Make Stuffed Mushrooms From Leftover Food
If you search for “stuffed mushrooms” in this wide web of the world, you will find many recipes. It’s great for those of us who love recipes, but stuffed mushrooms are one of the easiest snacks to make without a recipe. You just put things in the hollowed-out mushrooms, then fry the mushrooms you stuffed until they are soft and any cheese you fill them with melts and browns.
I mostly use this genre of recipes for inspiration and then – once inspired – take a long, hard look at what’s actually in my refrigerator. After all, mushrooms are nature bowls, and these bowls are designed to be filled with leftover food.
With the exception of desserts, pretty much every leftover can be put into a mushroom. You can make mushrooms stuffed with spaghetti, mushrooms stuffed with fried rice, mushrooms stuffed with crab pie , fried mushrooms from the last pieces. There are no leftovers that cannot be added to the mushroom.
Stuffed mushrooms can also be served with any dish. Fill them with breakfast sausages and cheese (just be sure to cook the sausage before it hits the mushroom) and serve next to the scrambled eggs. Fill them with random cheese chunks and a final scoop of cream cheese for a snack. You can even make mushrooms stuffed with salad – you just need to fry the mushrooms completely before stuffing them. Fried mushroom stuffed with grated lettuce, cherry tomatoes, and bacon chunks is really good, especially if you mix the salad with a little mayonnaise.
How to cook stuffed mushrooms
Making a stuffed mushroom is easy. Peel a few porcini mushrooms, remove the stems and collect the ingredients for the filling. (The stems can be chopped and fried, then used to add bulk.) If you want to add meat, make sure it’s cooked before it gets into the mushroom. It’s also helpful to have some kind of binder – some mashed potatoes or cream cheese is fine, although this isn’t critical for toppings, rice, or pasta.
Preheat oven to 375 ℉. Sprinkle the mushroom caps with olive oil and stir to coat, then season them with salt and pepper and place them upside down on the wire rack inside the baking sheet. Cook for 10-15 minutes, until liquid, then remove from oven and turn over. (This stage of pre-frying is optional, but it will prevent them from softening, especially if your filling ingredients might release moisture.)
Mix all the filling ingredients and place them in the mushroom. If you’re worried about burning the contents, sprinkle it with cheese, which acts like a shield and tastes really good. Fry the stuffed mushrooms for another 10-15 minutes, until the filling is hot, all the cheese has melted, and the mushrooms become soft and brown around the edges.