Creamy Mushrooms and Asparagus served with Wild Rice

It is not difficult at all to make mushroom taste delicious or even addictive, one needs to get to know the difference between each kind, and to learn the right way to cook with them. Some mushrooms have more moisture than the others, which makes it preform better in a sauce, such as cremini, button and shiitake. King oyster is my favourite, it has a sturdier (meaty) texture than other mushroom, so apart from cooking them in a stew or sauce, it can also be simply pan-fried, grilled with salt and pepper or deep-fried in batter/panko, or shredded and baked in the oven to mimic pulled pork; all of these method produce absolutely delicious results (for example this recipe). Once you master all the different ways of cooking mushroom, you will understand why a bowl of luscious mushroom is hard to resist.

Since mushroom and cream are the best of friends, and creamy sauce and rice is a heavenly combination, hence today’s recipe! Apart from serving this velvety sauce on rice, I can highly recommend to serve it with pan-seared salmon (see picture at the end of the post), or oven baked veggies to make it a more substantial meal.

Notes:

* I use asparagus here because it is in season, but you can also use other green instead such as kale, chard, or more spinach.

** I always have a jar of sun-dried tomato paste ready in the fridge (recipe here), to use it on sandwiches, sauce, salad dressing, stew, etc. So it is worth to spend extra time to make it. It keeps well in the fridge. But you can just use chopped sun-dried tomato from the jar if you are short on time, or you can even use shop bought sun-dried tomato paste as well.

*** If you don’t have ready made veggie stock, here is a a quick short cut – stock powder, for this recipe, I add 1/2 cup water and 1/2 tsp. veggie powder directly into the pan, stir and that’s it. You can also adjust seasoning by adding more stock powder if needed.

****This dish can be made vegan by using plant based cream instead.

Ingredients:

serves 2-3

• 300g mixed mushrooms (I use cremini, king oyster and fresh shiitake mushroom), rinsed, pat-dried and cut into bite size pieces
• 5-6 green asparagus, snap off woody end and cut into 6-7cm long*
• 2 large handfuls of baby spinach
• 1 small red onion, finely chopped
• 3 tbsp. olive oil, separated
• 1/2 tsp. smoked paprika
• 1/2 tsp. dried onion powder (optional)
• 1 clove of garlic, minced
• 1 small pinch of dried chili flakes (optional)
• 2 heaped tbsp. sun-dried tomatoes **
• 1/4 cup white wine
• 1/2 cup veggie stock***
• 1/2 cup heavy cream****
• Salt and pepper
• 1 tsp. cornstarch (optional)
• 2 tsp. water (optional)

To serve:

• cooked basmati and wild rice

Combine cornstarch and water to make a slurry, set aside.

Warm 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a frying pan. Sauté onions with a pinch of salt on medium heat for 2 minutes or until the onion is slightly translucent. Add smoked paprika and dried onion (if use), stir until everything is well combined and the oil is infused with the smoke paprika.

Add mushrooms, garlic and another tablespoon of olive oil, give a few turns of freshly ground black pepper and a pinch of chili flaks (if use), then fry for about 2 minutes. Pour in the wine to deglaze the pan. Let it sizzle and when the wine has almost evaporated, add sun-dried tomato paste. Continue to sauté until everything is well combined. Add asparagus and pour in the stock and the cream. Stir everything well and let it simmer (not boil otherwise cream will separate) for a couple of minutes. Have a taste, adjust seasoning if needed. When you are happy with the taste, add the cornstarch slurry to thicken the sauce (you can always skip this step if you prefer a runnier sauce).

Add the baby spinach now and stir everything well together until the spinach is wilted. Remove from heat. Serve it immediately with basmati and wild rice.

example of other serving suggestion : with pan seared salmon.