I have to confess that I’m not the biggest mushroom fan despite my husband being the biggest mushroom eater and picker in the entire world!
But every now and then I’m happy to make a mushroom recipe that is hearty, wholesome and of course delicious, specially when I’m trying to eat less and less meat and mushrooms are a good meat substitute.
So I adapted a Calabrian Casserole recipe I have to make it vegetarian but still with that hearty stew like feeling with lots of herbs to give it a touch of freshness.
And although this recipe is called Spicy Mushroom Stew, it does not take hours and hours to make. Plus is so meaty that even meat eaters will feel satisfied with this dish, perfect for when cooking for vegetarians and meat eaters and you don’t want to have cook two separate meals!!
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- 500 gr of Mushrooms mix of fresh and dried mushrooms works best
- 1/2 red pepper chopped in small squares
- 1 medium onion
- 4 large gloves of garlic
- 1/2 cup of red wine
- 1/2 of vegetable stock
- 2 spring onions
- 1/4 Tsp of Cayenne pepper
- 1/2 Tsp of smoked Paprika
- 1 Tsp of Cumin
- 2 Tbsp of Worcester Sauce
- Salt
- 1/2 cup of fresh parsley
- 7 large leaves of Sage
- 1/4 cup of Dill
- 1 cup of chopped tomatoes
- 1 Tbsp of tomato paste
- Juice of 1/2 lime
- Olive oil
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Clean and chop the fresh mushrooms in bite size pieces
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In a hot pan add some olive oil and cook the mushrooms until half cook. Remove any water in the pan and set aside to use later
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When the mushrooms are done remove from the pan and set aside to use later. Add some more olive oil to the pan and add the chopped onion, red pepper and spring green and leave to soften.
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When the vegetables are soften add the tomatoes chopped in small squares, the tomato paste and the wine and leave to cook for a few minutes until the wine has reduced
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After the wine has reduced add the chopped sage leaves, the cayenne pepper, cumin, Worcester sauce, the stock, the water of the mushrooms that was set aside earlier and the smoked paprika, and stir so everything mixes together.
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Leave to cook for 5 minutes and then add the mushrooms and mix everything so all the flavours mingle together.
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Season to taste with salt.
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The mix should be fairly liquid, you can add more stock or water if you see it has dried to much.
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Leave to cook for approx 20 minutes
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After 20 minutes remove the pan from the heat and add the chopped dill and lime juice stir everything well and leave to rest for a couple of minutes.
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Sprinkle the chopped parsley and serve immediately
© Copyright of Morella Velázquez - www.calabriataste-meals.co.uk - Mi Terruño

Serving Options
I love to serve this spicy mushroom stew with some white rice. But it will also go well with mash or boiled potatoes, quinoa or steamed cous cous because you need a neutral flavour to offset the strong flavours in the stew.
Mushroom Type Suggestion
I like to mix fresh and dried mushrooms because fresh give you the meaty texture and dried gives you that strong mushroomie flavour, so a mix of both I think is the best combination. I work it out at around 50% fresh mushrooms and 50% a mix of dried mushrooms.
So I use 50% of button mushrooms or champignon for the fresh. For the dried I use a mix of 25% Porcini mushrooms and 25% of mix dried mushrooms (whatever I can find really).
I like to use a larger percentage of Porcini mushrooms because when dried they have a really strong mushroom flavour that gives a great umphhh to the dish in comparison to other widely available dried mushrooms.
But if you prefer to use more fresh and less dried than that is perfectly fine too! Is your recipe!!
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Thank you for reading! 🙂