This dish started as a 'unprepared' trial dish, and was created while being in the process of cooking. And crispy lemon porcini became one of my all-time favourites! A true winner!
Estimated reading time: 4 minutes
Jump to:
🥘 Main ingredients
- large porcini
- flour
- aquafaba
- lemon
- onion
- white wine
- sugar
- quinoa
- coriander
- mint
- chickpeas
- carrot
- shallot
- chilli paste
- lamb's lettuce
I like the balanced acidity of this bowl, together with the spice from the chickpeas, and the sweetness from the onions. The texture of the porcini makes it a hearty dish, and of course you can add as little or as much you like. It is healthy, nutritious and delicious! You can eat it as a lunch dish, dinner main, or even as a take away bowl for pick-nick or office lunch.
It is not always easy to find fresh porcini mushrooms though, so as soon as they arrive at my local market, it will be on my menu daily 😉 . Of course cooked in various ways, or raw in a carpaccio. If you are not familiar with this type of mushroom , I suggest reading this very informative & interesting article from Untamed feast.
In my recipe I use a large foot of a porcini mushroom which looks like this. (not cleaned)
📖 Variations
Like I said, once I can find these beauties, locally called Cepes. I eat them for a few weeks. In this variation I made them with a pasta dish. I used the foot (the stem) of the porcini's for making my favourite crispy porcini as you can read and see in the recipe below. The heads (chopped up) I used for a tasty sauce to mix through the pasta.
For the pasta sauce;
Sauté the shallots until translucent (not browned) in some olive oil and a pinch of salt. Add the chopped porcini heads (well cleaned) and stir for a few minutes until you can sense the beautiful nutty & mushroom sense. Pour in a good amount of white wine, and let the wine reduce to half. Let the sauce cool down enough to safely blend until smooth. Or use a hand-blender and pulse a few times to keep a more rustic texture. Heat up the sauce again, if you find it too thin, just reduce it till you reach the desired texture. Season well with some salt, pepper, and a little splash of lemon.
Once you boiled your pasta according package, stir the pasta through the sauce and top with the crispy lemon porcini from the oven.
Another option would be to use my creamy vegan alfredo sauce, and top with the crispy mushrooms.
For instructions on the porcini, view the video in recipe card below.
🍷 Wine pairing
Normally with any mushroom dish I love a light pinot noir. But in this case, Not.
Because of the lemon crispy twist of the porcini. Together with lots of other flavours on the plate, like spice, sweet and herbs. This dish can handle a really flavoursome, and complex white, from the warmer climates. Think of the typical Languedoc blends of the South of France; Roussane, Marsanne, and viognier blends. Or Southern Australian whites, oaked chardonnays, or a good South African Chenin. Stick with quality though!
If you serve the crispy porcini with the creamy pasta sauce, go for a refreshing and high acidic white.
I hope you enjoy this dish as much as I do. And please tell me all about your own creations, and ideas. That's what cooking and enjoyment of eating is all about! Don't forget to add @haricoco1 to your Instagram posts 😉 I Love to see your bowl creations.
Other mushroom recipes on my site;
- Pasta alfredo with mushrooms
- Mushroom wellington
- Asian Miso & mushroom soup
- Mushroom & chestnut pate
- Pumpkin with mushroom mixture
📋 Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 foot of large porcini
- 2 tablespoons of flour
- 100 ml (½ cup) aquafaba (=chickpea liquid)
- ½ lemon zest
- 1 lemon juiced, and divided
- 1 onion chopped in four parts
- 50 ml (⅓ cup) white wine
- 2 Tablespoons sugar
- 70 grams (½ cup) quinoa
- small bunch coriander chop the leaves
- small bunch mint chop the leaves
- 1 tin chickpeas or dried chickpeas soaked and boiled
- 1 large carrot roughly chopped
- 1 shallot finely chopped
- ½ teaspoon of chili paste more to liking
- 50 grams (2 cups) lamb's lettuce
- coarse sea salt
- pepper
- olive oil
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180C / 356 F
- Brush the porcini foot clean and cut off the hard end if needed.
- pull the porcini into strips.
- Prepare 1 bowl with the aquafaba, and another bowl with flour, lemon zest , salt and pepper.
- Toss all Porcini strips into the aquafaba , followed by the flour mixture.
- Arrange all strips onto an oven dish, drizzle with a little olive oil, and bake for approx. 30 minutes (Toss around once or twice during baking)
- While the porcini is in the oven, prepare the rest;
- Boil the quinoa in double amount of water Uncovered, when the liquid is gone, take it off the heat and cover it for 5 minutes, after 5 minutes stir it with a fork and you should have nice fluffy quinoa.
- Sauté the chopped shallot in a pan with a pinch of salt, don't let the shallot go brown.
- Add the chili paste and stir-fry for another minute.
- Add the chopped carrot and leave for approx. 10 minutes on a slightly lower heat (you might have to add a little splash of water).
- After 10 minutes add the chickpeas. Test the seasoning, and add a small drizzle of the lemon juice at the end. (You want the carrots still to be crunchy).
- Sauté the onion in a pan with a bit of salt for a few minutes. Add the 50 ml of white wine and cover. After 5 min (or when onions are softened) take the lid of, and reduce the liquid, add 1 teaspoon of sugar and leave for another few minutes to lightly caramelize.
- To finish the quinoa; Add the chopped herbs and juice of half a lemon, mix well.
- By now, the porcini should be lightly brown with a slight crisp. You can prepare your 2 bowls by starting with a layer of lamb's lettuce (if you like you can dress the lettuce with a simple vinaigrette of olive oil, lemon juice, salt, sugar). Top with the herby quinoa, the spicy chickpeas and carrot, and the soft slightly caramelized onions. Keep the center free, for the crispy porcini and decorate with a slice of lemon.
Leave a Reply