Stuffed mushrooms are usually too fiddly and labour intensive for me; but big flat Portobello mushrooms are game changers for me. These are described as ‘stuffed’ but really these are layered with a savoury tomato mix, a layer of lightly sautéed spinach and topped with cheesy breadcrumbs. It satisfies my (perennial) craving for pizza.

The quantities in the recipe are flexible, if you’re keen on tomatoes and spice, go for it. Likewise spinach and the toppings. I used cherry tomatoes, you can substitute any fresh tomatoes, but I would core and seed larger tomatoes. Don’t use tinned tomatoes – too much liquid.

It’s easy to make this as a vegan dish – use olive oil and a vegan cheese substitute. Or omit the cheese altogether.

Key to success of this recipe is to sauté the ingredients for the stuffing and topping separately and combine or layer as per the instructions.

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Let’s get cooking.

Recipe

Ingredients

• 4 large flat mushrooms, often called Portobello
• 250 grams cherry tomatoes
• 250 grams chestnut or white mushrooms
• Teaspoon of dried chilli flakes
• teaspoon of herbes de Provence
• butter or oil to sautè
• 500 grams fresh spinach (optional)
• 50 grams of high quality breadcrumbs
• 50 grams of Parmesan cheese, finely grated
• tablespoon of chopped chives

Instructions

1. Prepare a shallow flat baking dish, coat lightly with oil. Remove the stems from the mushrooms (often sold without them or with very short stems). Place the mushrooms, gill side up, in the baking dish.
2. Preheat the oven to 180C (160C fan).
3. Remove the stems from chestnut mushrooms, chop fine. Sauté the chopped mushroom in butter or olive oil. Put to one side, wipe out the frying pan.
4. Halve or quarter the cherry tomatoes. Sauté in oil or butter until soft, crush with a potato masher, stir in the chili flakes and herbes de Provence. Combine with the chopped sautéed mushrooms, spoon the mixture over the Portobello mushrooms. Wipe out the frying pan (again).
5. Quickly and very briefly sauté the spinach. Spoon over the tomatoes and mushrooms.
6. Combine breadcrumbs, cheese and chives and top the mushrooms.
7. Cook for 20 minutes, check for doneness. Might need another 5 minutes.

Enjoy!

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Tags: mushroomsmushrooms stuffed with tomatoesstuffed mushroomsvegan stuffed mushrooms