Grilled Portobello Mushrooms with a Garlic-Thyme White Bean Puree and Sweet Corn

Can you tell I have a few foodie crushes?

Tess Challis, the obvious choice.

You could possibly surmise I love Ottolenghi‘s recipes.

You don’t yet know how much I adore Denis Cotter’s recipes, because I haven’t posted them yet, but I am loving his latest cookbook, For The Love of Food.

There is something so unattainable about cookbook authors.

Then there’s Sarah at My New Roots.  I adore her approach to whole, natural foods and want to make everything on her blog. Plus she’s seriously cute and makes adorable videos. And equally unattainable since she doesn’t respond to my emails. 😦 (turns out she has just been UBER busy!)

I have become smitten by her food, instead. So far, her recipes have not let me down: the raspberry dream cake, the sultry peaches and blueberries, the 11-spiced lentil salad, the raw tacos with walnut meat, cashew sour cream and a cherry tomato salsa and the chickpea salad with the Mexican mango dressing.

So when I wanted a recipe for grilled portobello mushrooms for the barbecue, I quickly turned to Sarah’s blog. There were heaps of meat for everyone else, so I only made one burger. No worries if it didn’t work out. But of course, there were no failures. The mushroom burger was fabulous. I shared it with Rob so he, too, could relish in the culinary delicacy he had just grilled for me.

While I only modified her recipe by decreasing the oil and using fresh herbs, this would also be good with dried herbs when I don’t have them blooming on my patio. After grilling, you have a nicely spiced  meaty burger with a balsamic glaze. It didn’t taste like a mushroom, so you could possibly convert mushroom-haters, but you won’t be able to fool anyone into thinking this was meat. But it was surprisingly filling!

However, I had one problem.

I made one mushroom; I ate one mushroom; I did not photograph said mushroom.

Thankfully I had some more portobello mushrooms, so after the hubbub of the party subsided, Rob offered to grill me up some more burgers the next day.

However, this time, I chose to smear it with a white bean puree spiced with thyme and garlic, from Power Foods (recipe also here) and then I sprinkled some leftover corn kernels on top. Now we had a complete meal. And a photograph!

Rob prefers hummus to this bean spread, but personally, I found it to be a great twist to a bean spread. The baby lima beans made it creamy with only a touch of oil. The garlic and thyme heightened its flavour, making this a nice and bright spread. Use it just like you would hummus, though: it would be great with raw vegetables, crackers or in a wrap.

This is my submission to this month’s My Legume Love Affair, hosted by Preeti, to Ricki’s Summer Wellness Weekends, to this month’s Ingredient Challenge Monday for mushrooms, to this week’s Summer Favourites potluck party, and to this month’s Simple and in Season.

Grilled Portobello Mushrooms with a Garlic-Thyme White Bean Puree and Sweet Corn
Adapted from My New Roots

4 Portobello mushroom caps, stems removed (1 per person, adjust recipe accordingly)
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tbsp fresh thyme (I also used lemon thyme)
2 tbsp fresh oregano
3 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
Salt and pepper to taste

1 clove garlic, pressed or minced
1 tbsp fresh thyme
1.5 cups cooked white beans (I use baby lima beans)
1 tsp olive oil

1 ear corn, cooked and kernels removed

1. Wash mushroom caps well, carefully removing any dirt. Pat dry.

2. Throw all marinade ingredients together in a large plastic bag, smoosch around making sure it is well combined. Place mushrooms in the bag, seal it up, roll contents around to coat, and let sit in the fridge for up to 12 hours (minimum 1 hour). If you think of it, take the bag out from time to time and roll it around – this ensures that the mushrooms are well coated with marinade.

3.Prepare the grill by heating it up to medium-high. Place mushrooms on lightly oiled grill, gill side down, close grill lid and cook for 5-7 minutes or so, until grill marks appear on the underside. Flip, and repeat gill side up. (Doing it in this order allows the juices to accumulate in the middle) The mushrooms are cooked when they are warm through and have lost a little of their “plumpness” (but they are also great raw!), so no worries about undercooking them.

4. Meanwhile, in a food processor, puree the clove of garlic, 1 tablespoon thyme, the white beans, and 1 teaspoon oil until smooth. If mixture is too thick to spread, add a bit of water. Season with pepper, and pulse to combine.

5. To serve, top grilled mushroom with the white bean spread and sprinkle with corn.

Serves 4.