Vegan Stuffed Mushrooms

One not-so-great aspect of this long weekend is that both my husband and I have been feeling a bit under-the-weather. As a result, we upped our intake of "superfoods," started the day with a minty green smoothie, and despite our lack of energy, decided that a little fresh air and sunshine could only help, so we managed to get outside for a walk in the sunshine, (albeit a brief and rather slow walk, but a walk none-the-less).

These short dark days start to take a toll on me by mid-January, and so I was pleased to discover in the most current issue of Vegetarian Times that mushrooms, one of my favorite things ever, are one of the only food-based sources naturally high in Vitamin D. How fitting that I make us stuffed mushrooms today from a recipe out of my current favorite cookbook, The 30-Minute Vegan. Basically you need some large mushrooms which you then wash and de-stem, throwing the stems into the food processor. (The recipe calls for 18 mushrooms; I only had eight but they were a good size and I didn't let that stop me. Actually, what follows below is a little different than the original recipe, just based on the logistics of what I had or did not have in my pantry.)

I then preheated the oven to 450, added 1 cup of fresh spinach, 1 chopped red bell pepper, 2 cloves of garlic, 1/4 cup homemade cashew nut cheese, 1/4 cup vegan cream cheese, 1/4 cup nutritional yeast, 3/4 teaspoon salt, 1 tablespoon Italian Seasoning, 1 chopped yellow onion, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper into the food processor with the mushroom stems and blended it all together. I then stuffed my empty mushroom caps and baked them for 20 minutes, although I think next time I might try decreasing the temperature and increasing the cooking time to make the mushrooms a little more tender.

These turned out lovely and we devoured them quickly, enjoying the flavor while also hoping the vitamins would do their work. I think these would make fabulous party appetizers as well, and I will definitely be making them again sometime soon, hopefully on a healthier and sunnier day!