Mushrooms with Quinoa

This was my contribution to a Christmas dinner - and yes, I am quite late with these photos. Some of the other dishes:


Haaaaam


Lentil salad


Smoked salmon

And here's mine:



Mushrooms with quinoa and lemon

The original recipe called for pearl barley, for which I substituted white quinoa.

Mushrooms:
100g unsalted butter
15 sprigs thyme
6 large mushrooms (Portobello or other)
180ml dry white wine
250ml vegetable stock
2 garlic cloves, finely sliced
salt and pepper

Quinoa:
1 tbsp sunflower oil
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
750ml vegetable stock (or less)
110g white quinoa
1 quarter preserved lemon, flesh removed and skin finely chopped
50g fetta cheese, crumbled
1 tbsp chopped flat-leaf parsley
2 tsp thyme leaves
2 tbsp basil leaves, shredded
1 tbsp


Start with the quinoa: heat the oil in a saucepan and saute garlic and onion until translucent. Add stock and bring to the boil. Stir in the quinoa, reduce heat, then stir on simmer until quinoa is cooked and liquid has been absorbed.

Meanwhile preheat oven to 180C. Grease a baking tray with 2/3 of the butter, scatter with sprigs of thyme, and place mushrooms on top with stem-side up. Dot each mushroom with butter and season with salt and pepper. Cover tray with foil and place in oven for 15-20 minutes until mushrooms are tender. Leave in their cooking juices until ready to serve.

Remove quinoa from heat and stir in the lemon, feta, parsley and thyme. Season to taste.

To serve, scoop quinoa on to mushroom and spoon some of the mushroom cooking juices over. Garnish with basil and olive oil.

From Ottolenghi: the cookbook