Vegetable and Cheese Stuffed Mushrooms

Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t have appetizers for dinner, especially when they are mostly vegetables, like these little beauties.  Look, Ma, all my veg and no added butter or oil! My version happens to be vegetarian, but you can change these up anyway you want. Vegan? Either leave out the egg product or use a flax egg (It’s a thing. Google it.) And ditch the cheese. Meat lover? Add chopped bacon and/or ham. 

Ingredients (makes about 25 mushrooms):

1 ½ (10 ounce) packages of mushrooms (baby bella, white, whatever)

1 whole shallot, finely diced

1 stalk celery, finely diced

1/3 cup frozen spinach, thawed (pssst, buy the frozen loose leaf spinach in a bag-that way, you can take out a handful whenever you want without having to thaw a whole box)

¼ cup vegetable stock

¼ cup yolk-free egg product (like Egg Beaters®)

½ teaspoon Dijon mustard

½ teaspoon Worcestershire

Dash freshly grated nutmeg

1 teaspoon Herbes de Provence (or thyme-I just happened to have Herbes de Provence)

1 teaspoon dried parsley

1/3 cup shredded Swiss or gruyere cheese

2 small slices whole grain bread (I’m using Ezekiel® Sprouted Whole Grain bread), toasted and pulsed to crumbs in the food processor-about 1/3 cup

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with foil or parchment and set aside.

Clean the mushrooms and pull the stems out, leaving a nice little ‘cup’ inside each mushroom. Place the mushrooms cup side up on the baking sheets. Dice the mushroom stems and put in a bowl along with the shallot, celery and spinach.

Heat a large skillet over medium heat and add the stock. Toss in the diced veggies and cook for about 6 minutes or until they are soft and fragrant and all the liquid has evaporated. Let cool slightly and place in a mixing bowl.

Add all the other ingredients to the vegetables and mix until well combined. Place a good, healthy teaspoon of the filling into the middle of each mushroom. Spray the top with a little cooking spray (optional).

Bake for 20 minutes or until the tops are golden brown. Let cool slightly and serve with apple slices or grapes.