There are definitely many right ways to make stuffed mushrooms.  It’s an extremely easy dish to make and to improvise with whatever you have.  With the simple guideline of “top mushrooms with filling,” the possibilities are endless.

This dish makes a great appetizer, side, snack, or even a small meal. We made a similar version of these mushrooms for a dinner party a few weeks ago with the only real difference being the cheese we used.  They’re great for parties whether you are the host or you are bringing them with you.  Make ahead and pop them in to the oven 25 minutes before you’re ready to enjoy.

recipe:

about 2 8oz packages of baby bella mushrooms

2 cups frozen spinach
1 roasted pepper
4 cloves roasted garlic
1+ cups cheese (sharp cheddar, havarti, swiss all work well)
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/8- 1/4 teaspoon hot pepper powder or cayenne
handful of toasted pine nuts (optional)

1/4 cup bread crumbs toasted with butter

Prepare your roasted pepper and roasted garlic ahead of time.  Preheat oven to 425°. Lightly brush pepper with oil, wrap a head (or half) of garlic drizzled with a little olive oil in tinfoil and place both on a baking sheet. Bake for 30 – 45 minutes, flip pepper half way through. Allow to cool before handling.

Meanwhile prepare the filling. Thaw spinach and drain excess water- if you are using fresh spinach saute it for a moment to wilt.  Grate the cheese; we used cheddar for this recipe, but last time it was havarti. It’s ok to switch things up. Both were delicious. Toast a handful of pine nuts — dry toast them in a small pan with no oil, shake them around over the heat until they’re nice and toasty.  Dice the roasted pepper and peel the garlic.  Combine all of these ingredients along with spice and salt to taste. Set aside.

Clean mushrooms and pop off stems. Place mushrooms caps cup side up in a glass baking dish. We use a shallow 8 x 12 glass baking dish.  Use whatever you have — a couple of pie dishes or a lasagna dish would work well too. The filling should be enough to top 2 8 oz packs of mushrooms.  The size of the mushrooms and the amount of room on your baking dish may vary the proportions. Disperse filling into the caps.

Finish the stuffed mushrooms off with bread crumbs.  For this recipe we used panko bread crumbs and fried them up with a little butter, probably about a tablespoon or so.  You can add some parmesan to the mix if you want.  If you are interested in making your own bread crumbs from scratch, check here for some inspiration.

Bake at 350° for about 25 minutes.

Try out our recipe or make up your own! If you don’t have all of the ingredients we used consider what else might taste nice here…. artichoke hearts, olives, goat cheese, tomatoes, Parmesan, carrots, edamame, kale, walnuts… no onions… this list could go on for days- you get the point.

Over the past year or so crunchy chickpeas have been flooding the food blog world.  There’s a good reason for it too! They’re inexpensive, simple to make, delicious, and healthy.  You don’t really need a recipe to make them. I first made these crunchy chickpeas several months ago and I’ve been hooked ever since! I’m always on the lookout for tasty snacks especially ones that can be readily available at any given surge of hunger. A grab on the go or snag a few here and there snack. I keep these around the house and at work nearly always.

The crunchy chickpea snack concept is great because you can modify it to fit your taste and you can make as much or as little as you require.  The batch I make is plenty for the week with enough to share — spicy, and salty. The cooking process takes about an hour depending on your oven and the amount you are baking at once.  The entire process is simple and straight forward but it does require you to stand by in order to mix them up throughout baking.  A good timer is helpful.

Ingredients :

3 cups dried chickpeas
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon cumin powder
1½ – 2 teaspoons hot chili powder or cayenne

I use dried chickpeas to start but you can use canned as well. When using dry chickpeas pre-soak over night or all day.  I’ll usually just set them out to soak in the morning if I want to bake them in the evening. Once soaked for several hours, drain the chickpeas and put them in a pot with new water to boil.  Simmer until cooked.

Strain the chickpeas and pour them onto a clean towel to completely dry and cool off. I believe this step is extremely important, allowing them to air off and cool off helps eliminate a lot of steam which is moisture.  I have noticed a huge difference when I have not allowed them to cool down — the chickpeas have a harder crunch to them which to me is less pleasant to eat.  By eliminating as much moisture before you bake them I believe you get nicer light and crispy texture.

Preheat oven to about 400°

Once the chickpeas are cooked and cooled, place them into a baking dish. I use a 9 x 13 Pyrex lasagna dish.  I would recommend using something with sides because throughout baking the chickpeas will need to be stirred around.  I’ve used a regular baking sheet before and found it pretty difficult to stir them up adequately (while in a hot oven — wear a mitt!) without knocking them off the sides. I also felt that the chickpeas were quicker to burn on a thinner baking sheet — the glass dish just makes more sense to me especially when you are preparing several cups worth of snacks ;)

Season the chickpea directly in the baking dish. Pour oil, sprinkle spices & kosher salt to taste, stir up to evenly coat the batch. Give it a taste before popping it in the oven.

The baking time may vary slightly but will end up to be just over an hour to an hour and a half. Set the timer for 15 minutes and then stir the chickpeas well, repeat an additional 3 times.  This will take about 45 minutes ;) taste test a few for crispiness and keep a closer watch as they finish baking.  I just keep lessening the interval between mixings until they are done to avoid burning them at the end! You’ll know when they’re done because they will be super crispy and delicious; because there are so many chickpeas baking at once, the textures will vary slightly, some may be a little darker (burnt), others a bit lighter (chewy), and the rest of them will be perfectly crispy.

Make these your new savory snack!

Type is becoming blurry, street signs only exist the closer I get, and people with glasses can see better than I… time to get my eyes examined. Aye. In the meantime, I will be eating a lot of this soup, and maybe — just maybe — it will do my little eyes some good; at the very least it will be delicious, inexpensive, and simple to make.

Ingredients used : carrots, ginger, edamame, garlic, pepper powder/cayenne powder, lemon, sour cream, soup stock.

soup for 4

6 cups vegetable stock
4+ cups peeled & chopped carrots
3 cloves chopped garlic
2 tablespoons minced ginger
¼ teaspoon pepper powder or cayenne powder
½ lemon squeezed or juice
1 cup edamame
½ cup sour cream (optional)
olive oil

equipment used : immersion blender or blender & soup pot

Begin with preparing all of the ingredients, peel and mince the garlic & ginger, peel and chop the carrots in to small rounds. Over medium heat in your favorite soup pot splash a little olive oil and include the garlic and ginger.  Saute for a moment until garlic is cooked (don’t burn it), add the carrots and stir.  Pour in the vegetable stock. Turn the heat up and bring to a boil while you add the lemon and pepper/cayenne powder. Return to a simmer and cover until carrots are tender.

When the carrots are fully cooked puree the soup into a smooth consistency with your immersion blender right in the soup pot.  If you don’t have one a regular blender will work fine, however if you are a fan of convenience and/or blended soups & sauces an immersion blender is extremely affordable and totally worth the splurge. By using this tool you avoid having to pour hot liquid into the blender pitcher and back again which also means there is barely a chance for spilling. All good things!

Once your soup is nice and smooth blend in the sour cream, give it a taste and decide if anything needs to be added- for example you may want to add a dash of salt if your base stock wasn’t very salty or flavorful. Last pour in the whole edamame beans, heat soup to the perfect temperature.

Enjoy this soup — practically effortless and super delicous.

I have to admit, I don’t really like eating squash. I generally don’t even like squash soup. I like how squash looks, I like that it’s a very seasonal food, and I like to think that there will be more and more times that I actually enjoy eating squash in the future — there have been a few times in the past, and it’s almost always when prepared in a savory way.  Hold the  cinnamon and sweet spices on my squash — no thank you! We’ll make this soup savory.

As I was drawn to the squash section at the pumpkin patch, I knew that I would be purchasing a few. But I worried that they would sit on my counter for too long or that I would hesitate to try and figure out a satisfying way to prepare them out of fear that I might not be able to do it. I wanted to do it. I personally have never cooked with a butternut squash before but I wanted to try making my own style of the ever so popular soup so I picked up a couple of them first. There were several other piles of squash asking me to take them home but I had to limit myself. I didn’t know what I would do with most of them so I decided to pick up a few acorn squash and was on my way.

The butternut squash did not sit around for long, though it did take a full week of dragging my feet before I actually made it. I’m glad I did though; it was surprisingly easy to make and the soup turned out amazing — slightly sweet from the natural flavor of the butternut squash but prepared to be savory with a bit of spice, just the way I like it. I will definitely be making this again.

Ingredients: butternut squash with seeds, vegetable stock, ginger, chili garlic paste, cumin powder, chili powder, sour cream, olive oil, salt, pepper powder.

You can use your favorite vegetable stock for the base of the soup. I used a homemade stock.  Making a vegetable stock is not an exact science and I wouldn’t call myself an expert, but if you’re interested in how I made mine for this soup, you can find out how at the bottom of the post.

Measurements : serves 4
2 butternut squash
4-6 cups of vegetable stock
1 teaspoon minced ginger
1/2 teaspoon chili garlic sauce
olive oil
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon cayenne or pepper powder
1 cup sour cream
salt to taste
toasted squash seeds with oil, salt, and spice.

Preheat oven to 400°

Cut your butternut squash in half before roasting; I quartered mine. Scoop out seeds & guts, set aside for later. Place your squash pieces on a roasting pan flesh up and brush with butter. Roast until tender, about 20 minutes — just enough to be able to easily remove the meat from the skin, it will cook more in the soup. Once it’s roasted remove from the oven and allow it to cool enough to be handled before chopping it up. I used a pairing knife to remove the skin and chop it into pieces.  If you halve the squash and the flesh is soft enough you can scoop it out with a spoon or melonballer. I also have read that you can use a peeler to remove the skin.

Heat your soup pot with a splash of oil over medium heat, add the minced ginger and then the chili garlic sauce, saute for a moment. Add squash pieces and vegetable stock. We used 4 cups of stock, our soup was really thick but nice & smooth. You may want to add more stock if you have particularly large squash or if you prefer it to be a thinner soup. You can always add more once it’s pureed to change the consistency. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat, bringing it back to a simmer. Add ground cumin and cayenne powder. We used our pepper powder because it was freshly made days before; I think any chili spice would work well — of course adjust the heat according to how spicy you like it. Add a small amount and adjust after the soup is blended if you’re not sure how hot the spice will be.

Allow soup to simmer with spices until everything is thoroughly cooked. Meanwhile, clean and strain your squash seeds.

Puree the soup until smooth. We used an immersion blender to puree it right in the soup pot. A regular blender would work as well. Allow it to simmer and blend it some more until it is completely smooth. Then stir or blend in the sour cream.  Taste and adjust flavor to your liking. You might want to make it a little spicier. We didn’t add any salt, but you might need to depending on the vegetable stock used. Keep soup on low heat before serving while you toast the seeds.

In a small pan heat a splash of olive oil, sprinkle cayenne pepper, salt, and add seeds.  Stir and flip until sufficiently toasted. Pour soup into bowls and top with toasted squash seeds. Keep extra on the table to reload this tasty garnish ;)

Delicious!

Making the vegetable stock::

I used about 12 cups of water to start which gave me about 8 cups of broth after it boiled down. I made more than we needed for this soup so I could freeze the other half for the next soup.

First chop and prepare your ingredients. Because this is a broth you won’t need to cut them very finely or make them look a certain way. You can use almost any vegetables you have but generally “onion,” carrot, and celery make a good broth base. Of course I don’t use onion in my stock however I did use garlic. This is what went into my stock: 2 cups celery chopped, 2 cups carrot chopped, 8 cloves garlic smashed with the back of the knife, 2 bay leaves, 2 teaspoons table salt, 2 tablespoons olive oil, 15 peppercorns, 1 tablespoon soy sauce, and 1/2 inch galangal sliced. Galangal looks a lot like ginger but tastes very different — I added it to my stock pot because I enjoy the spice it gives and I had it. I wasn’t sure how powerful it would be in a stock so I used a small amount this time. You can use just about any vegetables you have on hand; it’s fun to experiment.

Bring the stock to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for about an hour. Taste and adjust salt level; I add small amounts of soy sauce until it’s how I want it. Remove from heat and strain and squeeze all of the liquid from the vegetables. Your stock is made! Now make soup!

note: the buddha bowl in the first picture can be found here : Flavour Design