Mushrooms. I’m crazy about their rich, meaty taste. When I learned about the fifth taste called umami, I began to understand my love of mushrooms. Here, I’ve stuffed Portobello mushrooms with oven roasted tomatoes and goat cheese for a fantastic savory appetizer or meatless main dish.
Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms and Umami – The 5th Sense
Discovered by a Japanese scientist in 1908, umami is a term borrowed from the Japanese language conveying a pleasant, delicious, savory taste. It’s a singular taste that cannot be called sweet, sour, salty or bitter. It’s found in other foods like asparagus, tomatoes, soy sauce and truffles, shellfish, Parmesan cheese, and other foods. All of my favorite things!
For more of a list of umami-rich foods, check out The Umami Information Center.
Scrape Out the Gills for More Room
Working in the kitchen of a steakhouse restaurant, I worked along side prep cooks cleaning mounds of Portobello mushrooms. They trimmed off the tough stems, then scraped out the chocolaty colored gills with a spoon creating a clean mushroom to grill or fill. Great idea.
Portobello (also spelled Portabella) mushrooms are mature cremini mushrooms. The caps are usually about 4” or 10 cm across. They are dark brown in color and unlike smaller mushrooms, they are purchased with the gills showing. They have a foresty, earthy smell and meaty taste and texture.
Most people leave the gills in Portobello mushrooms. I scrape them out. When you do, the big jumbo caps make a great vessel for filling. They look better and are more appetizing without the gills.
How to Clean Mushrooms
Start by gently wiping the outside of the mushrooms caps with a damp paper towel to remove any surface dirt. Next, pop out the stem by pushing it from side to side. It should come out clean. If not, remove any extra with a paring knife so the inside is flat. Next, use a teaspoon to gently scrape out the dark brown gills from inside the cap. Set mushrooms aside.
Fill and Bake
Brush with a vinaigrette (or just olive oil), broil for a few minutes, then fill with roasted tomatoes, crumbled goat cheese and herbs. Bake for 12 minutes and you have a great appetizer or a meatless main dish to be served with a salad.
Serve them with whole wheat pasta or brown rice for a more substantial dish. When you buy Portobello mushrooms, look for firm, moist caps that are not broken. They will hold for approximately 4-5 days after purchase when properly stored.
Find the recipe for the oven roasted tomatoes here. They take 20-25 minutes and will last a few days in the fridge so you can make them ahead of time.
Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms With Roast Tomatoes and Goat Cheese
Ingredients
- 4 large Portobello mushrooms about 4″ across
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 2 teaspoon finely chopped shallot optional
- 1 large garlic clove finely chopped
- 1/4 teaspoon sea salt to taste
- 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 4 ounces plain goat cheese
- 1 tablespoon fresh chopped parsley
- 1 tablespoon fresh chopped chives
- 1 recipe of oven roasted tomatoes
Instructions
- If you have not made the oven roasted tomatoes ahead, do them first. They take just a few minutes of prep time and 20-25 minutes in the oven.
- While the tomatoes are roasting, clean the mushrooms by gently wiping the outside of the caps with a damp paper towel or brushing any dirt off with a soft brush. Next, pop out the stems by pushing them from side to side until the snap out. Then with a teaspoon, scrape the gills out until the underside is mostly clean. Place them on a foil lined rimmed baking sheet.
- Whisk together the olive oil, lemon juice, shallot and garlic. Brush mushroom caps inside and out with the olive oil mixture (or plain olive oil). Sprinkle each cap with salt and pepper.
- Pre-heat the broiler. With the oven rack on the second to the top level, broil the mushrooms for 3-5 minutes until they are hot and the edges are starting to brown. They will start to release moisture and get juicy. Remove from the oven.
- Pre-heat the oven to 375 (190C). Fill the caps with the roasted tomatoes and dot with the goat cheese. Sprinkle with the fresh herbs.
- Bake for 12 minutes or until hot and the cheese has softened. Brush with a little extra olive oil on the edges to make them shine. Serve.
Your attention to detail makes your food look so appetizing. Thanks for another recipe to try.
These are so lovely. I adore stuffed portabellas of any type, and I’m loving the goat cheese/oven roasted tomato combination here. So pretty.
These look fantastic!
Looking forward to meeting you tomorrow at the BlogHer dinner at Canlis. If you’ve never been you’re in for a treat!
These look like the perfect appetizer for a retirement party I’m throwing. How can you lose with goat cheese, tomatoes, and portobellas!
These look amazing! Keeping them in mind for next meatless Monday =)
These are so luscious and pretty darn healthy! I bet they’d work in the grill too. I might grill the cap side then fill them up and put them back on the grill.
Thank you for sharing this wonderful recipe. I’ve featured it in my News of the Day today.
Looks delicious, I love mushrooms! Is there some reason why you remove the gills? Is it just for space?
Hi Amelia. Yes, cleaning out the gills gives extra space. I think it’s more appetizing as well. You can try it with the gills in if you prefer.
That looks ridiculously good! I’m a mushroom-holic. Do you think that filling would work well for regular mushrooms?
Hi Natasha, sure it would work with regular mushrooms. Just get the biggest ones you can find for plenty of room and pop the stems out to make a hollow area to fill. I’m a mushroom-holic too!
Love the combination of ingredients in this recipe. I think your post is most informative. Thank you!
I made these tonight with a bit of a change up and they were wonderful. We had two sausages we had to get cooked in the next few days so I added them in on a whim and WOW!!! I had to fight my 14month old for the last bits then he stole my bowl to clean it out. And he is a super picky eater!!
I am going to make them again as a side dish when my family comes. I loved this. And so simple to make.
Made this tonight for dinner for my family and everyone loooooved it! We will defiantly be making this again soon. The instructions were very easy to follow too. =)
Yeah! Glad to hear it Stacey! Thanks for reporting back!
I have a a similar recipe using sundried tomatoes, gruyere cheese, fresh herbs and pine nuts. Just fixed them on the grill last night. Yummy!!!
I pinned this a week or so ago, and I’ve made it twice now. The first time, I used feta cheese and parsley. Tonight I made the mushrooms into “mini pizzas” with feta, diced tomatoes, and pepperoni. I’d actually wanted to use pancetta, but couldn’t find it at the grocery store today.
Thank you so much for the idea! This will definitely be a staple dish for us…so easy and nutritious…easy to play around with depending on what you have on hand…and the whole family loved it!
Oh, and next time, I think I’m going to try something with crab meat in it. 🙂
mmmm I will have to try this. I love portobello mushrooms!
[…] decided to try a portobello mushroom pizza after being inspired from A Food Centric Life‘s Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms With Roast Tomatoes and Goat Cheese. Since I have never cooked portobello mushroom before I needed some help with how to season the […]
I just used your portobello mushroom base for a pizza. It tasted wonderful! Love it and so did my family. I can’t wait to try more of your recipes. I had never cooked portobello mushrooms before and loved that you explained how to clean and remove the gills. Thanks again! They tasted delicious!
My daughter who does not like mushrooms loved this dish stuffed with the roasted tomatoes. I made it for a Labor Day get together and everyone loved it. I will make this over and over !
Yeah! Thanks for reporting back and commenting Nora! Love to hear that!
Love to hear that Nora! Thanks for commenting!
I still have 2 portabella mushrooms. I can’t wait to try this recipe. Thanks.
Just made them, oh god they are so good…
Thanks for sharing the recipe!
Greetings from Argentina 🙂
Thanks Juan! A place we need to travel to, lovely Argentina. Glad you enjoyed them!
I made these for a New Years Eve party and they are absolutely heavenly. This is a recipe I will be repeating for many special occasions! Thanks!
My husband and I made those last night, and they were incredible (although we did have to substitute dried oregano for the fresh thyme). We served them with blanched green beans and super-firm tofu baked in wine sauce, with a little left-over stuffing mixed in. Thought we’d died and gone to heaven…
Sounds awesome Lynda!
Beautiful picture! I just love it. It should be in a food magazine.
These were amazing just made them tonight and will definitely make again. My wife and I hade them as our vegetarian meal for the week. We did wanted to bulk them up a little so we added roasted red pepper and roasted corn also had some quinoa on the Sid with the left over filling mixed in
The link to the oven roasted tomatoes is gone! Can you repost? Please!
Oh thanks for the head ups! Will fix immediately. You can also find via the “search this site box” which is kind of a new feature.
I tried this with the mushrooms and loved it…..Tonight I am having this without the mushrooms just as a side dish…Hope we enjoy them as much…