiler sheet with tine foil and sprayed it with some cooking spray.  Then I placed the mushrooms, gill side down, and eggplant pieces onto the foil and put it in the broiler for about 5 minutes. 

Broiling away...

In the meantime, I combined the spinach, shallots, tomatoes, panko, pecorino, olive oil, salt and pepper in a bowl and mixed it all together with a wooden spoon, making sure everything was thoroughly mixed and that the flavors were spread evenly.

Stuffing Ingredients

All Mixed Up

To begin the "stuffing" I placed some of the roasted eggplant that I mushed up in a bowl onto the gill side of the mushroom.

Lined with eggplant

The recipe actually called for much larger mushrooms than what I had on hand, so I didn't so much stuff the mushrooms as I did cover them with the stuffing!  As you can see, I took the stuffing and split it up among the 4 mushrooms covering them completely. 

"Stuffed" Mushrooms

I topped each of the mounds off with the ricotta and little mozzarella and pecorino cheese. 

Ready for the oven...

I placed the sheet under the broiler for another 5 minutes - until the cheese was lightly browned.

Nicely browned...

I was a bit nervous when I plated this because they really looked like little mounds of spinach with cheese on top - there was definitely going to have to be some digging to find the actual mushrooms!

Spinach and Cheese Mounds with Mushrooms

Actually though, I was impressed that there was a legitimate mushroom inside when I cut it open!

Mushroom

While these were not exactly stuffed, it only meant we had more of the good stuff to dig through to get to the mushroom.  These had lots of yummy flavors and textures in each bite.  I am sure there are plenty of ways to adapt this recipe.  For a weeknight meal, these are easy, pretty healthy, and filling.  I would totally make these again.