Mushroom Stew

Calling all mushroom lovers! This luscious, mahogany, hearty Mushroom Stew recipe is a deeply satisfying, soul warming, and comforting dish that just happens to be vegetarian.

Served over roasted root vegetables, polenta, boiled yellow potatoes, rice, crusty bread, or mashed potatoes, this hearty stew is what cool weather meals should be. And you can make it with any kind of mushrooms you can lay your hands on; from wild mushrooms to domestic mushrooms.

When the weather turns a little cooler, I turn to stews and soups a couple of nights a week. And while I’m a big fan of beef stew -especially my Beef Curry Stew that is baked in the oven- sometimes, I want to change it up.

I didn’t set out to create a vegan stew recipe. I had 2 pounds of a variety of mushrooms from my fabulous mushroom CSA, though, and decided I wanted them to be the star of whatever culinary show I had going and I was craving stew.

Because of the depth of flavor mushrooms delivered, I didn’t end up needing any bacon (my usual go-to for delivering flavour when making vegetable forward meals) or even chicken or beef stock. The silky, velvety umami delivered by the mushrooms somehow yields a vegan mushroom stew that tastes beefy and has a meaty texture.

I often make a double batch of this in my big Dutch oven and make a great meal of the stew followed by dividing the leftovers into meal or single sized portions to freeze for later. Leftover mushroom stew is also a great side dish to serve with beef roasts or as a stir-in to other hearty soups and stews. It adds that umami hit wherever it is needed.

What Equipment and Ingredients Do I Need to Make Mushroom Stew?

Equipment

1. Large Dutch Oven or Soup Pot (at least 3 quarts in capacity.)
2. Chef’s Knife
3. Cutting Board
4. Whisk
5. Wooden Spoon or Long Handled Spoon

Our mushroom stew ingredient list looks long, but none of it is exotic, and you’re quite likely to have most if not all of it on hand already. We’ll get into the types of mushrooms next.

Ingredients

1. 2 pounds of mixed mushrooms
2. Extra Virgin Olive Oil
3. Onion
4. Carrot
5. Celery
6. Kosher Salt
7. Garlic
8. Tomato Paste
9. All-Purpose Flour (You can use gluten-free one-for-one flour if you need to keep this GF)
10. Dry or Semi-Dry Red Wine (or White Wine if it’s your preference), Chianti is a good choice.
11. Browning Sauce (Optional but very tasty and it makes the mushroom stew a lovely shade of deep brown.)
12. Vegetable Stock (Or beef stock, vegetable broth, or chicken broth)
13. Soy Sauce
14. Balsamic Vinegar
15. Smoked Paprika
16. Thyme
17. Salt
18. Black Pepper
19. Bay Leaves

What Kinds of Mushrooms Do I Need for Mushrooms Stew?

The sky’s the limit here! Whether you’re partial to wild mushrooms or white button mushrooms, creminis/baby bellas, shiitakes, oyster mushrooms, portobellos, porcinis, lion’s mane, or chicken of the woods, choose what you want.

The real key is that you want your mushrooms as fresh as you can possibly get them. I buy my mushrooms from an incredible mushroom grower and purveyor in Buffalo; Flat 12 Mushrooms conveniently offers a mushroom CSA which keeps me in a couple of pounds of fresh, fabulous mushrooms weekly.

If you aren’t lucky enough to live near Flat 12 or another fine grower of mushrooms, you can use grocery store mushrooms with very good results. Small packages of mushrooms tend to be fresher in the stores, but bulk containers allow you to look through for the freshest mushrooms.

While we’re discussing mushrooms, it doesn’t matter whether you have huge or small mushrooms because you’ll be roughly chopping them all to approximately equal size large but still bite-sized chunks before browning them. Please remember to remove the stems before roughly chopping them if you’re using shiitake or portobello mushrooms.

How Can I Tell If Mushrooms are Fresh?

Fresh mushrooms should have little to no smell. They should have firm caps and stems, be fairly even in colour, and be dry to the touch.

How Do I Keep Mushrooms Fresh?

You want to hit the balance between keeping them moist enough to stay fresh and not wet enough to spoil faster. To do this, store bulk or fresh mushrooms in a paper bag with a slightly damp paper towel in the refrigerator or a root cellar.

Every day or so, check to make sure the paper towel is still a little damp. If it is not, re-moisten it and return it to the bag and refrigerator. Alternately, you can store the mushrooms in a partially open plastic bag; no paper towel is needed for this.

If you bought mushrooms in a plastic wrapped container, you can store them in your refrigerator or root cellar in the original packaging. This packaging is designed to keep the mushrooms moist enough while still allowing them to breathe.

In case I didn’t make it clear enough, do not store mushrooms in an airtight container of any sort.

For the love of all that is good, do not wash mushrooms before storing them. That is a recipe for disaster.

If you follow these instructions, you should be able to keep your mushrooms fresh for a week after purchase. For our mushroom stew recipe though, I recommend using mushrooms as close to when they’re purchased as possible.

How Can I Tell If Mushrooms Have Gone Bad?

Mushrooms that have gone bad may have dark or black discolourations on them. They may also smell strongly or sour, have furry or fuzzy growth on them, have a slimy film on the surface, or be wrinkly, shriveled, or dried out.

If your mushrooms are any of these things, please discard them. It’s a bummer, but they’ll taste off and funky in a bad way if they’ve gone bad.

Mushroom Stew

Place an at least 3-quart Dutch oven or heavy bottomed soup pot over medium-high heat. Drizzle 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil in the pan and add a couple handfuls of mushrooms and give the pan one stir to distribute the oil and mushrooms evenly. 

Take care not to overcrowd the pan and -after the initial stir- do not move the mushrooms for 2 minutes. Do not salt the mushrooms. 

When the mushrooms are golden-brown, transfer them to a bowl. Working in batches, repeat with another couple of tablespoons of oil per batch until all the mushrooms are golden-brown and cooked.

Add ¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil to the empty pan and lower the heat to medium. Add the onions, carrot, and celery, sprinkling the kosher salt over it. Stir and cook until soft and the onions are semi-translucent, or about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. 

Add the garlic to the pan and cook for 2 to 3 minutes, until fragrant. Add the tomato paste and stir to combine, cooking for 2 to 4 minutes.

Mix in the flour, stirring to coat the vegetables and aromatics in the pan, and cook for about 2 minutes. Pour the red wine into the pan, whisking to incorporate all of the flour, and scraping the bottom of the pan to release any browned bits.

Continue whisking until the sauce is smooth and thickened somewhat. If you’re using browning sauce, add it here. 

Then add in the cooked mushrooms, along with all the remaining ingredients except for the fresh herbs and starch you’ll serve it over or with. Bring the mixture up to a boil on medium-high heat, then lower to a simmer and cook for 50 to 60 minutes. The mushroom stew should thicken and darken in color.

Remove the bay leaf and bundle of thyme, if you used it, and season to taste with kosher salt and garnish with fresh parsley and thyme, if you’d like. Serve warm over rice, couscous, mashed potatoes, polenta, roasted root vegetables or potatoes, or with crusty bread.

Mushroom Stew

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Rebecca Lindamood

Prep Time 20 minutes mins

Cook Time 1 hour hr 15 minutes mins

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Calling all mushroom lovers! This lusciously mahogany Mushroom Stew recipe is a deeply satisfying, soul warming, comforting dish that just happens to be vegetarian.

Equipment

• Dutch Oven or Large Pot
• chef's knife
• cutting board
• Wooden Spoon or Long Handled Spoon for stirring
• whisk

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

• 2 pounds mixed mushrooms like oyster, cremini, shiitake, portobello, chanterelle, etc. roughly chopped (if using shiitake or portobello, remove stems)
• 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil divided, possibly more if needed while batch cooking the mushrooms at the beginning of the recipe
• 1 onion finely diced
• 1 carrot finely diced
• 2 celery stalks finely diced
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt plus more to adjust to taste at the end of the cooking
• 1/2 tablespoon tomato paste
• 5 garlic cloves minced
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 cup red wine
• 1 tablespoon browning sauce optional
• 4 cups vegetable mushroom, chicken, or beef stock
• ½ teaspoon dried thyme or 4-6 sprigs of fresh thyme tied into a bundle with kitchen twine
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
• Fresh parsley and thyme roughly chopped, for serving
• Rice polenta, couscous, mashed potatoes, etc., for serving

Instructions

 

• Place an at least 3-quart Dutch oven or heavy bottomed soup pot with a tight fitting lid over medium-high heat. Drizzle 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil in the pan and add a couple handfuls of mushrooms and give the pan one stir to distribute the oil and mushrooms evenly.
• Take care not to overcrowd the pan and -after the initial stir- do not move the mushrooms for 2 minutes. Do not salt the mushrooms.
• When the mushrooms are golden-brown, transfer them to a bowl. Working in batches, repeat with another couple of tablespoons of oil per batch until all the mushrooms are golden-brown and cooked.
• Add ¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil to the empty pan and lower the heat to medium. Add the onions, carrot, and celery, sprinkling the kosher salt over it. Stir and cook until soft and the onions are semi-translucent, or about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
• Add the garlic to the pan and cook for 2 to 3 minutes, until fragrant. Add the tomato paste and stir to combine, cooking for 2 to 4 minutes.
• Mix in the flour, stirring to coat the vegetables and aromatics in the pan, and cook for about 2 minutes. Pour the red wine into the pan, whisking to incorporate all of the flour, and scraping the bottom of the pan to release any browned bits.
• Continue whisking until the sauce is smooth and thickened somewhat. If you’re using browning sauce, add it here.
• Then add in the cooked mushrooms, along with all the remaining ingredients except for the fresh herbs and starch you'll serve it over or with. Bring the mixture up to a boil on medium-high heat, then lower to a simmer and cook for 50 to 60 minutes. The mushroom stew should thicken and darken in color.

  Remove the bay leaf and bundle of thyme, if you used it, and season to taste with kosher salt and garnish with fresh parsley and thyme, if you’d like. Serve warm over rice, couscous, mashed potatoes, polenta, roasted root vegetables or potatoes, or with crusty bread.

Nutrition

Calories: 288kcalCarbohydrates: 20gProtein: 5gFat: 19gSaturated Fat: 3gPolyunsaturated Fat: 2gMonounsaturated Fat: 13gSodium: 1223mgPotassium: 617mgFiber: 5gSugar: 8gVitamin A: 2224IUVitamin C: 3mgCalcium: 22mgIron: 1mg

Nutritional information is an estimate and provided to you as a courtesy. You should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe using your preferred nutrition calculator.

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