Mushroom Recipes – Wild, Vegetarian and Everyday from Casa Adora
Autumn in the Limousin meant mushrooms. A woman connected to the local hunt would turn up at the kitchen door of La Grille with a basket of porcini and girolles, still smelling of the forest, while the wild boar were being chased somewhere above the village. That is where these mushroom recipes really began – not with a plan, but with whatever came through the door.
Twenty years on, the mushrooms at Casa Adora arrive by different routes. Setas and níscalos appear in the Andalucían markets when the autumn rains come. Brown chestnut mushrooms come from the local supermarket. A jar of dried porcini lives permanently in the cupboard, alongside a small and frankly extravagant bag of trompette de la mort. And the shiitake, after two failed attempts at growing my own, now arrive in the suitcases of visitors from the UK – or they don't get collected from the airport.
Mushrooms do something few other ingredients manage. They bring the depth of meat to vegetarian cooking, and they make a simple pan sauce taste like it took all afternoon. Some of these recipes are built entirely around them; in others they quietly carry the sauce. All of them are cooked for one or two, at Casa Adora or in Florie the van.
Mushroom Recipes – What You'll Find Here
Soups for grey days, pasta for one, coarse French pâtés, rich gravies for meat and game, a store-cupboard seasoning, and one honest account of failure. Many of these are vegetarian mushroom recipes, and several are vegan – each is labelled: [V] for vegetarian, [Ve] for vegan.
Mushroom Soups
[V] Hungarian Mushroom Soup Brown mushrooms, paprika and dill, with a quiet backbone of soy sauce, finished with sour cream and a squeeze of lemon. A friend's family recipe, Hungarian or possibly Romanian – one bowl and the provenance stops mattering.
[Ve] Magic Mushroom Soup Mushrooms left in the Andalucían sun for a vitamin D boost while the dogs chased imaginary rabbits, then blended with whatever the vegetable drawer had to offer. A fridge-clearing soup with a bit of magic in it.
[V] Mushroom and Pearl Barley Soup Dried and fresh mushrooms with pearl barley, simmered in vegetable stock and blitzed to a thick, almost stew-like finish. Rainy-day autumn cooking from Casa Adora – the sulky dogs preferred biscuits.
Mushroom Pasta & Ragù
[V] Trattoria Mushroom Ragù with Penne Rigate Trompette de la mort mushrooms, slow-cooked with tomato and red wine into a ragù that has no business being this good without meat in it.
Chicken & Mushroom Pasta Leftover roast chicken, browned mushrooms and a spoonful of tomate frito, finished with butter and Parmesan for a silky sauce with no cream. One pan, one hungry person.
Garlic Mushroom Spaghetti for One Cooked in the campervan on a rainy day in the Cáceres countryside, with gunfire echoing across the valley. Mushrooms, garlic, chicken and sun-dried tomatoes in a light almond milk sauce.
Mushroom Pâtés
[V] Chestnut and Mushroom Pâté Fresh porcini, girolles and dried cèpes with chestnuts, white wine and crème fraîche, kept coarse and sealed with butter. A memory of an Alsatian patron's autumn pâté in the Haute-Vienne, remade at Casa Adora.
[Ve] Mushroom & Walnut Pâté Brown chestnut mushrooms cooked down with shallot and soy, blitzed with toasted walnuts, raw garlic, parsley and lemon. Found on both sides of the Pyrenees – and a vegetarian starter nobody feels short-changed by.
Mushrooms with Meat & Game
Wild mushroom recipes come into their own alongside meat and game – porcini and trompettes carrying a gravy, chestnut mushrooms softening into a pan sauce.
Juicy Beef Meatballs in Parmesan Mushroom Gravy Beef and Parmesan meatballs simmered in a quick mushroom gravy with homemade chicken stock and a touch of Dijon. Weeknight comfort food.
Juicy Beef Meatballs with Trompette de la Mort Mushroom Gravy Soft meatballs in a roast chicken wing gravy perfumed with a few dried trompettes – used sparingly, at the price they are. Gourmet football-night food, served on sourdough.
Mozzarella Stuffed Chicken Suprême with Green Peppercorn & Mushroom Sauce A chicken suprême stuffed under the skin with mozzarella and parsley, roasted fast and hot, with a dried porcini and green peppercorn sauce flamed with brandy.
Pan-Fried Guinea Fowl with Chestnut Mushrooms Guinea fowl breasts seared golden, then simmered with chestnut mushrooms, shallot, white wine and thyme. Pintade poêlée aux champignons – the French make it sound complicated. It isn't.
Mushroom Seasonings & Store Cupboard
[Ve] Nearly McCormick's – Homemade Umami Seasoning Dried trompette de la mort ground to a fine powder and built into a deep, savoury, mushroom-forward seasoning, for a fraction of the shop price. A pinch makes everything taste more of itself.
Grow Your Own
Shiitake Mushrooms – Grow Your Own Spore-covered dowels, logs, natural beeswax and an attempt at a damp, shaded forest in the Andalucían heat. It didn't work – twice – so now visitors from the UK bring shiitake or don't get collected from the airport.
This mushroom recipes collection grows every autumn – when the setas reach the market, when a visitor's suitcase opens to reveal shiitake, or when the trompettes in the cupboard start asking to be used.
Footnote
These mushroom recipes are part of my Veg, Fruit & Pulses hub – plant-forward cooking from Casa Adora and the road. For more vegetarian mushroom recipes, see my Veggie & Vegan Recipes.
Find more recipes and food adventures here.
Wonky photos, proper food, genuine adventures – The Flexible Chef
