How Do You Make Vegan Stuffed Mushrooms?
Vegan stuffed mushrooms are a very versatile and easy to combine dish that is ideal as a second course or light dinner. In this case, we opted for a vegan variant by replacing meat or tuna with fresh vegetables, including zucchini. Let’s take a look at the benefits of these two great ingredients.
Nutritional value
The benefits of zucchini
Zucchini is a very beneficial food from a nutritional point of view, as it contains many vitamins and minerals that your body needs to function properly.
It contains very few calories (17 kcal per 100 gr.). Therefore, it is very suitable for hypocaloric diets or weight loss diets. It also has a high content of water, calcium, potassium, magnesium and vitamins B1, C and folic acid.
Among the benefits of consuming zucchini, the following are worth mentioning:
- It aids in digestion. In fact, the intake of these foods can help improve digestive problems, such as constipation, gastritis, or heartburn and reflux. It also improves intestinal transit, as it contains a significant amount of mucilage, a type of fiber that is beneficial for gut health.
- Zucchini has a diuretic effect. Including recipes with zucchini in your daily diet will help remove excess fluid from the body thanks to its high potassium and sodium content. It is therefore particularly beneficial in cases of hypertension, kidney stones or oliguria (low urine output).
- It also helps regulate cholesterol levels. Zucchini is a cholesterol-free food, as it has no fat value. By consuming it, you get large amounts of nutrients without increasing LDL (what we call bad cholesterol) levels.
The benefits of mushrooms
Mushrooms have a high water content and are low in calories, just like zucchini. As for the mineral content of mushrooms, we can highlight the large amounts of potassium, phosphorus and selenium. As for vitamins, they contain niacin and riboflavin, essential for the proper functioning of your body, as well as folic acid and vitamin C.
This vegetable helps regulate blood sugar levels and blood pressure. It also helps in strengthening the immune system.
Recipe for vegan stuffed mushrooms
Easy to follow, quick and simple, this stuffed mushroom recipe is an ideal way to help kids introduce vegetables into their diet in a fun and tasty way. Here are the ingredients you’ll need and the steps to follow.
Ingredients (for 4 servings of vegan stuffed mushrooms)
- 12 large mushrooms
- 2 medium onions
- 1 large zucchini
- 1 medium carrot
- 2 ripe tomatoes
- 100 ml homemade tomato sauce
- Extra virgin olive oil
- olives
- salt
- pepper
- garlic powder
- basil
Preparation
- First of all, wash and clean the mushrooms. Remove the stem and make a dimple with a spoon or knife. Set the stems aside.
- Then wash and cut the two onions, zucchini, carrot and mushroom stems julienne style.
- Place a pan over medium heat with extra virgin olive oil, then add the vegetables, salt, pepper and garlic powder. Cook the vegetables until tender.
- Remove from the heat, add the previously peeled and sliced tomatoes and a little tomato sauce with some nutritional yeast (optional) to flavor the sauce.
- Finally, fill the mushrooms with the mixture and place in a pre-greased baking dish. Sprinkle over the basil and place in the oven for 40 minutes at 130 ºC with top and bottom heat.
- When they’re done, take the mushrooms out of the oven, garnish them with some chives and they’re ready to eat!
Brown rice goes well with this vegan stuffed mushroom recipe, but you can also use quinoa. Another option is to change the filling by adding textured soy or seitan. There are many more possible combinations, so feel free to get creative!
