Portabellas with a side of Bill Nye the Science Guy...

This week my kitchen has been transformed in to a gluten-free baking laboratory. I have been testing mini batches of cake-mix,experimenting with various flour/starch blends, and playing with a variety of ingredients trial and error style. The mission is to create a delicious cake recipe that could fool even the most die-hard gluten lover. While I don't mind many of the gluten-free substitutes available, even I can admit they often don't have the same consistency and texture as their counter-parts. Since this project is still a work in progress I will save my discoveries and conclusions for future blogs, and in the mean time will share a recipe for a vegetarian favorite that I have recently re-created. Hope you all enjoy!

Stuffed Portabella Mushroom Caps

Ingredients-

 Medium to large portabella mushrooms

Tamari

Spices(such as garlic salt, Italian seasoning blend, parsley, a dash of cayenne...)

Salt

Black pepper

Olive oil

Quinoa

Fresh spinach

Mixed vegetables (bell peppers, onions, zucchini, yellow squash...)

Lime juice

Lite Butter or margarine

“I Can't Believe it's not Butter” spray

Directions- 

Clean and rinse large portabella caps, removing stems and scraping the insides of the caps. Brush top of caps lightly with olive or vegetable oil, and marinate in gluten-free soy sauce (Tamari) and spices of choice, for at least 20-30 minutes. Pre-heat oven to 350degrees. Line a small baking pan with aluminum foil and transfer mushroom caps from their marinade to pan (save remaining marinade to be used later). Bake for about 15-20 minutes, until mushrooms are tender (flipping once half way thru time, and re-coating with some of the extra marinade) Rinse and strain quinoa in cold water. Place in medium sauce pan, with just over twice as much water as uncooked quinoa. Bring to boil. Reduce heat and cover, simmering for approximately 20 minutes, until all water has cooked off and quinoa is fully cooked (edge of grain begins to separate). While the quinoa is cooking, begin to steam a generous handful of fresh spinach with a pinch of salt. Once spinach is done, set aside in a small bowl and melt a small amount of butter over the top. Next, spray medium skillet with butter spray and begin to saute the zucchini and squash over medium-high heat. Toss with ground black pepper and a splash of lime juice. Slightly reduce heat and continue stirring until fully cooked, adding the rest of the veggies half way through (feel free to also add more pepper and lime juice to taste at this point). After everything has finished cooking separately, remove mushrooms from oven and spoon quinoa into the caps, top with layer of cooked spinach and more quinoa, drizzle with remaining marinade and return to oven for another 5-10 mins.