Stuffed mushrooms

Method
Prep:30min  ›  Cook:15min  ›  Ready in:45min 

1. Preheat the oven to 180ºC (350ºF, gas mark 4). Remove the stalks from the mushrooms and chop finely. Melt the butter in a frying pan, add the chopped mushroom stalks, shallots, garlic and courgette, and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
2. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the shredded spinach, breadcrumbs, hazelnuts, parsley, and season to taste.
3. Put the mushroom caps, hollow side up, in a single layer in a lightly greased shallow ovenproof dish or on a lightly greased baking tray. Heap some of the shallot and courgette mixture into each mushroom cap and sprinkle the Parmesan cheese over the top. (The mushrooms can be prepared 2–3 hours ahead and kept, covered with cling film, in the fridge.)
4. Bake for about 15 minutes or until the mushrooms are tender and the cheese has melted. Serve warm, on a bed of spinach leaves, if liked.

Parmesan cheese

Parmesan cheese is not truly vegetarian, as it contains animal rennet. To make this dish 100% vegetarian, omit the cheese or find a suitable vegetarian substitute made without animal rennet. In supermarkets look for the 'parmesan style hard cheeses' which are suitable for vegetarians.

Some more ideas

For mushrooms stuffed with spring greens and walnuts, use spring greens in place of spinach, 1 red onion in place of shallots, chopped walnuts in place of hazelnuts, and fresh basil or coriander in place of parsley. * Make mushrooms with red pepper and pine nut filling. Sauté the mushroom stalks in 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil with 4 finely chopped spring onions, ½ small seeded and finely chopped red pepper and 1 crushed garlic clove for 5 minutes. Stir in 30 g (1 oz) chopped pine nuts, 15 g (½ oz) chopped watercress, 30 g (1 oz) fresh breadcrumbs, 2 tbsp finely chopped parsley, and salt and pepper to taste. Fill the mushroom caps with this mixture and sprinkle with 45 g (1½ oz) finely grated mozzarella cheese. Bake as in the main recipe.

Plus points

Mushrooms provide useful amounts of some of the B vitamins and are a good source of the trace mineral copper. This mineral has several functions – it is found in many enzymes, and is needed for bone growth as well as for the formation of connective tissue. * Hazelnuts were known in China 5000 years ago and were also eaten by the Romans. They are a particularly good source of vitamin E and most of the B vitamins (with the exception of vitamin B12).

Each serving provides

Useful source of selenium, vitamin E.