Quinoa Stuffed Portobello Caps and Strawberry Balsamic Ice Cream

First of all, yum.  I've never done much with portobello caps, but this was easy, vegetarian and turned out delicious.  I used basic ingredients that I had in my house.  The great thing about stuffing mushrooms, peppers, etc. is that you can put whatever you want in them.

I don't usually write about my food explorations, but, I've become sick of not remembering what I did when I try to "recreate" my random food creations.

Here is what I did....

First I made quinoa and used about two cups cooked.  While that was cooking I diced up a roma tomato, 1/2 cup of red onions, 1/2 cup green peppers, a hand full of fresh spinach, and about a 1/2 cup of broccoli florets.  Then, I sautéed those with three large cloves of garlic and some olive oil.  As they browned I added about a 1/4 cup of Summit Extra Pale Ale and a 1/4 cup of balsamic vinegar and let it cook down until the veggies were tender.

While the veggies simmered, I baked the two portobello caps (cap side up) at 400 for about 10 minutes to soften them up and flipped them over to be ready to fill.

Once everything was ready I mixed in about a cup and a half of the cooked quinoa. Then spoon filled the caps until they had a big mound of the mixture. For seasonings I just used salt & pepper, a few red pepper flakes, a bit of garlic powder, Italian seasoning and basil. After that I topped them with mozzarella cheese and put them back in the oven for about 5-6 minutes, until the cheese melted and browned a little.

Here are the results:

Recipe: (this is rough estimates)

1 1/2 cup cooked quinoa
2 portobello caps

Diced veggies:
1/2 cup red onion
1/2 cup green pepper
1/2 cup broccoli
1/2 cup tomatos
a handful of fresh spinach (kale would be great in it too)
3 cloves of garlic
1/4 cup Summit Extra Pale Ale
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
Italian seasoning, basil, salt & pepper, red pepper flakes
Mozzarella cheese for topping (I'd love to try a stronger cheese like blue or gorgonzola next time)



Now dessert:

While in Seattle I went to a balsamic vinegar tasting.  I ended up picking up some strawberry balsamic vinegar.  My original intention was to mix it with a garlic infused olive oil for a dressing on a spinach, strawberry, walnut salad.  Which I'm still planning on doing.  But, the balsamic is so sweet that I thought it would be good with some fresh strawberries and vanilla ice cream.

Turns out, I was very right.  The balsamic added a tang to the sweetness and gave the sundae much more depth in flavor.  I mean its ice cream so you can't really go wrong but I would say its a healthier alternative to the chocolate syrup.  There was also an espresso balsamic that I'll probably try to pick up next time I'm in Seattle in October.  That and some chocolate covered espresso beans over vanilla ice cream sounds awesome.

Anyway, here it is: