Portobello Mushrooms & Goat Cheese

In an effort to make a gluten-free meal, I had the pleasure to cook for one of my dearest friends. The butcher, who shall be referred to as T, grilled up the most amazing onglets (similar to hangar steak) which we had on the side. These were delicious, light and filling...and can be adapted in so many ways for future meals.



I don't have pics, but trust me- they're beautiful! I will try to have some next time! (EDIT- I made them again the other night, see above).

What you'll need:
8 Portobello mushrooms (medium sized)
Goat cheese (we used Caprini)
Olive Oil
Balsamic Vinegar
Salt
Pepper
Italian spice mix (thyme, rosemary, parsley, basil)
Garlic Powder

Preheat the oven at 350 (F).

In a bowl, mix the olive oil, balsamic, salt, pepper, and spices in a bowl. You'll notice that I didn't put measurements here, I will get better at this I promise! I do everything by eye, but from what I can deduce I used about 1/2 a cup of olive oil, 1/2 a cup of balsamic, 1tsp of salt, 1/2 tsp pepper, 2 tsps of garlic and 1 tsp of italian spice mix. Whisk it all together and taste, you want it to taste smooth, not too vinegar-y, and well-seasoned (no one spice outweighs the other- although most people will taste the garlic the most since it's so strong).

In a flat dish (think a lasagna platter), lay the mushrooms (cleaned and without stems) with the caps down. Spoon the dressing into the caps. Place into the oven for 8-10 mins or until they have shrunk enough.

Remove the dish and flip the mushrooms. From there, just drizzle balsamic on the top and in the bottom of the dish. Place back in the oven another 7 minutes and let brown.

While the mushrooms are browning, cut the goat cheese. You will know how much you need for each cap based on the size of the mushroom.

Remove the flat dish and you can either re-flip the mushrooms or lay them on a flat baking sheet. Either way, you will need to drain the juice from the dish back into your dressing bowl (as topping and/or salad dressing). Place the goat cheese on them. About 10 minutes before you're about to sit at the table, set the oven to High Broil and place the dish back in. In about 8 minutes, the cheese will be golden brown. Drizzle a little of the dressing on the cheese.

And, in 20 minutes an AMAZING meal! Savoury and healthy.

I placed these on a spinach salad with tomatoes and orange peppers with the leftover sauce as vinaigrette. You could serve them on cubed tomatoes as a light entree, or even on their own as a side.