Portobello Mushrooms stuffed with Sweet Potato,Cheeses and Orange Thyme

For years, I have played this game with myself. I choose a main ingredient then, use whatever I have on hand to, create a new dish. Yesterday, my target was Portobello mushrooms. Here’s how it happens…

Years ago, a friend of mine prepared an amazing Portobello mushroom soup. Part of the preparation, required him to first marinate the mushrooms in an orange marinade and then bar-b-cue them. There were a variety of additional steps which resulted in an unforgettable soup. Obviously unforgettable, because I am still talking about it many years later!

The piece of the recipe that, I felt, catapulted the soup to stardom was the orange soaking – grilling bit. So, using this as a starting point, I thenhad to decide what else to add.  A natural combination with orange is sweet potato so I thought, I will use the orange thyme from my herb garden killing two birds with one stone because thyme is gorgeous with mushrooms. I did not want the intense flavour of the mushroom to over power the sweet potato so I added freshly grated nutmeg and dried red chili flakes to the mashed swwet potato. Finally, to ensure that the vegetable was going to sky-rocket, I included a chunk of fresh mozzarella and topped them with freshly grated pecorino.

The result was plate licking good. I served it with grilled steak and a nice big glass of vino…yummee

Portobello Mushrooms stuffed with Sweet Potato and Orange Thyme

Per person

1 Portobello mushroom cap, cleaned

1 medium sweet potato, baked at 350*F for one hour then peeled and mashed with a fork

1/4 teaspoon red chili flakes, or to taste

1/4 teaspoon sea salt

a few grates of fresh nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon orange thyme, leaves picked [substitution – 1 teaspoon fresh orange juice + 1/2 teaspoon fresh thyme, leaves picked]

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

1/4 cup pecorino + 2 tablespoons, freshly grated

1 1/2″ square piece of fresh mozzarella

Add chili flakes, salt, nutmeg, olive oil, thyme, [orange juice,if you are using it] and 1/4 cup pecorino…mix well

Place mozzarella in centre of mushroom cap, top with sweet potato mixture and sprinkle with remaining 2 tablespoons of pecorino

Place caps on a hot grill for 12 minutes with lid closed.

Serve immediately.

Thanks for reading!