Mushroom Étouffée, or How to Do Without Truffles

If I can’t have too many truffles, I’ll do without truffles.”
Colete

With food prices what they are, I’m doing without truffles, too. But I won’t do without mushrooms, and neither should you. Mushrooms are where the culinary and curative meet. They’re umami, satisfying, and there are a lot of them, well over 10,000 varieties.  

Mushroom Étouffée sounds fussy, but it’s quick, easy and affordable. It offers truffles’ luxe sex appeal without a hit to your wallet. Etouffée, a classic Creole dish, takes its name from the French verb etouffer — to asphyxiate or smother. Doesn’t sound fun. But smothering, a beloved technique in traditional Southern cooking, makes for a party in the mouth.

How to Make Mushroom Étouffée:

1. In a Dutch oven or soup pot, melt vegan butter over medium-high heat. 
2. When it starts to foam, add the chopped onion, chopped celery and chopped sweet pepper. Cook, stirring, for 3 to 5 minutes, or until vegetables begin to soften and turn golden,
3. Add the minced garlic and jalapeno. Give a stir and cook until the vegetables begin to relax and turn fragrant.
4. Sprinkle the unbleached flour over all — no need to sift — and continue stirring until vegetables are coated. Cook for another few minutes, until the flour absorbs all the vegetable juices and starts to toast.  
5. Add chopped tomatoes, wine, and broth. 
6. Stir to combine and continue cooking until mixture coalesces into a thick sauce. Add Creole seasoning and bay leaf.  Keep stirring, reducing heat to medium should the etouffée start to stick to the bottom of the pot.  
7. Tumble in the chopped mushrooms and gently stir to combine. It may appear there’s not enough sauce to coat the mushrooms, but continue cooking for another 5 to 10 minutes.  The mushrooms break down and soften under heat, producing their own rich broth. Remember, the mushrooms are smothered, not drowned.  
8. Add the leaves from a sprig of thyme, then season generously with sea salt and freshly ground pepper.

Tips 

• With over 10,000 varieties of mushrooms, what kind should you use?  Fancy ones like like maitake and king oyster are lovely, but what’s great about this dish is that any kind of mushroom works. Even your basic white button mushroom shines when it gets the etouffée treatment.  Bonus, all mushrooms love to be cooked, and you really can’t overcook them. They’re your BFFs in the kitchen.
• Many classic New Orleans recipes get their richness from animal products. This one gets it from mushrooms — they’re so savory and umami —  but also from onion, celery and pepper. These simple vegetables serve as aromatics to build flavor without a lot of fat. They’re key to so many Creole recipes, they’re known as the Creole holy trinity.
• Traditionally, etouffée is served over white rice. But you know me — brown rice offers whole grain goodness, fiber, and a mildly nutty flavor that plays up the richness of this mushroom dish.
• Fungi in Film
  • The Truffle Hunters
  • Pig
  • The Phantom Thread —a woman poisons her lover with mushrooms — not a good date night choice

Mushroom Étouffée

Étouffée, a classic Creole dish, takes its name from the French verb etouffer — to asphyxiate or smother. Doesn’t sound fun. But smothering, a beloved technique in traditional Southern cooking, makes for a party in the mouth. Vegetables are browned, dusted with flour and spices, then doused with broth and wine, creating a rich gravy. It’s a party for the cook, too, with all the action taking place in one pot.Look, plenty of Creole and Cajun food is sauced and rich beyond belief. But here we get to create flavor and richness and umami without them.Exotic mushrooms such as maitake are spectacular here, but even white button mushrooms blossom when given the etouffée treatment. Serve over rice. White rice is the standard go-to, but brown offers a mild nutty flavor and a little whole grain goodness.

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Servings 4

Ingredients

  

• 3 tablespoons vegan butter
• 1 large onion chopped
• 2 stalks celery chopped
• ½ red yellow or other sweet pepper, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic minced
• ½ jalapeno minced
• 2 tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour
• ⅓ cup red wine*
• 1 cup chopped tomatoes
• ½ cup vegetable broth
• 2 teaspoons Creole or blackened seasoning or substitute 1 teaspoon each paprika and garlic, plus a pinch of cayenne
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 pound mushrooms chopped
• sprig of fresh thyme
• sea salt and freshly ground pepper

Instructions

 

• In a Dutch oven or soup pot, melt vegan butter over medium-high heat. When it starts to foam, add the chopped onion, chopped celery and chopped sweet pepper. Cook, stirring, for 3 to 5 minutes, or until vegetables begin to soften and turn golden.
• Add the minced garlic and jalapeno. Give a stir and cook until the vegetables begin to relax and turn fragrant.
• Sprinkle the unbleached flour over all — no need to sift — and continue stirring until vegetables are coated. Cook for another few minutes, until the flour absorbs all the vegetable juices and starts to toast.
• Add chopped tomatoes, wine, and broth.
• Stir to combine and continue cooking until mixture coalesces into a thick sauce. Add Creole seasoning and bay leaf. Keep stirring, reducing heat to medium should the etouffée start to stick to the bottom of the pot.
• Tumble in the chopped mushrooms and gently stir to combine. It may appear there’s not enough sauce to coat the mushrooms, but continue cooking for another 5 to 10 minutes. The mushrooms break down and soften under heat, producing their own rich broth.
• Stir so everything incorporates. Mushrooms and other vegetables should be tender, not mushy, and the gravy should be about the consistency of heavy cream — not gluey, not soupy. The mushrooms are smothered, not drowned. Add the leaves from a sprig of thyme, then season generously with sea salt and freshly ground pepper.

Notes

*If you don’t want to add wine, just use another 1/4 cup vegetable broth.

More Fun With Fungi

• Miso and mushrooms love each other.
• Bohemian Mushrooms
• Cat Head Biscuits and Gravy
• Jill Nussinow, aka The Veggie Queen, kindly shared this recipe. It’s what summer tastes like.
• Roasted mushrooms and mellow, creamy mashed beans come together in this genius recipe from Yotam Ottolenghi. 
• Ivy Manning’s mushroom pâté makes for a luscious starter. Tell everyone it’s vegan. 

Many thanks and a big batch of Mushroom Étouffée to the friends who helped with this post.

• Nava Atlas, cookbook author, artist and the driving force behind The Literary Ladies Guide.
• Laura Crabtree Hollenback, the bighearted artist who took the mushroom etouffée image as delicious as the dish itself.
• Jill Nussinow, mushroom maven, registered dietician and Instant pot expert.

Thank you for reading my vegan stories and plant-based recipes. I sincerely love to connect with listeners and would like to hear your feedback, takeaways, “ah-ha!” moments, etc in the comments.

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