Mushrooms get a rough deal in most kitchens. Tip them in cold, crowd the pan, walk away, and you end up steaming the things into grey little sponges. Give them a hot pan and a couple of minutes of your attention and they turn meaty, glossy and savoury enough to carry a whole plate on their own. That is the trick behind this one.
I cook these sauteed mushrooms most often as a breakfast, piled onto sourdough with a poached egg sliding off the top, but it does not stay in its lane. It works as a light lunch, and I have leant on it as a side for a roast more times than I will admit. The seasoning does the heavy lifting: tamari for depth, roast garlic for sweetness, lime to lift it, and a little of our chilli paste to wake the whole thing up.
If you want a fairer, more technical read on why mushrooms earn their spot on the plate, the team at Healthdirect have a sensible rundown. My read is simpler: they taste good and they fill you up.
There is one thing I will be opinionated about, and it is the mushrooms themselves. Do not wash them under the tap. They drink water like a sponge, and a waterlogged mushroom will never brown properly no matter how hot your pan is. A dry brush or a quick wipe with a damp cloth is all they need. Slice them a touch thicker than feels right too, because they shrink hard in the pan and a thin slice disappears into nothing.
Getting the pan right
Heat matters more than fat here. I usually start with the teaspoon of water rather than the coconut oil, let the mushrooms release their own moisture, and only once that has cooked off do they start to colour and concentrate. That is the moment the flavour arrives. Rush it and you get something pale and rubbery; give it the full two minutes of patience and the rest of the recipe almost looks after itself.
Ingredients
- 250g mushrooms of your choice
- 1 teaspoon coconut oil (optional)
- 1 teaspoon Golden Door chilli with tamari (see recipe below)
- 1 tablespoon lime juice
- 1 tablespoon finely chopped coriander
- 2 cloves roast garlic
- 3 tablespoon tamari
- 1 teaspoon sesame seeds
- 3 spring onions thinly sliced on the diagonal
To serve
- 100g wild rocket
- Toasted sourdough (optional)
- 1 avocado, sliced (optional)
Method
- Saute mushrooms in a large frying pan with coconut oil or 1 teaspoon of water for 2 minutes until softened. Add the chilli, lime juice, coriander and garlic. Gradually add the tamari and cook for approximately 5 minutes. Add sesame seeds and spring onions.
- Serve accompanied by wild rocket. If serving with toasted sourdough and avocado, layer sourdough with sliced avocado and top with the mushrooms.
Serves 6.
Golden Door chilli with tamari
Makes 800g.
- 800g whole small red chillies, including seeds (remove seeds for a milder taste)
- 30ml tamari
- 30ml apple cider vinegar
- Place all ingredients in a food processor and process until paste reaches desired consistency. The paste should still have a little texture.
Serving suggestions and make-ahead notes
The mushrooms are best eaten the moment they come out of the pan, while the edges are still glossy and the spring onion has only just gone soft. If you are feeding a crowd, cook them in two batches rather than one heaving pan, otherwise they sweat instead of browning and you lose that savoury bite.
The chilli paste is the part worth getting ahead on. It keeps well in a clean jar in the fridge and a single teaspoon lifts a lot more than this dish, so make the full batch and use it through the week. A little goes into a stir-fry, a dressing, or a bowl of brown rice porridge when you want a savoury start instead of a sweet one. The roast garlic is the same story: roast a whole head while the oven is already on, squeeze the soft cloves into a small container, and you have a fortnight of easy flavour sitting in the fridge.
On the mushroom front, you are not locked into one type. Button mushrooms are honest and cheap. Swiss browns bring more savour. A handful of torn oyster or shiitake stirred through at the end gives you texture and a bit of theatre on the plate. Whatever you reach for, keep the pieces a similar size so they cook at the same rate. If you want to stretch it into a more substantial meal, fold the cooked mushrooms through cooked quinoa or brown rice with a squeeze more lime, and you have a warm grain bowl that holds together for a packed lunch the next day.
For something heartier on the same theme, the feta, sweet potato and eggplant frittata is a good weekend partner, and these mushrooms tuck neatly alongside the mushroom, chicken and quinoa skillet if you are building a bigger spread. Swap the rocket for baby spinach if that is what is in the crisper, and use whatever mushrooms look freshest at the market. Eating a real spread of vegetables across the week is just good sense, and the folks at Better Health Channel back that up better than I can. Browse the rest of the recipe collection if you want more in this vein.
One last note from years of cooking these on a busy pass: season the mushrooms with the tamari gradually, the way the method says, and taste as you go. Tamari brands vary in saltiness, and you cannot pull salt back out once it is in. Add it in stages, let it reduce and cling to the mushrooms, and stop when it tastes savoury rather than salty. That small bit of attention is the difference between a dish that is fine and one people ask you to make again.
– Dave Forsythe, Golden Door Living kitchen
