Salt & Humor

Finally, I am back! I want to share with you a new favorite recipe of mine.  I took a favorite Holiday casserole that my Mom used to make and turned it into an appetizer.  She would make a layered casserole with creamed spinach, wild rice and mushrooms.  Oh, it is glorious.  For Thanksgiving I was in charge of an appetizer and decided to compromise that casserole dish and make it into an appetizer.

Spinach & Rice Stuffed Mushrooms

-12-18 large mushrooms

-1 package of fresh baby spinach

-1 package of herbed Tofutti cream cheese

-1/2 cup of rice ( I used 1/4 cup brown and 1/2 cup wild)

-1 cup vegetable broth

-1/8 t salt

–1/4 t black pepper

-1/2 t dried parsley

-1/2 cup bread crumbs

-1 T Earth Balance butter

Cook rice in vegetable broth with the salt for appropriate time, based on the rice you use.  While the rice is cooking, remove mushroom stems from caps.  Depending on the variety, you  may need to remove a little more cap to make room for the filling.  I used a teaspoon to scoop out more mushroom.  (save stems and pieces for any recipe use later in the week) Lightly steam the spinach, remove from heat  and immediately add to food processor to cool for a few minutes.  Preheat oven to 325.  Add the cream cheese and blend just until well incorporated, careful not to over blend.  Once, rice is done cooking, add the spinach mixture, parsley and pepper and stir. Arrange mushrooms on a baking sheet with a sheet of parchment paper.  Add the spinach and rice mixture to a plastic bag and snip of the corner to pipe the stuffing into the mushrooms.  In a small bowl, melt the butter and stir in bread crumbs.  Top the stuffed mushrooms with bread crumb mixture.  Bake for 20-30 minutes.  When mushrooms sweat a bit and tops are crispy brown, they are done.

Today I picked up wild, local chanterelle mushrooms.  This would be our first time trying them and I am so glad we did.  I had a new tempeh to fix and thought I would go with the flavor of it and make a curry dish.

sweet onions, garlic, zucchini, green beans, tempeh, curry powder, chanterelle mushrooms, lite coconut milk and  sriracha

Served with baked kabocha squash and brown rice

It is safe to say that I was proud of dinner tonight, just saying.  I mean really, it all went together so perfectly.  I am even over the moon that Jason enjoyed it as well. In fact, I was too hungry and anxious to take the time and take better photos.  I was a bit disappointed with what I had on my camera when I sat down to post this.  All I know is, lunch will be stellar tomorrow!

Also, in great food news, have you had a persimmon yet!?! I fell in love with these little guys last year.  I have been waiting for them for a few weeks now and finally saw some Saturday.

“I think I love you fuyu.”

Did you enter the GIVEAWAY?

Yesterday I did a little bit of shopping.  I ended up going to a great Asian supermarket for kabocha squash, hijiki and kombu.  The only seaweed I have really eaten is nori with sushi.  A few recipes I want to make from The Kind Diet call for hijiki and kombu.  There are some amazing produce finds at the Asian supermarkets.  Tell me, how cute are these mushrooms?!

I also couldn’t resist the rice paper. It has been so long since I made spring rolls with my mom. Which means I forgot how long you should soak them in water.  The directions were NOT in English so I just guessed.  

I ended up over soaking my rice paper.  Which means I had a few fall-outs.

Oh well, it all still went into the belly just fine.  The goods in this little beauty were: cucumber, red bell pepper, tomatoe, avocado, cutie-pie mushrooms, alphalpha sprouts, green onions, cilantro and a bit of sriracha.

Since the sweet-red chili sauce was mainly composed of sugar, I only used a small amount.  Shucks!  It was pretty tasty though. Spring rolls are so tasty!  I will be making these again, that’s for sure?

Have you experimented with rice paper at home?

What do you like in your spring rolls?