Stuffed Mushrooms

We finally went back in the water on Tuesday and are one step closer to being our way again! We went for our first sail yesterday, which was very exciting and gave us some motivation for what we are doing. We had had a bottle of champagne chilling in the fridge for the occasion that we were finally able to drink! We chose not to smash the bottle over the bow as we figured that had already been done when the boat was first launched 20 years ago and we wouldn’t dream of wasting good bubbly!

Despite all the excitement, after all of the hard work that we put in while we were on the hard, we have found that we are kind of burnt out. Thankfully we have been spoiled into relaxation for the last 24 hours. Bryce’s Uncle Tim came to help and whisked us away to a friend’s nearby beach house for wonderful company, great food, warm showers and a real bed! This afternoon, my aunt and uncle came to visit us on the boat bringing lots of delicious treats (including a 20L drum of oil).  Thank you to everyone who has spoiled us! Tim brought us up some large, delicious mushrooms which were just begging to be stuffed full of goodies and so I whipped up these stuffed mushrooms for our lunch yesterday.

Stuffed Mushrooms

2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

2 small onions, diced

3 cloves garlic, finely chopped

¼ green capsicum (pepper), diced

½ block(250g) firm tofu, diced

1 generous handful spinach, roughly chopped

2 tomatoes, diced

2 tsp dried rosemary

2 tsp dried parsley

1 tsp crushed red pepper (to taste)

½ tin tomato paste

½ cup walnuts, roughly chopped

Salt & pepper, to taste

6 large portabella mushrooms, stems removed*

1. Sautee onions in olive oil on medium heat until translucent (~5 min), add garlic, cook for 1 min.
2. Add capsicum and tofu. Cook for 5 min.
3. Add spinach, tomatoes, rosemary, parsley, red pepper. Cook until spinach has wilted.
4. Add tomato paste and season to taste.
5. Remove pan from heat and stir in walnuts.
6. Spoon mixture into mushroom caps. Place on prepared pan. Bake for 30 min at 350 F/ 180 C or until mushroom cap is soft.
7. Serve with salad.

*If you don’t have a secondary purpose of the mushroom stems, these can be chopped up and included in the stuffing mix. Add to the stuffing mixture with the spinach.