Stuffed Portobellos

I call these mushrooms East meets West. They use Eastern spices such as ginger, soy sauce, and cumin combined with Western zucchinis, Granny Smith apples, Portobello mushrooms, and Herbs de Provence. I have also had a chance to prepare these on the East and on the West coast of Canada and every time the reviews were amazing.

4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, divided
4 Portobello mushrooms
1 tablespoon finely minced fresh ginger
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 Granny Smith apples, peeled
2 medium size carrots
½ block of firm tofu
7 Cremini or regular white button mushrooms
1 cup of blanched almonds, ground to powder (optional, use to make the filling sticky) could be substituted with 1 cup bread crumbs or ½ cup wheat germ and ½ cup nutritional yeast
2 zucchinis
3-4 tablespoons Tamari (or soy) sauce
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 ½ teaspoon Herbs de Provence or a mix of basil, oregano, marjoram, and sage

shredder

• Preheat oven to 350C.
• In a medium bowl shred carrots and apples. Cut zucchinis in two. Using spoon scrape out the pulp and either shred it or cut in small pieces and add it to carrots and apples. Keep the zucchinis “shells”, they can be filled with the leftover vegetable mix and baked together with mushroom cups.  In a separate bowl shred tofu.
• Remove and mince the stems from portobellos. Quarter small mushrooms, mince them with portobello stems.
• Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil on the medium-high heat. Add garlic, ginger, mushrooms and fry for 7-10 minutes or until mushrooms loose most of the liquid. Add carrots, apples, zucchinis, mix well and let fry for 5-7 minutes or until all the vegetables are tender.
• Add spices, tofu, Tamari, keep cooking until tofu is thoroughly warm. Taste and adjust for seasoning.  Add grinded almonds and stir the mixture. Now the filling should be more sticky and easier to work with. Remove skillet from the heat and let the mix cool down until cold enough to manipulate.
• Meanwhile scrape out the gills off the portobellos. The easiest way to do it is by using a spoon (shown in the kitchen tips column of the Fresh section).
• Lightly oil the baking sheet and the cups with the remaining olive oil. Stuff Portobellos, arrange them on the baking sheet. Cook for 20-25 minutes, checking periodically.
• Mushrooms come out best when the cups are still moist and the filling is slightly darker on the outside.  You could add some shredded cheese on top during the last 5 minutes of baking.