stuffed mushrooms with sun-dried tomatoes

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I’ve started my annual football season tradition of planning to eat snacks on Sundays instead of a full dinner, which will invariably last two weeks before I forget all about it and go back to planning a meal and then whining that “I don’t feel like cooking, I just wanna relax!” My life is so hard.

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But it can be tricky to come up with snacks that are really good but not so filling that I can’t graze on them for a while. (Translation: I’d like to be eating cheese and bread and sausage and mayonnaise-based dips and chips and cookies and, you know, tasty delicious things like that. But I also want my pants to fit.)

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Stuffed mushrooms are a good example of something that seems like it should be fairly healthy, but on closer inspection, is often full of cheese, and not just any cheese, but that most-delicious and fattening of examples – cream cheese.

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Fortunately, this recipe keeps it light by skipping the cheese, flavoring the filling with just shallots, parsley, and sun-dried tomatoes, with bread crumbs used for bulk and just a sprinkle of parmesan grated on top for an accent.

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Even though it was just Dave and I watching football together on a Sunday afternoon, and we had a few other snacks, I made the full recipe. But it turns out these stuffed mushrooms aren’t the type of snack that you graze on throughout an afternoon, because they were so darn good that we snarfed them up immediately. And since they’re not very filling, you can eat a bunch of them and still have plenty of room for some hummus!

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One year ago: Roasted Carrots

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Mushrooms Stuffed with Sun-Dried Tomatoes
(adapted from Gourmet via Smitten Kitchen)

The only minor change I’ll make to this recipe, to bring it from really damn good to perfect, is to sprinkle the inside of the mushrooms with a bit of salt before roasting them the first time. Not so much to eliminate more liquid, but just to season them. (Even Dave agreed with this, and he isn’t as salt-crazy as I am.)

Makes 18

½ ounce sun-dried tomatoes (about 5)
2 tablespoons olive oil
18 white mushrooms, caps reserved, stems pulled out and chopped fine
½ cup finely chopped shallots
2 garlic cloves, minced
⅓ cup fine dry bread crumbs
1 large egg yolk, beaten lightly
¼ cup fresh parsley leaves, washed well, spun dry, and minced
½ teaspoon dried basil, crumbled
2 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan

1. Preheat oven to 400°F.

2. If your tomatoes are packed in oil, rinse them before chopping them finely. If they’re not packed in oil, soak them in a small bowl in hot water to cover for 5 minutes. Reserving 1 tablespoon soaking liquid, drain tomatoes well and chop fine.

3. Lay mushroom caps, stems removed, face down on baking sheet either lightly sprayed with cooking spray or lined with parchment paper. Bake them approximately 10 minutes, or until their liquid puddles underneath. Remove from the oven. Carefully pour off liquid that has gathered in the bottom of the pan, and then again, carefully, turn mushroom caps over so they are ready to be filled.

4. In a small skillet heat oil over moderate heat until hot but not smoking and cook chopped mushrooms stems, shallots and garlic, stirring until shallots are softened. In a bowl stir together mushrooms mixture, bread crumbs, tomatoes, reserved soaking liquid, yolk, parsley, basil, and salt and pepper to taste. Mound stuffing in reserved mushroom caps and arrange caps in a lightly greased shallow baking dish, or the same parchment-lined pan you’ve roasted your mushrooms in. Sprinkle mushrooms with Parmesan and bake in middle of oven 15 minutes.

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Comments

  1. These look fantastic! Oh how I wish I could sneak a stuffed mushroom past the Omnivore…

  2. These are absolute stunners. I could write a love song about mushrooms and shallots but I worry that it would be to the tune of Muskrat Love. If we have the budget next year (eg if everyone tries this recipe), I will personally volunteer Taylor Swift for the job.

  3. what a great recipe! I am always looking for stuffed veggie recipes that aren’t loaded with a bunch of cheese and butter but still have a lot of flavor! they look so pretty with the red tomatoes too!

  4. Ooooh, they look so pretty! Your picture of the stuffing reminded me a bit of tabbouli; I bet that would be a good way to use leftover tabbouli, actually, and I may try that sometime. My mom’s favourite mushrooms are the lobster stuffed kind, and yeah, they aren’t so healthy either. 😉

    [quote]Translation: I’d like to be eating cheese and bread and sausage and mayonnaise-based dips and chips and cookies and, you know, tasty delicious things like that. But I also want my pants to fit. [/quote]

    This is the dilemma of my life. Generally I tend to be on the losing side.

  5. Sara L says:

    What a coincidence! I just told Jason this morning to look up roasted carrots on your blog and they’re the “one year ago” recipe.

    These look great and I love the idea of snacks instead of a big dinner, but for many reasons that won’t work with little kids (they like schedules, they’re messy, etc.). Also I can’t get Blake to eat mushrooms in any incarnation – salad, soup, casserole…He seems to have a sixth sense where mushrooms are concerned.

  6. Bridget,
    I have never made a vegetarian stuffed mushroom, I always add sausage, but these look light and amazing!
    Thanks!
    Stacey

  7. Melissa says:

    They look absolutely fantastic, and I love the fact that there isn’t much cheese to them.
    How, oh how, did I hate mushrooms not so long ago?!

  8. Wow! Those look delicious! The sun dried tomato has me very interested. And these along with some veggies and hummus sound like a delightful way to spend some calories.

  9. My usual stuffed mushroom recipe is pretty unhealthy, so I love this idea. I feel like I haven’t had anything with sundried tomatoes forever and that needs to change!

  10. Yum! I love stuffed mushrooms and this version sounds fantastic!

  11. Love the Sunday snacking tradition–I might have to adopt it this weekend. Maybe with some of those mushrooms. Yum!

  12. I love Sundays and all of the football-watching! I’m intrigued by this recipe – a healthier version of stuffed mushrooms would be fantastic. Thanks for sharing!

  13. Yes, yes… Love stuffed shrooms but mine’s often not healthy not because of the cheese, but because I use sausage, ha ha! 🙂 This is MUCH healthier!

  14. This looks great! It actually looks pretty healthy too:)

  15. Those don’t look like white mushrooms, possibly cremini?

  16. bridget says:

    Jason – You’re right, they’re cremini. They’re the same price at my grocery store and just as available, so that’s all I ever buy. I like their stronger flavor, and supposedly they’re healthier (some sort of micronutrient thing; I don’t know, you’d have to ask Dave about it).

  17. These look great! So often, stuffed mushrooms can be bland and watery (and boring). These look anything BUT boring. Love the addition of the sun dried tomatoes – and the fact they aren’t loaded up with cheese.

  18. Love stuffed mushrooms. Never had them with sun-dried tomatoes. They sound delicious!