Portobellos farcis aux légumes, chèvre et basilic

I cannot believe that my last post goes back to one month ago. Shame on me. I have no excuse, so shame on me twice. I have been back from France, then I got sick, then I have been busy working and busy working out, so one thing added to another, voilà, my blog is being neglected. Quelle honte!

In the vegetarian series, here is a good one. These mushrooms make a great presentation, have a lot of flavor and are light as a feather.

Since I found out that portobello mushrooms are just cremini mushrooms grown to an exaggerated size, I have not been as excited to cook them…yes, hélas the excitement is gone.

Yesterday, strolling around the vegetable section, some fresh and pretty portobello caught my attention. I have been ignoring them for a while, and since I felt like eating mushrooms, I bought them not really knowing how to prepare them. It ended being a light stuffing with finely chopped vegetables, basil, pine nuts and goat cheese. They are ridiculously light so if you are hungry, I suggest eating two with some side dish. I loved the light texture and flavor of the stuffing…so I would say portobello are back in my kitchen. I don’t know for how long, but so far, they’re in.

Ingredients

  • 2 large portobellos
  • 1 tbs olive oil
  • 1 zucchini
  • 1/2 red bell pepper
  • 4 mushrooms, sliced
  • 1/4 onion, chopped
  • 2 tbs basil, chopped
  • 1 tbs pine nuts
  • 2 tbs goat cheese, crumbled
  • 1 tbs kalamata olives, chopped
  • 2 tbs panko breadcrumbs (plus extra for topping)
  • salt and pepper

Preparation

For the stuffing

Chop in a mixer zucchini, onion and bell pepper. The texture needs to be fine but with some pieces.

Heat olive oil in a pan and add mushrooms, let them cook until the water evaporates. Remove from pan.

Chop mushrooms as finely as the other vegetables.

In the same pan, heat olive oil, add zucchini, onion and pepper mixture. Let them cook at medium heat for a few minutes (no water should be left in the pan). If there is still water, remove excess water with a towel or squeeze using your hands when the mixture has cooled down.

Remove from pan and in a mixing bowl mix vegetables with mushrooms. Let it cool. Add the rest of the ingredients (except oil), leaving the goat cheese for the end. The goat cheese needs to keep some crumbly texture so mix carefully all the ingredients.

For the mushrooms

Sprinkle mushrooms with some olive oil, salt and pepper. Broil for 5 minutes.

using a paper towel absorb mushroom water if necessary and pat dry.

Pre heat oven at 375F. Divide the stuffing on each mushroom, sprinkle with some bread crumbs and cook for about 15 minutes or until the top is golden brown. Serve hot with a green salad.