Balsamic Glazed Portobello Stuffed Mushroom Caps

I had so much fun experimenting with this recipe and the final result ended up a major home run. So much so, that Zach, who was a self proclaimed mushroom hater, loves these and even requests me to make them for him. That is huge if you knew how much he hated mushrooms! So if you don’t like mushrooms, please don’t write off this recipe. Everyone I’ve made these for raves about them, even mushroom haters. The filling has an array of amazing flavors that I know you are going to love. We usually eat these caps for dinner, but they would also make a fun lunch, side dish or even cut in halves or forths for an appetizer tray.

Balsamic Glazed Portobello Stuffed Mushroom Caps

 3-4 servings

Ingredients:

4 large portobello caps

½ lb sausage, cooked

½ lb bacon, cooked and crumbled

1 onion, chopped

1/3 cup chopped roasted red pepper from a jar (if you want to use fresh: chop 1 small red pepper)

2 teaspoon minced garlic

8 ounce bag fresh spinach or 8 ounce bagged cut leaf frozen spinach

salt and pepper

½ teaspoon smoked paprika

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

2 tablespoons olive oil

bacon fat from the cooked bacon

optional add-ins: if you eat dairy, ¼ cup Parmesan or Romano cheese added to the mixture is delicious *Romano cheese is almost always made from the milk of grass-fed sheep, so it’s a great and healthy option if you can eat dairy

optional toppings: fresh parsley, additional cheese that is melted on top of the sausage mixture is really yummy, too

 Directions:

Start by baking the bacon in the oven. I will never cook bacon any other way. I LOVE bacon (who doesn’t?!), but always hated cooking it. Now I bake it in the oven and it turns out perfect every time and clean up is a breeze.

 *HOW TO BAKE BACON IN THE OVEN: 

 While your bacon is baking in the oven, fry your sausage in a skillet until cooked through. Remove from skillet, crumble or cut into pieces and toss in large bowl. Once the bacon is done, put the bacon fat in the skillet. Crumble the bacon and add to the sausage bowl. Over medium heat, cook your onion, pepper, garlic and salt and pepper in the skillet with the bacon fat until onion and pepper are soft – about 3 to 5 minutes. Add in the fresh or frozen spinach and cook until the spinach wilts. Remove from heat and stir in salt, pepper, smoked paprika and Parmesan/Romano if you are using it. Place the mixture in the bowl with the sausage and bacon.

 Clean out the skillet and pour the olive oil into the skillet over medium heat. Place mushroom caps (I could only fit 2 in my pan so I had to cook the caps in batches) in the skillet and cook for 4 minutes. Flip and cook the other side for 4 minutes. Remove from heat and the balsamic vinegar over top of the caps. Flip the caps over and swirl caps in the pan making sure to get both sides coated with the balsamic.

 Fill the caps with equal amounts of the sausage spinach mixture. You can add cheese on top and broil until cheese is melted or top with additional Parmesan cheese and parsley. Enjoy!

Recipe inspired by Fontina Musthroom Skillet by How Sweet Eats