Hello, my lovely friends, this is easy and quick and you can’t go wrong! My recipe today is a simple mushroom and spinach side dish that serves well with brunch, lunch or dinner as an accompaniment. 

For a balanced plant-based meal, sautéed mushroom and spinach works especially nicely for brunch. Think sourdough toast, tofu scramble, avocado, turmeric potato patties and smoky black beans

You can use any mushrooms you have

I used the least expensive white mushrooms I could find yesterday to make this. Organic white mushrooms reduced at the end of the day, in perfect condition worked a treat!

Chopped white mushrooms for my side dish, before cooking

For a bit of extra magic, you can use more fancy mushrooms.

Oyster mushrooms, chestnut and shiitake mushrooms all bring different textures and depths of flavour to the dish.

Using spinach or other greens for a rapid sauté

Baby spinach is ideal as it is tender and reduces down in a minute or two as soon as it hits the heat. It makes for the perfect green when you want a rapid result.

Sauteeing baby spinach with the mushrooms

That said, this dish will work with regular spinach, chard, or beet leaves too. Just give them a little extra time to reduce down in the heat.

You can even use cabbage or kale if you have extra time to allow it to soften.

Mushroom and beet greens sautéed

Mushroom and spinach sauté

So what is a sauté?

Saute is a french word that comes from the word jump. In which case I imagine tossing (jumping haha) ingredients in a hot pan with a little oil. 

Sauteeing relies on less oil than frying. It’s often done in a pan with higher edges – probably so you can toss the ingredients about a bit more without them falling out.

Using a large based pan for your mushroom and spinach saute

In this recipe, we will be using a minimal amount of oil to get the mushrooms hot enough so that they start to unleash their liquid back into the pan.

This recipe involves a large-based pan which helps for an even distribution of heat.

If you don’t use a lid on your pan, then the liquid released from the mushrooms will evapourate off. This is my favourite way to do it. If the mushrooms start to burn on the bottom of the pan before they are cooked, simply add a tiny splash of water.

By using a lid on your pan the ingredients will start to steam rather than saute them

If you put a lid on your pan your mushrooms will start to steam rather than saute. This is because the lid traps the liquid that comes out of your mushrooms in the pan, and stops the steam from escaping.

Different types and different batches of mushrooms have different water content. So the amount of liquid released during cooking also depends on which mushrooms you are using.

You may or may not want to put the lid on when you cook to encourage a more steamed process. It works fine both ways, with only slightly different outcomes. The choice is yours. 

Cooked mushrooms and spinach side dish

Sauteeing white mushrooms with the lid off to reduce the moisture content

If extra mushroom juice is fine for you then you can retain it by putting a lid on your pan whilst they cook. 

Putting lid on sauteed mushrooms to keep the liquid in

Cooked mushrooms and spinach side dish

Mushroom and spinach side dish

Yield: 3 portions
Cook Time: 5 minutes
Total Time: 5 minutes

An easy sauteed mushroom and baby spinach side dish. It works well with brunch, lunch or dinner as an extra, nutritious accompaniment to a meal.

Ingredients

  • 300g white mushrooms
  • 150g baby spinach
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 tablespoon shoyu (or tamari)
  • Twist of black pepper
  • 1 tablespoon ground coriander (optional)

Instructions

  1. Chop your mushrooms into bit sized pieces. This might be halves, quarters or slices, depending on the size. Bear in mind that the mushrooms will shrink in size during cooking.
  2. Heat the olive oil in a large open pan.
  3. Once the oil is hot toss in the mushrooms and saute in the oil. Stir to prevent them sticking to the bottom of the pan. They should release some juice after a minute or two, to assist with the cooking process. If you mushrooms are too dry and feel like they might start to burn, then add a very small dash of water to help them out.
  4. You can put the pan lid on if you want. Or you can leave it off. If you put it on, the lid will retain the moisture from the mushrooms, which means the mushrooms will start to steam. If you keep the lid off you will end up with more of a fried mushroom effect. It works fine both ways. See notes above in the article for lid on or lid off options.
  5. After a few minutes, when the mushrooms have cooked, add the shoyu and toss in your baby spinach leaves. You can roughly chop your leaves if you want them to spread more evenly as they cook.
  6. Your spinach leaves will reduce down within a minute or two, especially if you stir them in. Once they have reduced down, your dish is ready to serve.
  7. MIx in the ground coriander if you are opting to use it and add a big twist of black pepper.

Notes

Lots of notes in the article above the recipe.

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Mushroom and spinach sautee side dish