Want to hear something crazy? My kids like mushrooms. The list of things my husband doesn’t like is too long for this blog posting so having 2 preschoolers who like mushrooms makes me feel pretty happy. Don’t worry – they hate lots of other things (like grilled cheese).
Last week I bought 2 oz cartons of crimini mushrooms thinking I’d find the time to make a summer vegetable torta despite my husband having his 40th birthday the day before Easter while also having his father in the hospital. What was I thinking?
Monday night we got home late and in endless battle against making “noodles” I whipped this up to avoid finding these shriveled a week later and having to toss.
This takes about 15-20 minutes from start to finish. You can’t make pasta with jar sauce much faster.
You’ll need:
8 oz mushrooms (I used crimini but you can use any you have on hand)
2 TBSP olive oil (or butter)
2 TBSP onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
3 TBSP flour, separated
2 c vegetarian chicken flavored broth
1 c whole milk (or cream or evaporated milk)
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper (or to taste!)
1/4 tsp nutmeg
This is so easy!
1. Brush dirt off mushrooms & slice.
2. Heat oil in large saucepan over medium heat. Add onions & mushrooms and cook until onions are soft (about 4 minutes), stirring occasionally. Add garlic and cook for 1 more minute.
3. Stir in 2 T of flour, coating the vegetables.
4. Add broth, stirring frequently until it thickens.
5. In a small bowl, combine cream with remaining 1 T flour and seasonings. Whisk together until combined thoroughly.
6. Add mixture to soup, stirring occasionally as it thickens.
OPTIONAL: add fresh chopped thyme or tarragon!
I doubled the recipe and we had about 2 bowls of leftovers.
A surprisingly tasty, simple & quick cream of mushroom soup!
Ingredients
8 oz mushrooms (I used crimini but you can use any you have on hand)
2 TBSP olive oil (or butter)
2 TBSP onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
3 TBSP flour, separated
2 c vegetarian chicken flavored broth
1 c whole milk (or cream or evaporated milk)
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp black pepper (or to taste!)
¼ tsp nutmeg
Instructions
Brush dirt off of mushrooms & slice.
Heat oil in large saucepan over medium heat. Add onions & mushrooms and cook until onions are soft (about 4 minutes), stirring occasionally. Add garlic and cook for 1 more minute.
Stir in 2 T of flour, coating the vegetables.
Add broth, stirring frequently until it thickens.
In a small bowl, combine cream with remaining 1 T flour and seasonings. Whisk together until combined thoroughly.
Add mixture to soup, stirring occasionally as it thickens.
How many Sunday nights have I found myself making promises? To myself.
“Starting tomorrow, I’m going to cut out all sugar.”
“Starting tomorrow, I’m going to do 100 crunches every morning.”
“Starting tomorrow, I’m going to finish _____________.” (Fill-in the blank with one of any countless unfinished projects.)
Screw that! I’m going to make one goal that’s easy to accomplish. I’m going to eat something healthy.
Here’s a simple, yummy recipe for “Meatless Monday.” I think I ate the whole thing myself.
You need:
Too bad, Libby!
INGREDIENTS
2 large eggs (I used egg replacer)
1 c cottage cheese
1/2 c sour cream
1 tsp Dijon style mustard
Salt
1 TBSP olive oil or unsalted butter
8 oz crimini mushrooms, chopped
1 large yellow onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
3 c cooked wild rice (and/or brown rice) Btw: it’s a little embarrassing to reveal what a flake I am but I actually boiled 3 c of dry wild rice. Do you know how much COOKED rice that is? A ton. You are supposed to end up with 3 c of cooked rice. But if you do accidentally make a few vats of rice, just put it in some freezer Zip-locs and chuck it in the freezer for next time!
1/3 c grated Gruyere cheese
1 tsp chopped fresh tarragon or thyme
DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat oven to 350. Grease a medium-large baking dish with olive oil or butter. (I used an 8×11 casserole dish.)
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, cottage cheese, sour cream, mustard, and a scant 1/2 tsp salt.
3. Heat olive oil over high heat in a large skillet with a pinch of salt.
Stir in mushrooms. After stirring to coat with oil, leave mushrooms sautéing for about 5 minutes.
Continue cooking, stirring every couple of minutes.
4. Add onions to mushrooms & cook for another 4-5 minutes, until onions are translucent.
Add garlic, stir and cook for another minute. Remove pan from heat.
5. Add rice to skillet & stir.
6. Add rice mixture to the cottage cheese mixture and stir until combined.
7. Pour mixture into greased baking dish.
Sprinkle with two-thirds of the grated cheese and cover with aluminum foil.
Sometimes I don’t read the directions closely, so I added my tarragon at this point. I actually had fresh tarragon for the first time in my life, having just planted it in my backyard. Even though this is the wrong order, doesn’t this look delish?
Anyway, bake covered for 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake another 20-30 minutes, until the casserole is golden brown.
This is seriously so good! Serve with a green salad. I didn’t because I never have time to make more than one component. But I would! If this didn’t turn you on, stay tuned for REALLY easy chocolate cake. Remember my No Knead Bread? This is the No Knead Bread of Chocolate Cakes.
Author: Christina Cox (recipe from Heidi Swanson’s “Super Natural Every Day”)
Recipe type: Side
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 4
Tasty rice side dish that also serves well as a main with a leafy green salad!
Ingredients
2 large eggs (or egg replacer)
1 c cottage cheese
½ c sour cream
1 tsp Dijon or whole grain mustard
Sea salt
1 TBSP olive oil or unsalted butter
8 oz crimini mushrooms, chopped
1 large onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 c cooked wild rice and/or brown rice (use whichever you have or a little of each!)
⅓ c grated Gruyere cheese
1 tsp chopped fresh tarragon or thyme
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350. Grease a medium size baking pan with olive oil or butter.
In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, cottage cheese, sour cream, mustard and scant ½ tsp salt.
Heat oil in large skillet with pinch of salt. Stir in mushrooms. Leave mushrooms to cook for about 5 minutes undisturbed. After about 5 minutes, stir again every few minutes. Add onion to mushrooms, stir and cook until translucent for 4-5 minutes. Add garlic and cook for another minute. Then remove skillet from heat.
Add rice to skillet & stir to combine. Then add rice mixture to cottage cheese mixture and stir to combine. Pour mixture into prepared baking dish. Sprinkle ⅔ of the cheese on top, cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Remove foil, bake another 20-30 minutes, until casserole is golden brown, especially around the edges.
Serve with remaining cheese & tarragon or thyme.
Notes
The cook time includes 45-60 minutes to cook wild rice. You can also buy pre-cooked wild or brown rice to save time! If you buy pre-cooked rice, the cook time is about an hour for the baking and 10-12 minutes for sautéing veggies.
Phew! It’s been a while and I have loads of recipes to share with you. And a lot to keep to myself (read: “Coxy’s Kitchen Disasters.”)
I hope ALL my loyal readers (Dad?) enjoyed your holidays and are set for the new year. Or, are at least recovering from overdoing it in every way.
We’ve had a wild month and if it was hectic, we brought it on ourselves. We had a Christmas party over here that was loads of fun. Unfortunately, there are no pix as our hands were literally full the whole time. Luckily Bea had just started walking so every so often I’d see the crowds part and a little 2 footer stagger on through like a tiny drunk looking for her Mama (her nickname for George.)
The party presented me the opportunity to live a lifelong dream of making decorated/frosted sugar cookies for Christmas. Until around 12:45AM the night before the party, as I stood up squeezing Royal Icing onto each of the three dozen cookies when I started hating the cookies. Those cookies were privy to lots of F bombs.
Anyway, I’m a little bummed we didn’t get any pictures as we saw a lot of friends we haven’t seen lately – some in over a year. We sure did appreciate them coming by to see us!
Around the middle of the month, Patsy arrived and we couldn’t have been more thrilled! Having Nana here as another set of ears to listen to the 3 year old soap operas going on between a green alligator finger puppet (named “Toy Store”) and his sister, a golden lab Calico Critter named “Bella” was a HUGE relief for another set of ears. (Mine.)
Maddie finally understood the tree decorating. I still don’t really understand it but I’m glad she does.
And Bea helped too.
Between our party and Christmas, we were invited to a 3 year old “Under the Sea” birthday party. Stay tuned – that will be a separate posting for those of you interested. Amazing work by a talented & extremely pregnant Swedish woman.
Enough about family reminiscing – let me insert this yummy Carmelized Mushroom recipe for you before you’ve fallen asleep for the night!
G doesn’t “do” fungus but Maddie & I do. Since he was working late every night, we threw all mushroom caution to the wind!
This recipe marks my first attempt to use egg replacer. I picked it up at The CO-OP in Santa Monica. It comes in a groovy, totally Brady Bunch looking box.
See?
You can probably get egg replacer at any health food store or maybe even Whole Foods? The kind I got comes in powder form.
Ok. Let’s make the biscuits first!
Here’s what you need for those:
BISCUIT INGREDIENTS
2.5 c all purpose flour
1 TBSP baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar
1/2 – 1 tsp coarsely ground black pepper
1/4 c chopped fresh chives
3/4 c unsalted butter, cold & cubed
1 large egg (I used egg replacer!)
3/4 c buttermilk, cold
1. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, black papper & chives.
I spent so much time buying, chopping and photographing my chives…
that I forgot to add them until the end. It worked out fine though.
2. Add butter to dry ingredients. Just look at it!
3. Use your fingers or a pastry cutter to incorporate the butter into the flour mixture.
4. In a small bowl, whisk together the egg replacer & buttermilk.
5. Make a small well in the center of the fat and flour mixture.
6. Add the buttermilk mixture.
Use a fork to combine the wet & dry ingredients.
7. Be sure to moisten all the flour bits with the liquid. Your dough will be “shaggy.” No problem!
8. Dump the dough out onto a lightly floured surface & kneed together until well combined. Use a rolling pin or your hands to make your dough about 1.5 inches thick.
9. Use a round 1.5 inch biscuit cutter to cut the biscuits. I didn’t because I didn’t have one. But I did use a flower cookie cutter. Because I did have one. Doesn’t my biscuit look cute?
Place biscuits on a cookie sheet, wrap with plastic & refrigerate until ready to bake.
Here’s what you need for the mushroom mixture:
MUSHROOM MIXTURE INGREDIENTS:
2 TBSP olive oil
1 TBSP unsalted butter
1 pound small cremini mushrooms, cleaned and cut into bite size chunks
1 medium purple onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1.5 teaspoon dried thyme
2 medium carrots, sliced thin
2 cups diced sweet potatoes (small!)
1.5 cups frozen peas
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
2 1/2 cups vegetable or mushroom broth (Mushroom broth? They really have that?)
salt and pepper to taste
2 tsp Worchestershire sauce
dash of balsamic vinegar (optional)
1. If you plan to make the whole kit n caboodle, then set the oven to 375 right now!
2. Melt butter into olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat.
Add mushrooms in a single layer in the pan and allow to cook, without disturbing, for about 4 minutes. Add a hearty pinch of salt & black pepper. Toss the mushrooms every once in a while until softened and golden brown.
You’re probably looking at this picture and thinking to yourself, “That doesn’t look like a single layer of mushrooms to me.” I need to use a bigger saucepan next time. So sue me!
Remove mushrooms from pan.
3. Add more olive oil and sautee onions about 4-5 minutes, until soft & translucent.
4. Add garlic & cook for another minute.
5. Add carrots & sweet potatoes and sauté for 5-7 minutes. I actually did 10-12 minutes because I worried I hadn’t chopped them small enough.
6. Add thyme. Return mushrooms to the pan. Turn heat to low and add flour. Toss. Slowly add broth, stirring constantly until thickened. Add peas.
7. Add salt & pepper to taste. Stir in Worchestershire sauce and balsamic vinegar.
Pour mushroom mixture into an 8×8 inch pan. Or whatever you have that comes close. I think I used an 8×11 glass casserole baking dish. Place the biscuits on top of the mushroom mixture.
8. Bake for 20-35 minutes until biscuits are golden brown.
YUM!
These will keep in the fridge for up to 4 days and they get better!
Tasty & filling, not to mention good-looking healthy comfort food!
Ingredients
BISCUIT INGREDIENTS
2.5 c all purpose flour
1 TBSP baking powder
¼ tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar
½ – 1 tsp coarsely ground black pepper
¼ c chopped fresh chives
¾ c unsalted butter, cold & cubed
1 large egg (I used egg replacer!)
¾ c buttermilk, cold
MUSHROOM MIXTURE INGREDIENTS:
2 TBSP olive oil
1 TBSP unsalted butter
1 pound small cremini mushrooms, cleaned and cut into bite size chunks
1 medium purple onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1.5 teaspoon dried thyme
2 medium carrots, sliced thin
2 cups diced sweet potatoes (small!)
1.5 cups frozen peas
⅓ cup all-purpose flour
2½ cups vegetable or mushroom broth (Mushroom broth? They really have that?)
salt and pepper to taste
2 tsp Worchestershire sauce
dash of balsamic vinegar (optional)
Instructions
BISCUITS:
In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, sugar, black pepper, and chopped chives.
Add butter to the dry ingredients. Use your fingers to quickly incorporate the fat into the flour. Break up the butter with your fingers until some of the fat is the size of oat flakes and some of the fat is the size of small pebbles.
In a small bowl, whisk together egg and buttermilk.
Make a small well in the center of the fat and flour mixture. Add the buttermilk mixture. Using a fork, combine the wet and dry ingredients. Try to moisten all of the flour bits with
the liquid. Dump the shaggy biscuit dough onto a lightly floured work surface. Knead together until dough forms a disk about 1½ inches thick.
Use a round, 1½-inch biscuit cutter to cut biscuits. Gather the dough scraps, knead for a few turns, and cut out more biscuits until no dough remains. Place biscuits on a small cookie sheet and place in the fridge until ready to bake.
Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
MUSHROOM FILLING:
In a large saucepan over medium heat, melt butter into olive oil. Add mushrooms in a single layer in the pan and allow to cook, without disturbing, for about 4 minutes. Add a hearty pinch of salt and black pepper. Toss mushrooms every once in a while until softened and golden brown. Remove mushrooms from the pan.
Add a touch more olive oil and sautee onions until softened and transluscent. Add garlic and toss for one minute. Add carrots and sweet potatoes and saute for 5 to 7 minutes, softened the potatoes slightly. Add thyme. Return the mushrooms to the pan. Turn heat to low and add flour. Toss together. Slowly add the broth, stirring constantly until thickened.
Add peas.
Add salt and pepper to taste. Stir in Worchestershire sauce and balsamic vinegar.
Pour mushroom mixture into 8×8-inch pan. Remove mushrooms from the refrigerator and place 9 biscuits over the filling. Bake for 20-23 minutes, until biscuits are golden brown and cooked through.
Remove from oven and allow to cool slightly before serving. Mushrooms and dumplings will last for up to 4 days, well wrapped, in the refrigerator.
Notes
Stores in refrigerator for up to 4 days!
The only thing I changed was to use egg replacer instead of the egg.
2.1.7
Please excuse the funkiness of the printable but that’s the only way to insert two recipes on one posting according to my technological prowess.
I was going to go into more about the neighbor who “adopted our cat” and renamed him “Maxwell” despite him sleeping here every night but I think we’re all tired so I’ll sign out here.
Tomorrow check back for the Christmas pix and, more important, the recipe for the EASIEST NO-KNEAD (no need to knead?) rustic bread you’ve ever (or never) made in your life!! If you’ve never made bread before, you only need FOUR ingredients, all of which can be purchased at Ralph’s. So definitely check back tomorrow for that posting! And then call Maddie & ask if she can take a nap tomorrow so I can actually write it. Thank you!
After stirring to coat with oil, leave mushrooms sautéing for about 5 minutes.
