Dinner was so good tonight I just had to take a picture and share. I work a lot of hours and often get home pretty late. I’m hungry. I’m tired. Even though I love to cook, I just don’t have time to really prepare something. I need gluten-free, vegan grub and I need it fast! So tonight, while driving home, I started thinking about the fresh portabella mushrooms waiting for me in the fridge. We had some baked with marinara and pesto the other night and they were great. We also had lasagna so I wasn’t in the mood for Italian. What could I make that was fast, fun and a little different?
There’s a little place on Broadway in Denver called Sputnik with clearly marked vegan and gluten-free options on the menu. They have awesome sweet potato fries with a bunch of different dipping sauces. My favorite is berbere ketchup. If you’ve never had berbere spice, you really need to find some. It’s a slightly spicy mixture of chili and other spices used in Ethiopia and it goes great with tomato. I started thinking about that ketchup and wondered how it would taste baked with the portabella, kind of like a spicy “meatloaf” with mashed potatoes and dinner was imagined and 45 minutes from arriving home, it was served! Hubby loved it too. Here’s how I made it.
BBQ Berbere Portabella Comfort Bake
1 cup Berbere Sauce:
2/3 cup ketchup
1/3 cup spicy bbq sauce (not too sweet)
1 tsp of berbere spice
4 large fresh portabella caps washed with stems removed
2 cups mashed potatoes
2 cups chopped, fresh greens (I used kale)
Preheat oven to 375 Fahrenheit, place portabella caps uncovered in a glass baking dish (overlapping slightly is fine – see picture below) and top each cap with 1/4 cup berbere sauce. Bake for 30 minutes.
Remove from oven and slice into strips.
Arrange greens around edge of plate. Place 1/2 cup warm mashed potatoes in center with a pat of vegan butter. Arrange portabella strips on the bed of greens, spoon on a little extra sauce from the pan and serve. So pretty, healthy and tasty!
