Stuffed Onions with Porcini Mushrooms Stuffing | Vegan + GF

Do you have a favorite dish that you enjoy cooking at home? One of my favorites is this Stuffed Onions Recipe with Porcini Mushrooms Stuffing. It has so many flavors and textures in one dish, making it hearty enough to be served as the main course for dinner or appetizer for a party.

The stuffing for these stuffed onion bombs can be made ahead of time and stored in the fridge until ready to use. This recipe makes about six onions, perfect for feeding 2-4 people depending on appetite size!

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This recipe for stuffed onions calls for porcini mushrooms and firm tofu to make a sublime stuffing. They are a total game-changer!

Porcini mushrooms are freshly available during the fall season, so it is easier to find dishes that rely on this delicious mushroom as part of the fall recipes favorites.

We love indulging in these flavorful mushrooms, especially if they are from the Piedmont Region in Italy, their flavor is majestic! These stuffed portobellos and herb stuffed pioppini mushroom recipes are good examples.

Luckily, it is very easy to find dried porcini mushrooms year-round, which is the one we are using for this recipe. They are also considerably cheaper than fresh ones.

If you are into mushrooms, take a look at our Creamy Vegan Mushroom Risotto, straight from our home in Milano!

Ingredients

• Large yellow onions
• Porcini mushrooms
• White wine
• Garlic
• Extra firm tofu
• Dried tomatoes
• Gluten-free bread crumbs
• Mushrooms
• Canned tomatoes
• Nutritional yeast
• Fresh parsley

Optional: spring onions, vegan butter, olive oil.

See quantities and full instructions in the recipe card.

Instructions

Step 1. Prepare the stock.

Simmer the porcini mushroom in water for 5 minutes and set aside.

Step 2. Prepare the onions.

Peel each whole onion carefully. With a sharp knife, cut the tops and bottoms of the onions. Make sure you only remove a tiny bit; otherwise, the onions could be "too open."

Then cut top to bottom, placing the knife's tip at the center of the onion.

Carefully remove the inner layers (onion flesh), reserve them for another use, or chop centers and replace the spring onions that the recipe calls for.

No worries, it is quite easy and is not time-consuming.

Step 3. Briefly cook the onion layers.

Take off the porcini mushrooms from the saucepan and add the white wine, 1 cup at a time. Simmer for a few minutes, and briefly cook the onion layer, a few at a time. They should not cook much. They only need to be a little tender, as the cooking process will finalize in the oven.

Set aside and let them cool, as you will be handling them later with your hands.

Preheat oven to medium-high heat, 350 ºF (175ºC).

Step 4. Prepare the onion stuffing.

On a medium saucepan, stir fry the chopped stuffing ingredients, beginning with chopped onion and garlic, then the crumbled tofu, chopped dried tomatoes, until you add all the remaining ingredients.

Mix everything, stirring occasionally, until you have a nice texture. Resist the temptation to use a food processor; you need your stuffing textures! Add more liquid if needed.

Remove from heat and in the same saucepan or a large bowl add the bread crumbs and nutritional yeast. Then season with a teaspoon of salt and ground black pepper.

Step 5. Assemble the Onions

Now that your outer onion layers are cooled down and your stuffing ready.

Prepare your table to start stuffing the onion shells and line a baking dish with cooking spray or just a little olive oil.

Stuff the onions with the help of a spoon and secure them with a toothpick.

Step 5. Bake

Your stuffed onions recipe will be ready after 45-50 minutes. The roasted onions are best served warm.

Serving suggestions

These stuffed onion bombs can make an excellent side dish. If you want to make this stuffed onion recipe the main dish, we suggest calculating two per person.

If you use a pretty baking dish you can even serve them in it.

Variations

Tartness - If you like to add some additional festive and tart notes to your stuffing, you can add a handful of dried cranberries to the stuffing while it cooks.

Stuffing volume - You can also add cooked rice to your stuffing to make it bigger. Adjust the seasoning accordingly.

Onions - Sweet onions and also work well for this stuffed onions recipe. After you separate the onion shells, the spring onions can be replaced by the remaining onions.

Gluten-free - you can omit the bread crumbs or use gluten-free breadcrumbs. If you skip them, we suggest making a chia egg or flax egg, with 1 tablespoon of chia seeds plus 3 tablespoons of warm water. This will help to thicken the stuffing. Also, you should add them while the filling is still being cooked.

Porcini mushroom health benefits

Porcini mushrooms are delicious and widely used in Italian cuisine. Did you know that they also have powerful healing properties?

Porcini mushrooms (Boletus Edulis) contain protein-bound polysaccharides and this compound has an extraordinary ability to boost the human immune system . Many studies show that porcini stimulate our body's defense mechanism, even in cases of severe physical stress.

One of the most remarkable attributes of this mushroom is that it stimulates T-cells production. "T" Lymphocytes are an essential part of our immune system . They attack and destroy bacteria, fungi, viruses, and tumoral cells.

Porcini mushrooms also give you a good amount of minerals like calcium, magnesium, potassium, or iron. This means that drinking porcini tea can provide relief from menstrual cramping, fatigue, depression, and migraine headaches.

The other health benefits of this edible fungus are:

• Prevents cardiovascular diseases
• Improves brain functions
• Promotes weight loss
• Contains antibacterial substances

How to use porcini mushrooms?

First, you have to make sure you are buying an authentic product. There are many products available in markets that have very few mushrooms inside, so you should be very careful when buying them.

Porcini mushrooms have a fresh earthy smell and the younger they are, the more intense their flavor will be. You can use them to cook different kinds of meals , like pasta, stuffing, and casseroles.

Fresh porcini mushrooms can be used as a wild food source as their cultivation is not permitted in Italy. They can be easily identified due to the presence of "little bumps" on the bottom part near the stem and white gills on the cap.

The special flavor and fragrance of this mushroom make it one of Italy’s favorite pickings during autumn, but its price forces one to choose between buying fresh porcini mushrooms or dried ones.

Since Italians love their tradition and making the most of opportunities, it’s not surprising that they have found a solution: we can simply use them both! For example, pairing fresh porcini mushrooms with parsley and garlic and then adding olive oil and parmesan cheese makes for a great addition to any main dish, or use them in your next vegan mushroom risotto.

As for the dried porcini mushrooms, they are used in dishes including risotto alla milanese, stuffed pasta shells, or pasta al ragu.

Tips for cooking with porcini mushrooms

Some tips that will enrich your meals with this delicious fall season ingredient mushrooms:

• Add some fresh minced garlic or onion when frying chopped dried porcini mushrooms to make them tasty and fragrant.
• To make a risotto with dried porcini mushrooms, soak them in some warm water for at least three hours before using them to allow them to generate more flavors. Just like we do in this stuffed onions recipe.
• You can also try making an omelette or scrambled tofu with fresh porcini mushrooms. Before adding the tofu, fry the mushrooms with some garlic and a little oil and water.
• If you want to prepare baked porcini mushrooms, choose those that are about 2 or 3 inches in length each. First fry the mushrooms with some vegan butter and olive oil then add parsley, salt, and pepper before putting them in their baking dish.

To make a tasty pasta sauce, fry the chopped porcini mushrooms in a pan with some oil and garlic. When done, add red wine and pour over cooked pasta together with lots of cheese.

It's also possible to use fresh porcini mushrooms to make risotto by adding them at the same time as mushrooms or vegetable stock.

To prevent porcini mushrooms from smelling too much, you should keep them in the fridge wrapped in paper.

If you want to cook porcini mushrooms with parsley or other herbs, first fry them without adding any liquid then add olive oil and vegan parmesan cheese.

Apart from trying these recipes at home, there are also lots of restaurants that cook their customers' favorite dishes with fresh or dried porcini mushrooms.

You can also buy ready-made sauces and risotto mixes with porcini mushrooms at supermarkets.

If you use a food dehydrator, it's easy to make delicious dried porcini mushroom tea by putting a handful of them in a jar together with some dried herbs of your choice.

Be creative and decide what you want to do with porcini mushrooms depending on the occasion or mood! You can turn them into a sauce, an omelette, soup...

More recipes using tofu as stuffing

Our suggested Vegan Christmas Menu Post

• Vegan Sweet Potato and Eggplant Casserole
• Homemade Festive Spiced Cranberry Sauce
• White Truffled Mashed Potatoes
• Christmas Rosemary Bread Buns
• Green Beans with Flaked Toasted Almonds

The smell of this dish will fill your kitchen with the scents of Christmas. It’s a great recipe to make for friends and family because it can be made ahead, refrigerated overnight, or frozen in advance. This stuffed onions recipe works well as a main course at any holiday gathering.

You may want to serve them alongside some roasted root vegetables like maple-glazed carrots, parsnips, turnips, and potatoes. If you have time before dinner prep starts on Thanksgiving Day, try to roast these ingredients in the oven while preparing other dishes from our blog post about what you need for Thanksgiving Dinner!

This is another side that could go well with mashed sweet potatoes if you don't feel like making green beans again

If you try this recipe, let us know! Leave a comment, rate it, and don’t forget to tag a photo #ourplantbasedworld on Instagram. Cheers!

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Food safety

We sometimes take for granted that we have years (or decades) of cooking experience that the average visitor may not. Add to, or remove from, the list below with health and safety tips.

• Cook to a minimum temperature of 165 °F (74 °C)
• Do not use the same utensils on cooked food that previously touched raw meat
• Wash hands after touching raw meat
• Don't leave food sitting out at room temperature for extended periods
• Never leave cooking food unattended
• Use oils with high smoking points to avoid harmful compounds
• Always have good ventilation when using a gas stove

See more guidelines at USDA.gov.

The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist's advice. See our full Nutritional Disclosure here.

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