I am not a fan of mushrooms. I will eat them sliced very thin in our salads, but I don’t want to eat them pretty much any other way.  Waldo however loves mushrooms, he eats them with steak (well he did before he went pescetarian), on pizza, on just about anything he can.

I read in How to Cook Everything Vegetarian that people that convert to vegetarianism have to change the way they think about meals.  Meat eaters have a meal that centers around a main dish (meat usually) and then a side dish or two.  Vegetarians usually eat what amounts to a bunch of sides and that is how its suppose to be.  These grilled mushrooms made a great side to add to Waldo’s plate.

Waldo loved, Loved, LOVED these mushrooms.  They were easy to make and he said it was like eating meat.  He never believed people when they said that mushroom cooked the right way could taste like meat, but he believes it now.  He said that at first he tasted a really good steak and the rest of the bites were pork.  He is a big fan now and says that these mushrooms need to be on our weekly menu.

Speaking of weekly menus we have a very boring selection of food options, this is mainly my fault as I’m the pickiest person you will likely ever meet.  We have about 8 dishes that we rotate through, so our dinners are pretty routine.  I’d like to add options and broaden our menus.  I want eating to be healthy and really enjoyable.  My goal for the next few months is to get a wider array of food options for my family.  If anyone has any suggestions I’d love to hear them.

We made 2 shiiitakes and 1 cremini. I cut the sauce amount in half and it was still a little more then I needed, but not by much. I didn’t get a picture of the finished mushrooms because Waldo was enjoying them too much to let me at them.

Mushrooms waiting their turn

Grilled Mushrooms

adapted from How to cook everything vegetarian by Mark Bittman

1/3 cup EVOO

1 tablespoon minced shallot, scallion, onion or garlic (I used a little shallot and garlic)

1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves, if available (I only had dried thyme and Waldo was fine with that)

salt and freshly ground black pepper

4 large portobello mushrooms, trimmed and cut in half right down the middle; or 12 to 16 cremini, trimmed and cut in half or left whole; or 12 to 16 shiitakes, stems removed, caps left whole or cut in half

Chopped parsley for garnish (I left this out because I forgot parsley at the store)

Heat the grill until quite hot and put the rack about 4 inches away from the hear source.  Mix the EVOO, shallot/garlic, thyme, salt and pepper. Brush the mushrooms all over with about half the mixture.

Grill or broil the mushrooms with the top of their caps away from the heat until they begin to brown, 5 to 8 minutes. Brush with the remaining oil and turn. Grill until tender and nicely browned all over, 5 t 10 minutes more. Garnish and serve hot, warm or at room temp.

We eat salad at least a couple of times a week and we have a standard format for them.  They are always the same: cut up romaine, baby spinach, shredded carrot, sliced mushroom, broccoli, avocado, occasionally hard boiled eggs.  Waldo uses a Parmesan ranch dressing and olives.  I add hemp seeds and 1000 island dressing.  We have both wanted to try different dressings, but I’m picky and have been putting off finding something new.  We haven’t gotten tired of the salad yet, and frankly we are both surprised by that.  Oh well.

So I was going through How to Cook Everything Vegetarian and found a good simple vinaigrette.  I couldn’t wait to try it.  Like I said on the pasta sauce post Mark Bittman makes good base recipes with a lot of variations listed.  We loved the vinaigrette and can’t wait to try some different versions.

I made some changes to fit our likes, but it’s a really good base recipe.  I’ll add my changes at the end.

Vinaigrette

adapted from How to Cook Everything Vegetarian

1/2 cup good EVOO

3 tablespoons of a good wine vinegar, plus some to taste

salt and pepper

1 large shallot cut into chunks (optional)

**

Put the EVOO and vinegar in the cup of a immersion blender and spin.  It should get creamy in about 30 seconds or so.  Add salt and pepper and taste.  Adjust with more seasoning and 1 teaspoon of vinegar at a time if necessary.

Add shallot and blend again.  Taste again and serve.

Waldo and I both loved it and I really appreciate that Bittman give a lot of variations for most of the recipes. I can’t wait to try some vinaigrette versions.

**************

I used:

Sherry vinegar which Bittman recommends and I agree with.

1/2 large shallot

Followup:

A few days after trying this vinaigrette we tried it again with a teaspoon of mustard as was suggested in the variations and we hated it.  Hated. It.

Like I said in my last mobile random post, we celebrated 6 weeks of vegetarian eating by me and pescetarian eating by Waldo with a pepperoni and half ham pizza at Round Table.  It was so good.  Eating vegetarian for me isn’t hard because I’ve never liked eating meat very much; I’d eat chicken at restaurants and turkey sandwich for lunch and bacon occasionally, but the one that kills me is pepperoni.  I live on pizza, it is pretty much my favorite thing ever, but I hardly want it with just cheese.  I have started to add minced garlic, red and green bell peppers on it and it’s getting back up to the top of my food list.  Eating vegetarian for Waldo is a little harder.  He loves meat.  So why would he do it?  For me and Lily mostly.  Because I don’t like eating meat, I have made Lily a vegetarian. Waldo has always backed me up on this, but he wouldn’t say no if one day I said we would give her meat.  Lil has never made any indication that she wants any of the meat that’s eaten around her.  Waldo still felt like a hypocrite eating meat when we didn’t feed it to Lily, so he’s trying vegetarianism out and I’m along for the ride.  Waldo has decided that he will still eat fish and if he’s at say a bar-b-q he can eat meat.  This worked into me getting a pepperoni pizza the other day, it was amazing.

To help make this new food lifestyle have a fighting chance I needed some new recipes.  I had been asking around and was recommended How to Cook Everything Vegetarian.I got it last week and love it.  It’s full of pretty useful general kitchen and food information and something like 2000 recipes.  Waldo and I made bet if I’d ever make any of the recipes.  So far I’ve made a pretty good vinaigrette and a really good fast and easy pasta sauce.

3 table spoons EVOO

1 24- to 32- oz can of whole tomatoes~drained and chopped

salt and pepper

1 medium onion chopped

Freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Heat the oil in a 10 or 12 inch skillet over medium-high heat.  When it’s hot add the onion.  Cook till soft about 3 minutes.  Add the tomatoes and the salt and pepper. Cook stirring occasionally for about 10 to 15 minutes till the tomatoes sort of burst and the sauce comes together.

Add Parmesan cheese and serve.

***

I added about 2 tsp of sherry vinegar ,some garlic powder and the liquid from the tomatoes.

When the sauce was done I put it all in a blender and pureed it.  Taste and season accordingly. I added a few tablespoons of the pasta cooking water.  It helped loosen the sauce up but added body or something fancy sounding.

This is a great base sauce.  It reminds me a lot of my pizza sauce (I’ll post that one day, you will thank me), but it was fast and easy.

Next time I’ll add more herbs.  And Garlic!

Sorry that there aren’t any pictures.  We were too busy eating it to remember to take any.