Blue Cheese Stuffed Mushrooms

Oven Temperature 180 degrees Celsius

Makes 4

Ingredients:

• 4 Large Mushrooms (Large Flat, Portobello, Swiss Brown)
• 4 Small Mushrooms (any sort/type)
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 Cloves Garlic (crushed, finely chopped or grated)
• 2 Spring/Green Onions, sliced
• 60 grams baby spinach, chopped
• 1 cup Breadcrumbs (can use Panko or normal)
• 50 grams Blue Cheese (Gorgonzola), crumbled
• ¼ cup dry white wine (whatever you have on hand)
• Salt and pepper to taste

Method:

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

Wipe mushrooms clean and remove the stalks from the large mushrooms to use in the stuffing.  Chop the stalks and place in a warm medium size fry pan with the olive oil, chopped small mushrooms, garlic, spring onion, pepper and salt (to your liking/taste).  Sauté lightly over medium heat until softened but not browned.

Chopped mushrooms in the pan

Add the spinach and stir through until just wilted, add the breadcrumbs and cook for about 5 minutes until combined and bread crumbs are well incorporated, stirring so it won’t stick to the pan and burn.  You may need to add a little more olive oil if it is too dry.

Sauteing all the goodies

Remove pan from heat, let cool for about 20 minutes then add the cheese and mix through until even distributed (I do this with my hands as I can then break up any bigger chunks of cheese and distribute it more evenly).

Mushrooms oiled and waiting to be stuffed

In the meantime wipe the large mushroom caps (not the inside) with olive oil and place into a baking dish big enough to hold all four mushrooms.  Fill each mushroom with the stuffing so that you have a nice mound in each one.  Pour the dry white wine into the bottom of the dish. It should just cover the bottom of the dish, keeping the mushrooms moist and to make sure nothing burns. Make sure you don’t get the filling wet as this would make it soggy.

Ready for the oven

Place mushrooms in preheated oven and bake for 25-30 minutes.  Always check that they are not over cooking, they will be ready when the top is golden brown and crunchy.

A great addition to any meal

Hints:

Trim the cut ends of the mushroom stalks as they can be quite dry and hard making them unpleasant in the stuffing mix.

I use quite a bit of pepper as we love it but use the amount you are comfortable with.  Same with the salt.  I don’t add salt but most people would probably like a bit in the mix to add flavour.  This is your choice.

You can also add fresh herbs of your choosing to add more flavour.  Chives and parsley are great.

Great fresh ingredients

You can change the cheese if you do not like blue cheese.  There are numerous blue cheeses available but I always go for a milder flavoured one.  But this recipe will work with Cheddar, Fetta, Parmesan.  Each will give you a different outcome.

You can also mix up the filling by adding different vegetables to the mix.  Don’t like spinach, add grated zucchini.  I love playing around with ingredients and flavours, so have a go and see what you can come up with.

Baby Spinach whole and chopped

Don’t like or have wine in the house replace it with vegetable or chicken stock.  This works just as well.

Serve these as a side to a meal or as a meal itself with a nice salad.  They make great vegetable burgers as well.

Enjoy, have fun and stay healthy!

Stuffed and ready to eat