Portobello Burgers!

So last night I tried making Portobello Mushroom burgers.  This is totally a first for us (our only other foray into vegetarian meals has been eggplant parmesan); multiple sources confirmed the mushroom has the consistency of hamburger and "even if you eat meat you won't miss it in this burger".  We'll see σ___σ (this is my skeptical face)

Portobello Mushroom Burgers from Allrecipes.com

 Here are the mushroom caps and all our marinade ingredients!  I washed the mushrooms and removed the gills because those creep me out.  Mushrooms with gills.  Like fish.  Ew. 

Since I was only making 2 burgers instead of 4, I cut the marinade down by half as well.  I threw soy sauce and worcestershire in there along with onion powder just because I could.  So there.

Here is a mushroom, happily sitting in its marinade.  I let them sit for about 20 minutes while I ran around doing other things (laundry, cleaning).  I love recipes that I can forget about - it's why I'm such great friends with my slow cooker.

Since I don't have a grill (shame) I ended up cooking these guys on the stove.  I'm happy to report that they shrink as they cook so what starts out as a giant mushroom-zilla ends up being a rather manageable cap in the end.  Sidenote: this recipe makes your house smell delicious.  Seriously.  My mouth was watering before the food was even done.

I also decided hey, why not grilled onions? and tossed those in with the provolone-covered patties.  Mmmm.  So good.  They smelled like the ridiculously huge burgers you can get at the fair, that are like the size of your head.  I love those burgers.

Viola - the finished product!  I toasted the onion buns, whipped up an aioli sauce, sliced some pickles (seriously I have a thing for pickles... husband always jokes he'll never be able to tell if I'm pregnant because I already eat pickles with everything) and smothered it all in onions.  Is there any way this burger could not be delicious? (The answer is no.)  We ate these babies with a garden salad and baked potato, and I will totally be the first to admit I was surprisingly full coming away from a meal with no meat.


So this was pretty darned good, though as someone who was raised on beef burgers I have to say there is definitely a difference.  But at only 200~ calories you're going to have a hard time going wrong with this.  I think next time (read: tonight.  We are a household that looooves leftovers) I'll cook them longer; I tried 40 minutes on the stove but the center was still very mushroomy (sides were really soft and easy to eat, though).