Rustic Italian Style Mushrooms with Cornmeal
I learned something very important when creating this recipe.
Actually, I learned a few things.
1. You can blend mushrooms. They look weird, but you don’t have to eat them in whole or slice form.
2. No matter what anyone says, mushrooms can be your whole meal.
3. No matter what anyone says, mushrooms are not pretty to photograph.
Three important lessons from one great recipe.
Ok. So I must live a very sheltered life because I’ve never blended mushrooms before. With a Portobello mushroom I’ve baked and grilled. I’ve eaten with onions and I’ve eaten like a burger. With other mushrooms I’ve sliced on pizza or put in a salad. I love mushrooms, but, I am limited in my eating methods.
For this months Recipe Redux contest I wanted to change that. The theme was blended mushrooms. I almost skipped this months contest because I have no idea what the crap I am doing with ‘shrooms. None.
Add to that the fact they had to be blended….
awww man. Just run now. Run fast.
I am on a quest to change my eating habits, what I eat and my weight. I am trying to spend more time at the farmers market and skip the grocers meat counter. At this point I still had no idea what I was doing. A few weeks ago I was thumbing through this new vegetarian cookbook my mother picked up for me. I’ve been sampling a few recipes in it. With my trips to the farmers market I thought I would sit down and check it out and see if something caught my eye.
I found this really interesting recipe for rustic mushrooms. However, there were no blended mushrooms.
Never fear!
Blend girl is here!
You guys know I don’t follow recipes, so I created my own using this rustic Italian style mushroom dish as inspiration. You could use polenta in place of the cornmeal. I did not have any. The original recipe called for sage, again, I had none. So, I used salt-free seasoning because it had some sage in it. I’m creative 😉
I did not have fresh parsley, so I used the dried stuff. I am lazy and didn’t want to chop up garlic, so I used minced. I swapped cream cheese from the original recipe for Greek yogurt. Also, I did not have any red pepper like the original recipe, so I used Cajun seasoning.
I think my recipe turned out pretty rad.
Rustic Italian Style Mushrooms with Cornmeal
Ingredients
- 2 cups mushroom blend of crimini shiitake and oyster
- 2 portobello mushrooms thickly sliced
- 1 tbsp rosemary finely chopped
- 1 tbsp + 1 tsp all purpose salt-free seasoning
- 1/2 c parsley dried
- 1 stick of butter
- 4 cups vegetable stock
- 1/2 tbsp minced garlic
- 1/2 Greek yogurt
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp cajun seasoning
- 1 cup cornmeal mix
Instructions
- Put the mushroom blend of crimini, shiitake, and oyster in a food processor.
- Blend until pieces are very fine.
- Set aside.
- In a pan add cornmeal, rosemary, 1 tbsp salt free seasoning, 1/4 c of parsley, and 1/2 stick of butter over medium heat allowing the butter to melt.
- Slowly add the vegetable stock.
- Stir well.
- Add the blended mushrooms.
- Cook for 6-8 minutes or until cornmeal becomes thick.
- Remove from heat, set aside, but keep warm.
- In another pan add remaining butter, garlic and the slices of portobello.
- Saute for 6-8 minutes.
- While the portabello are cooking, in a small bowl combine the yogurt, garlic powder, 1 tsp salt free seasoning.
- Add the portobello mixture to the yogurt mixture.
- In a eating bowl add the cornmeal and mushroom mixture. Top it off with the sliced portobello mixture.
- Garnish with remaining parsley.
It was delish. My mom had a taste and said it had great flavor. Kiddo liked it, but it had too much garlic for her. Shes not a garlic fan. Hubby even tried it even though he hates mushrooms. So, more for me. I got 4 meals out of this!
Are you a mushroom fan? What’s your favorite dish?
The Mushroom Council would like you to know that their hosting a fun contest called “Swap It or Top It.” Share your best mushroom recipes for a chance to win!
“By posting this recipe I am entering a recipe contest sponsored by The Mushroom Council and am eligible to win prizes associated with the contest. I was not compensated for my time.”
Check out some of the other wonderful Recipe Redux Mushroom creations!
I’ve actually been a long life mushroom fan and love me some polenta too but never had thought to blend them into polenta – talk about Italian comfort food.
It turned out way better than it looks!
Nice blend of mushrooms. Sounds creamy and very flavorful!
Thanks so much!
Chrystal, this looks amazing (and healthy)! I have a major thing for mushrooms and I think I could even convince my anti-mushroom husband to eat this tasty meal 🙂
Thank you Amy! I sure wish I could get my family to eat it! I bet I could blend the mushrooms in some polenta and just not tell them 😉
the sauce for these looks absolutely delicious!
Thank you Lindsay!
I love mushrooms! i’ve never tried to blend them up like that, but I bet it tastes wonderful. Thanks for sharing on Merry Monday.
I was quite surprised at how well it turned out!
The mushroom sauce sounds really good and definitely on the healthy side of comfort food. Grits might be an interesting substitute for the polenta, as well. Thanks!
My family really likes grits, I just wish they would eat mushrooms. I bet it would be a good combination!
This sounds absolutely delicious to me! I think polenta and mushrooms are perfectly suited to one another 🙂 And you are so right about mushrooms being tricky to photograph. That’s where a LOT of garnish comes in handy. Love how you paired whole mushrooms with the blended ones too!
Thank you so much. I did sprinkled with parsley, but wasn’t sure what else to add for some pop without altering the flavor. I might have to practice with this one a bit more!
Chrystal, I ADORE mushrooms. Beef Stroganoff is my favorite mushroom dish, but I love them with just about anything. I just want to thank you again for being my co-host for The Yuck Stops Here! You’re awesome!
Stroganoff is one of those comfort foods for me.
I would have never thought of putting these ingredients together, but they sound delicious and I can’t wait to try it!! Thank you so much for linking up at Tasty Tuesday! Your recipe has been pinned to the Tasty Tuesday Pinterest board! Please join us again this week!
I was unsure but I needed a mushroom recipe and wanted to try something new. It turned out to be a winner!
I like mushrooms as long as they are grilled or sauteed. Cooked in some way lol
My kids not so much
Thanks for sharing & linking up at the Tasty Tuesday linkup. I have pinned
I like them cooked as well. I have always been really picky about my mushrooms so I was really surprised that I liked this with the blend.