Stuffed Mushrooms with Walnut Herb Filling
Savory mushroom caps filled with herbed walnut stuffing—rich, earthy, and completely plant-based
- 24cremini mushrooms(medium sized, stems removed)
- 1 cupwalnuts(finely chopped)
- 0.5 cupmushroom stems(finely chopped)
- 3 clovesgarlic(minced)
- 2 tbspolive oil(divided)
- 2 tbspfresh parsley(chopped)
- 1 tbspfresh thyme(or 1 tsp dried)
- 1 tbspbalsamic vinegar
- 2 tbspnutritional yeast(optional, for umami)
- 0.5 tspsalt
- 0.25 tspblack pepper
Prepare filling up to 2 days ahead. Fill mushrooms up to 4 hours before baking. Bake just before serving.
- 1Preheat oven to 375°F
- 2Clean mushrooms and remove stems, reserving stems
- 3Finely chop mushroom stems
- 4Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in skillet over medium heat
- 5Sauté chopped stems and garlic until softened, about 3 minutes
- 6Add walnuts, herbs, balsamic, nutritional yeast, salt, and pepper
- 7Cook 2 minutes until fragrant
- 8Brush mushroom caps with remaining olive oil
- 9Fill each cap generously with walnut mixture
- 10Arrange on baking sheet
- 11Bake 18-20 minutes until mushrooms are tender
- 12Serve warm
Do not wash mushrooms—wipe with damp cloth. Choose mushrooms with deep caps for more filling. Nutritional yeast adds cheesy umami flavor.
Stuffed mushroom preparations became widespread in American party cooking from the 1950s onward, with countless variations using cheese, sausage, crab, and other fillings documented in community cookbooks and food publications of the mid-century. Walnuts provide a rich, meaty texture and depth of flavor in vegetarian preparations, a quality noted by food writers from at least the 19th century onward when nut-based dishes began appearing in American vegetarian cookbooks. The walnut tree (Juglans regia, the English or Persian walnut) is native to Central Asia and has been cultivated in Iran, China, and southern Europe for at least two thousand years. Walnuts were introduced to California by Franciscan missionaries in the 18th century and became a major California agricultural product by the 19th century; today California produces the overwhelming majority of the United States' walnut supply. Fresh herbs — parsley, thyme, rosemary, and sage — used in this filling belong to the Mediterranean culinary tradition of using aromatic green herbs to season nuts and grain-based preparations, a technique documented in ancient Roman cooking and continuously present in European culinary traditions through the present day. Nutritional yeast, the savory, cheese-like flaked yeast product used in vegan cooking as a flavor enhancer, became a commercial product in the mid-20th century and entered mainstream health food markets in the 1970s and 1980s.