Mmmmarvelous Mmmmushroom Burgers

I found an incredibly simple recipe for Portobello Mushroom Burgers on the website http://www.allrecipes.com/. Portobellos are SO meaty you really forget you’re not eating meat at all. Another great recipe to use to reduce the amount of animal protein in your diet.

Portobello Mushroom Burgers
4 portobella mushroom caps
¼ cup balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 tablespoon minced garlic
Salt and pepper to taste

Place the mushroom caps, smooth side up, in a shallow dish. In a small bowl, whisk together vinegar, oil, basil, oregano, garlic, salt and pepper. Pour over the mushrooms. Let stand at room temperature for 15 minutes or so, turning twice.

Preheat grill for medium-high heat. Brush grate with oil. Place mushrooms on the grill, reserving marinade for basting. Grill for 5 to 8 minutes on each side, or until tender. Brush with marinade frequently.

For side dishes I served mixed greens with leftover dressing from Sunday night (see blog for salad dressing recipe) and a Chickpea and Cherry Tomato Salad with Cilantro Dressing. I was lucky enough that someone gave me a whack of cherry tomatoes from their garden just that morning so took the liberty of enjoying their freshness right away.

Chickpea and Cherry Tomato Salad with Cilantro Dressing
(recipe from Clean Food by Terry Walters with some modifications)
2 pounds cherry tomatoes
3 cups cooked chickpeas*
4-5 scallions, chopped

Dressing:
1 garlic clove, peeled and minced
1 large bunch cilantro (about 1 cup)
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons lemon juice
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Cut tomatoes in half and place in large bowl with chickpeas and scallions.

Put all dressing ingredients in a jar and process with an immersion/stick blender.

Pour dressing over salad, toss to coat, and serve.

*This is when it’s handy to have cooked chickpeas that you’ve cooked up a large batch, portioned, and put in your freezer – or use canned.

Marvelous Mushrooms

(photo from Flicker)

I couldn’t resist the organic portabello mushrooms at our local organic shop and wanted to feature this for tonight’s dinner. Barbequing these will really make it feel like biting into a meaty morsel. The mushrooms are just marinated (see recipe below) and could also be baked in the oven (unless you're refraining from oven use like I am this summer) or could be dehydrated if you so choose - and own a dehydrator, of course!

Another local harvest item for tonight’s dinner plate are green beans, lightly steamed and seasoned with some fresh lemon juice, olive oil, and unrefined sea salt with some cherry tomatoes thrown in for good measure (and their colour - not to mention the fact that I need to use them up). I always sprinkle some salt over vegetables in the steamer basket otherwise you miss an opportunity to season them.

To round out tonight’s menu, I thought I’d use up some new potatoes that aren't so new anymore. These are cut into chunky squares and combined with the same cut of red onions, yellow onions, and sweet peppers – all mixed together with a few glugs of olive oil, a generous pinch of salt, a few grinds of black pepper and a couple of sprigs of fresh thyme. I’ve got a great little grill basket that can hold these on the barbeque (alternatively you could just wrap them up in a tin foil packet and whack this on the barbeque instead).

Marinated Portabello Mushrooms
(Recipe from Enlightened Eating cookbook)

3 portabello mushrooms, halved and sliced 1/4 inch thick (my note: or keep them whole)

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1 tablespoon nama shoyu or tamari

1 small clove garlic, minced (optional)

1 tablespoon crushed fresh rosemary

1/2 cup water

My Notes: How can adding garlic ever be considered optional? Add it, and a large clove at that. I use tamari because I always have it on hand. I've yet to purchase nama shoyu, but will at some point to try it out. Not sure how one goes about "crushing" their rosemary. I pull it off the branch and chop it up. You might also want to consider saving your rosemary branches. Just keep them well-wrapped and in your freezer and keep on adding branches as you use them. Then when you've got quite a collection, use them as skewers for vegetable brochettes and you get the great flavour of rosemary transcended right through the veggies.