Saturday, July 21, 2012

Portobello Stack with Roasted Red Pepper Coulis

I've been working on grilling more foods this summer. Cooking in the house is just way too hot! One of the foods that's super easy and super yummy to grill is portobello mushrooms.


Me and mushrooms, well, we're just now developing our friendship. Before switching to a plant-based lifestyle mushrooms rarely graced my plate. Honestly. I was no fan! But, I had my first grilled portobello mushroom burger sometime back in January and found a love I never knew. A love for mushrooms!


Yum!


Fast forward to today. I still have a love for those incredibly meaty yummy portobellos but I haven't done much besides a burger or adding it to my tofu scramble. So, that got me thinking. What else can I do with this wonderfully tasty food?


Portobello Stack. Yes, it's similar to a grilled portobello burger but as the hubby put it, it's "fancy food."


Portobello Stack
Yes, I made fancy food. Isn't that fun sometimes?


One little fact I love about mushrooms is the amount of potassium in one portobello. It's more than a banana! Not sure if I've shared this before but I do not like bananas! Not one bit. It just won't happen. Any other way to get potassium is good for me!


Along with the portobello stack I made raw Cauliflower Risotto out of Eat Raw Eat Well by Doug McNish. I'm dabbling with raw foods and this one was fantastic! Loved it! The texture was surprisingly risotto like and the flavor, nutty (cashews), was superb. I do highly recommend this book to anyone looking to add raw foods to their diets.


The raw Cauliflower Risotto was excellent!
Any raw food favorites for you?


Portobello Stack with a Roasted Red Pepper Coulis


Ingredients:


4 portobello mushroom caps
2 red bell peppers
1 medium purple onion
Vegan cheese slices, cheddar or provolone
Fresh basil leaves
Fresh tomato slices


Marinade:
3/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1 1/2 Tablespoons cold pressed extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 large clove of garlic, pressed
salt and pepper to taste, season each portobello


Roasted Red Pepper Coulis:
3 red bell peppers
3 Tablespoons cold pressed extra virgin olive oil
2 Tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 large clove of garlic
10-12 fresh basil leaves
salt and pepper to taste


Preparation:
Remove the stem and black gills from the mushroom. I like to remove the black gills because they will often leach onto other cooked items.  Mix all the marinade ingredients (season each portobello with salt and pepper, add more to marinade to taste) in a large shallow bowl. Place the mushrooms in the marinade and toss to coat all sides of the mushroom. Marinade for 30 minutes tossing occasionally to ensure good marinade coverage.


As your mushrooms are marinading turn your oven to broil. Place the red bell peppers on a cookie sheet covered with aluminum foil. Broil all sides of the red bell peppers until blackened. You will need to watch carefully and flip the peppers frequently. This should take about 10-20 minutes. Keep a careful watch!  Once the peppers are blackened remove them from the oven and place them in a Ziploc bag to cool. Once cooled enough to handle remove the stem, seeds, and blackened skins.




Place all (except the salt and pepper) Coulis ingredients in a food processor. Process until smoothed. Season with salt and pepper to tast.


Roasted Red Pepper Coulis
Heat your grill. Once heated grill the mushrooms until heated through, about 5 minutes per side. At the same time you are grilling the mushrooms grill up the other veggies (red peppers and purple onion) by adding them to a vegetable grill pan, grill until softened and slightly blackened, about 8-10 minutes.




To assemble:
Lay a portobello down, underside facing up, add a layer of peppers, onions, tomatoes, then basil and cheese. Add some Roasted Red Pepper Coulis and top with another portobello. Enjoy with a fork, it could get a tad messy.


Simple Goodness

Cheers and happy eating!

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