Paleo Stuffed Portabella Mushrooms
You learn something new every day. The day I made these stuffed mushrooms, I learned that you can make pretty fantastic hummus out of meat. I guess when you call it paté, it's not really revelation-new... but still.
I've always loved stuffed mushrooms, ever since I used to serve/pilfer appetizers when I was a catering server in college. Stuffed mushrooms come in their own edible bowl (always a plus!), and I especially like that these ones have a lot of healthy greens packed in there.
I first developed this stuffed mushroom recipe while I was doing my first Whole30 waaaay back in 2013. It's been pretty popular over the years but the original recipe included coconut flour. I've had a few comments and emails about coconut flour being hard to find (or drying, or expensive), so I decided to revamp the recipe to fit in a little better for the way I cook nowadays.
Anyway, this recipe is now far simpler, easier and delicious... and fully paleo, gluten-free and Whole30 compliant. Crispy, bubbly mozzarella cheese is tasty (as documented in some of these photos below), but cheese is not necessary for this to be delicious. I promise.
Paleo Stuffed Portabella Mushrooms
paleo, gluten-free, whole30-approved | serves 4
Ingredients
- 4 large portabella mushroom caps
- 1 lb hot Italian pork sausage (I used Well Fed's recipe for Italian sausage. It's excellent.)
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, chopped
- 1 red bell peppers, diced
- 3 cups frozen kale
- salt, pepper and chili flakes, to taste
- optional: 1 slightly scrambled egg
- marinara sauce for serving
- optional (obviously not paleo): shredded mozzarella cheese to top
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 F.
- Prep the mushrooms by removing the stems and gills. You can chop up the stems and add them to the filling mixture later, if you like. Place the mushroom caps on a parchment or foil-lined baking sheet.
- Brown the sausage thoroughly in a large skillet or Dutch oven, then transfer into a food processor.
- Use the sausage fat to sauté the onion in the same pan for a couple of minutes until fully cooked, add the garlic to the pan for about 45 seconds. Transfer all of that to the food processor and process until it's almost like a meat-onion paste.
- Back to the stove, saute the red bell pepper and frozen kale in that same pan for a couple of minutes, just long enough so the kale is fully defrosted. If you've chopped up your mushroom stems, add them at this point too. Turn off the heat. If there's a lot of moisture left in the pan from the kale, "dry" it very carefully with a paper towel.
- Add the sausage mixture to the pan and mix everything thoroughly.
- Taste to see if you need to add any more salt, pepper or other seasonings (I sometimes add a bit of extra fennel seed and Italian seasoning here, but choose your own adventure).
- If you want to add an egg for extra moisture, do that now after you're done taste-testing.
- Spoon plenty of the mixture into each mushroom cap (there might be a little leftover, depending on how large your mushrooms are).
- Bake for 25 minutes.
- Pull the mushrooms out of the oven. At this point, there may be some mushroom-y broth that's watered out onto the baking sheet. If so, carefully pour that off or soak it up off of the pan with a paper towel.
- If desired, top each mushroom with shredded mozzarella cheese.
- Turn the broiler on and broil the mushrooms for 3-5 minutes. (Even if you don't put cheese on top, don't skip this broiling step!)
- Garnish as you see fit and serve with warm marinara sauce.
Notes
- You could stuff bell peppers or roasted acorn squash halves with the same mixture.
- Make minis for appetizers using baby or teenager mushrooms. CUTE.
- You could also serve this with marinara or pesto and that would be pretty delicious.
This post was originally published in 2013, but the recipe was revised (slightly) and the photos were updated in 2017.
