The best mushrooms you’ll ever eat, 31p (VEGAN)
This recipe seems and sounds too simple to be true, but sometimes the best dishes are those that allow their ingredients to sing at the tops of their voices without too much complicated fannying around drowning them out. I love a mushroom, especially when I can find exotic varieties reduced to clear in the corner shops and supermarkets, taking them home and drying them out low and slow in the bottom of the oven to use again at a later date. It is these dried mushrooms that make up the mushroom stock in this recipe, but if you don’t have any, just cook fresh ones for a little longer than the recipe suggests. These pair perfectly with a pile of buttery mashed potato, or fried rice, or my Moonshine Mash.
Serves 2 at 33p each
10g dried mushrooms, 21p (85p/400g, Basics, and dried. Dried weight equivalent to 10× fresh weight)
a pinch of salt, <1p (40p/750g)
1tbsp dark soy sauce, 10p (£1/150ml)
a small onion, 9p (90p/1.5kg, Basics)
2 fat cloves of garlic, 3p (35p/2 bulbs, Basics)
100g fresh mushrooms, 21p (85p/400g, Basics)
1 tbsp cooking oil or butter, 2p (£3/3l)
First make yourself a mushroom stock, by popping the dried mushrooms in a saucepan and covering with a little water. Finely slice half the onion and toss it in, along with a pinch of salt. Bring to the boil and reduce to a simmer for 30 minutes, until the liquid is rich and dark and ominous looking. You may need to top the water up periodically to stop it from all evaporaing away, which would be a terrible shame!
When the stock is ready, remove from the heat and pour it into a mug or jug, and set to one side.
Peel and roughly chop your garlic cloves, and the remaining onion, and toss into the now-empty saucepan with the oil. Don’t worry about cleaning the pan, any lingering flavours from the stock will only enhance this step. Slice or break up the mushrooms and add those too. Cook on a medium heat for a few minutes until the vegetables start to soften, then pour over the stock. Bring back to the boil, and reduce to a simmer for a few minutes more.
Finish with the soy sauce, stir through, and serve.
Best,
Jack Monroe
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Instagram: @MxJackMonroe
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Categories: Recipes & Food, RECIPES UNDER 50P, RECIPES UNDER £1, VEGAN, Vegan Recipes, VEGETARIAN
What a lovely simple recipe Jack and one I will definitely have to try ☺
Definitely going to try this recipe this week it looks amazing, I love mushrooms and started to dry them when they are in the ‘reduced to clear’ area of our local supermarket, a tip I got from you and wish I had done this years ago, they really do make an amazing stock! Thankyou my lovely for putting up great recipes, and I hope you are feeling better❤
HI Jack! lovely to see you posting again….I take it you drain the stock?m
I would think you wouldn’t need to – the dried mushrooms and onions would be perfectly edible. If you let it sit for a bit any grit will sink to the bottom and you can then pour it into your mushrooms carefully.
Omg, just made this & want to make it & eat it daily, its sooooooo delicious! Thanks Jack, your food never fails to amaze me! Is your new book out yet?x
What is the green stuff in it? Did you use spring onions?
Yeah the first time I cooked it I used springs, but regular onions work just as well.
What are you doing Sunday ? Want to come and cook at our harvest festival
We got music dancing for kids stuff
Madame zucini and mysterious puppets
The mosque folk are cooking and we have lots vegan food demoes
You could just come with boy and have fun
Sounds divine
Jack, I made this tonight for my hobbit of a partner and it was absolutely fantastic. Glad to see you posting recipes again. Thanks for the dinner inspiration.
I often find that my local coop has “sell by” chestnut mushrooms and I buy them when I can. I put a knob of butter in a frying pan ( could be oil instead of butter) .Low heat. Chop mushrooms and add to pan as you go along. Doing it this way you get a spectrum of textures. Cover and allow to simmer until you get the texture you like. Once cooled, I pour the lot (make sure you preserve all the liquid) into a freezer bag. I tend to roll this up. Freeze. You can knock bits off and add to a variety of dishes as and when.
Seems Sainsburys are no longer selling basics dried mushrooms :-/
They never have done as far as I know. I buy basics mushrooms and dry them myself.
I just made this and the moonshine mash. It tastes amazing! Thank you for the recipie!
O m goodness. Mind blown. So simple, minimum effort to cook, served on mashed potato as per your pic, is absolutely heavenly. Thank you so much for sharing the recipe, it was a dream to eat at the end of a long day!
Made these earlier and very nice they were too
Um, did I miss what the yellow stuff is that the stock/shrooms were poured over? Is that polenta?
Oh nevermind I see to just put it on potatoes or whatever above the recipe.