Quinoa Stuffed Mushrooms

These Quinoa Stuffed Mushrooms are a delicious, gluten-free and grain-free, vegetarian meal and a real family favourite. Friends have touted this a ‘restaurant quality’ meal, but they couldn’t be simpler to make. Line up flat mushrooms on a baking sheet or dish, stuffing with a flavoursome mix of onion, spinach and feta and topping with crunchy walnuts and chia seeds. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes and you have an impressive result with very little effort. 

Health benefits

Mushrooms are a nutritious vegetable and one of the few sources of vitamin D. The garlic and red onion are wonderful immune building, detoxifying vegetables. The quinoa is a complete protein and fibre rich seed. More plant-based fibre and nutrition are provided by the spinach and walnuts. The chia is another excellent source of fibre, protein and essential fatty acids.

Ingredients

The key ingredients in this recipe are of course quinoa and mushrooms! Portobello or field mushrooms are used as a large, flat base and filled with a flavoursome mixture of the stems, onion, spinach, thyme and feta. This is then topped with walnuts which roast in the oven as it is baked, giving an extra flavoursome and crunchy topping. To complete the meal, the stuffed mushrooms are dressed with a zesty garlic and lemon dressing.

How to make Quinoa Stuffed Mushrooms

While your oven is preheating, rinse and cook the quinoa. Rinsing is important to wash off any saponins that can otherwise make the quinoa taste bitter. Drain well then transfer to a saucepan, cover with water and bring to a simmer. When the water has been absorbed, place a lid on the saucepan and turn off the heat. This traps the steam, completing the cooking without risking burning the quinoa. While the quinoa is cooking, you can de-stem the mushrooms and chop the stems finely, dice the onion and chop the spinach and fresh thyme. Once the quinoa is cooked, this can be added to the chopped vegetables as well as the feta cheese. Stir together well then press firmly onto the mushrooms on the baking sheet or dish lined with parchment paper. Top with the chopped walnuts and chia if you like, then bake. While baking, prepare the dressing if you are including this. I love the flavours of the dressing to add a bit of fresh zesty lemon to the dish.

Vary Quinoa Stuffed Mushrooms to suit

This recipe lends itself to many variations! I’ve included nut-free for school lunches, dairy-free, vegan and garlic-free. If you’re out of quinoa, that’s okay too! Rice or buckwheat also work for this stuffing. For green-avoiding people, there’s an easy substitute for the fresh spinach and if mushrooms really aren’t your thing, you can even swap them to make stuffed tomatoes or capsicums. The instructions are easy to follow with these variations so have a good look to suit your needs.

Serving suggestions and how to store

Serve your quinoa stuffed mushrooms warm with a sprinkle of fresh rocket and a drizzle of zesty dressing. If you have leftovers, they store beautifully in an airtight container in the fridge—just reheat them in a low oven until they’re warmed through. 

More delicious, easy to make vegetarian meals HERE.

Quinoa Stuffed Mushrooms

Prep 25 minutes minutes

Cook 20 minutes minutes

Total 45 minutes minutes

Serves: 4

One of my favourite meatless Monday meals, these Quinoa Stuffed Mushrooms are really tasty and quite simple to make. Plant powered nourishment!

MetricUS Customary

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Ingredients

For the stuffed mushrooms:

• 135 g quinoa (¾ cups)
• 8 large portobello or field mushrooms -stalks removed and set aside
• ½ red onion/s (small) finely diced
• 30 g baby spinach - or kale leaves, finely chopped (approx. handful)
• 1 tbsp fresh thyme leaves -picked off the stalks (or 1 teaspoon of dried)
• 100 g feta cheese -or goats curd, crumbled
• 60 g walnuts (½ cup) roughly chopped
• 1 tbsp chia seeds (optional)

For the dressing (optional):

• 1 clove/s garlic -unpeeled (roasted with the mushrooms)
• 1 lemon/s -(small) zest and 2 tablespoons of juice
• 60 ml extra virgin olive oil -extra virgin (4 tbsp)

Method

• Preheat your oven to 180º C/350°F (fan-forced).
• Rinse the quinoa in a fine sieve really well for at least 1 minute (this removes the bitter saponins from the quinoa). If you have time to soak the quinoa in water with a splash of apple cider vinegar (for up to 12 hours) this will improve its digestibility.

  Cook the quinoa by placing it into a pot with 1½ cups of water.
• Bring the mixture to a boil over medium-high heat, then decrease the heat a bit to maintain a gentle simmer. Cook uncovered until the quinoa has absorbed all of the water, about 10 to 12 minutes.
• Remove the pot from heat, cover, and let the quinoa steam for 5 minutes. This step gives the quinoa time to pop open and the little white spiral to appear. After 5 minutes, remove the lid and fluff the quinoa with a fork.
• Chop the mushrooms stalks up and combine in a bowl with the quinoa, onion, spinach or kale and thyme leaves.
• Now mix through the feta or goats curd. Taste and season with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.
• Spoon onto the mushrooms, pressing it into place and then top with the walnuts and sprinkle with the chia seeds.
• Place them in a baking tray with the whole clove of garlic and roast for 20 minutes.
• For the dressing mix together the zest, lemon juice and olive oil, and once cooked, squeeze out the soft centre of the roasted garlic and mix into the dressing.

Serve

• With rocket and a drizzle of dressing.

Make-ahead

• Re-heat in a low oven until just hot.

Store

• Store in an airtight container in the fridge.

Variations

Nut-free

Leftovers are great for school lunches. To make them nut-free substitute the walnuts with sunflower seeds or just omit altogether.

Dairy-free and vegan

Replace the feta or goat cheese with a thick cashew nut cream. Recipe here.

Garlic-free

Omit the garlic in the dressing.

No quinoa

No worries, you can replace it with brown rice or buckwheat.

Kids hate green

Replace the spinach with grated carrot.

Don't do mushrooms?

Then you may not have read this far - but, you could substitute with half a tomato or capsicum with the centre scooped out.

 

 

 

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Course: Appetizer Main Course

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