"Huh." Was the response I heard back.
I blinked, did he not hear me? He must be tired or something. I am making you a nice, vegetarian meal!, I wanted to shout at him.
For those of you who don't know our history, Peter was raised strictly vegan and did not consume any meat until he was in his early 20's. I, on the other hand, have officially been dubbed "The Apostle of Hunting" (by his family) as I was raised in a hunting family. As you can imagine, becoming one in our eating habits has had it's own special dance in our marriage. We are learning to lovingly, respectfully value the other's opinions and come to our own compromise in what works for our family. We are half and half at this point. Some times I make meat, some times I don't, other times I make a meal with meat and plenty of other options so that everyone is happy. But I always know the way to Peter's heart is to make him a delicious, home-cooked, vegetarian meal.
Fortunately, this is not hard for me because he is a true vegetarian - he loves, loves, loves veggies. He would be perfectly happy with a meal full of different kinds of fresh veggies and maybe some whole wheat pasta or brown rice etc. I love being married to a man who so enjoys his greens - it helps me to eat a lot healthier as well.
But back to the burgers. Grilled, stuffed, portabello mushroom burgers to be exact. These guys were every bit as exciting as they sound.
To get started, I marinated the mushrooms in olive oil, fresh garlic, sea salt and cracked pepper.
I just put the tops in a ziplock and let them marinate for about 2 hours. I decided to make my own stuffing as all the recipes I found had meat in them (trust me, it sounded delicious but, you know, I was going for the vegetarian thing). So I took what veggies I had in my fridge that sounded good and decided on a mixture.
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| Roasted brussel sprouts, onion, pepper steamed broccoli, Parmesan and sharp cheddar cheese I sauteed the onion and pepper first, then added in the brussel sprouts, broccoli and cheese and turned off the heat. |
I decided to throw in some roasted pine nuts as well to add a little crunch to the mixture.
I grilled the mushrooms stem side down (with the stem removed) for about 3-4 minutes then flipped them and grilled the soft side for about 2 minutes before stuffing them and returning them to the grill.
We were out of ketchup so I decided to attempt a homemade greek yogurt, dill, cucumber dip. The recipe said to brine the cucumber with salt to remove excess water but I obviously didn't have time for that so I skipped that part.
I peeled and grated about a half of a big cucumber, added a little salt, about a cup of greek yogurt with a touch of sour cream (used up what little I had). Then added one-half of a fresh lemon, fresh cracked pepper and a little more salt to taste.
These were amazing and definitely a new summer favorite! Simon ate the filling as he loves pine nuts. The nuts added a nice crunch and the melted cheese held everything together nicely. I loved eating them stuffed as opposed to by themselves as a burger - they seemed a lot more filling this way. I didn't even use a bun - just ate it like this with some fresh spinach. Peter used a really thin bun for his and they held together great. The greek yogurt, dill, cucumber dip was so fresh and light - the perfect topping for these. I will be making it all summer just to eat as a dip with veggies.
They look like a lot of work but really, they were super easy (especially considering that some of my veggies were already cooked and left-over from a previous meal).
TIP: It's hard to know when the mushrooms are "done" cooking (it was my first time with these) but they are a true mushroom and will release a bunch of water when they are really cooking. Watch for that and they're just about done.
Enjoy!
XOXO
Joy
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