The Chronicles of Chet

Red Pepper and Spinach Stuffed Portabello

Last night I tried my hand at cooking up some stuffed portabellos.. While they didn’t come out looking the best, they were quite delicious! With as few ingredients as there are in this recipe it can easily be changed into a 100% vegan meal.

The ingredients amounts are give or take .

Ingredients:
2 Large Portabellos
1 whole onion
1 whole red bell pepper
Hand full of cilantro
4 tablespoons of minced garlic
1 cup frozen chopped spinach
1 cup of shredded cheese
Dash of salt and Mediterranean seasoning
Olive Oil

I started this by dicing up the onion, red bell pepper, and the stem of the portabello, then threw it all into a skillet on medium high heat and added the garlic. For this I used pre-diced garlic in a jar due to the lack of good fresh garlic. Sautéed until the onions began to turn translucent then added the salt, Mediterranean seasoning, cilantro, and the spinach to cook until about 90% of the water has evaporated.

After I was finished sautéing, I tossed the ingredients into a food processor, added the cheese and blended it up pretty good… a little too good I think lol. I think next time I will blend up the veggies first then add thicker chunks of cheese to make a thicker stuffing. Also, I think next time I will not dice up the veggies into a paste and leave the stuffing a little chunky.

Once I was done with the stuffing I started cooking the mushrooms by scooping out the gills and lightly brushing them with olive oil. Then heated my grill pan on medium high and tossed the mushrooms on. I cooked the portabellos on both sides until the the edges began to look juicy and the center was still firm. One thing you want to make sure of is when you scoop out the gills and brush the mushrooms you use a very light touch. The bells of the mushrooms are very fragile and will break under the slightest amount of pressure. Also remember that cooking times will differ between the size of the bells, so when choosing your mushrooms try to keep them as uniform as possible.

Once I was done grilling I set the mushrooms on an oven safe pan and began adding my stuffing. I set the oven to 250 and let it heat for a bit while watching Daniela make some Cous Cous. This time I think I was a little overly generous with the amount of stuffing, but you can add as much as you like ! Though don’t add so much that it spills over over the portabello and burns onto your pan. Once heated, I tossed those bad boys into the oven and let cook for about 10 to 15 min.. I checked on them often since this was my first time cooking them.

Though they didn’t come out looking perfect or like something you would see in a restaurant, they were still quite delicious! The Cous Cous Daniela whipped up went perfectly with the portabellos. To prepare the Cous Cous she boiled said amount of water in ratio to the amount of Cous Cous, once boiling she poured in the grains. When all the water was absorbed she added a beef stock and the left over veggies that werent used in the stuffing. Once the stock was absorbed it was ready for eating!

All in all the end results were delic, but I think that I could have done this way better. More than likely Ill try my hand at it again with a few different methods and ingredients until I find the right blend.

If you have any questions or suggestions feel free to drop me some comments!

-Chet

Tags: cooking portabellos