Meatless Mushroom "Stroganoff"

This meatless dish does noodles right! Each bite is a silky mouthful of pure bliss. I devoured 2 helpings and was terribly sorry I didn't cook up the rest. Cooking creamy dishes for one can be a bit of a challenge. What do you do with leftovers? "Creamy" doesn't freeze well at all. My solution? Make the "base" of the sauce, pop it in the freezer and when ready to prepare a creamy dish, defrost the base, heat it up and add the creaminess! This recipe has been in my recipe box for years. In fact, my mom had this in her weekly rotation because it was always such a crowd pleaser.

The balance of earthy flavors makes each bite a meaty, unctuous, tangy and flavorful experience.  I foresee rotating this dish into my weekly recipe run as well. I hope you do too! 

Here's the cast of characters, minus 1 garlic clove.

Saute garlic and onion. Then add mushrooms.

Add 4-6 tablespoons of sour cream, dill, chives, wine and vinegar. For the sour cream, start with 4 T and add more if needed. Add some noodle water to moisten.

Stir in noodles. Add a little more noodle water to moisten, warm through and serve!

Cooking for one? Prepare the "base", freeze 1/2 the recipe and add 1/2 the sour cream when ready to make the rest. 

TIPS: 

• Cooking for one? Sauté the mushrooms following the recipe until done. Remove from the heat, add the wine, dill, scallion and vinegar (basically everything but sour cream).  Freeze 1/2 the "base" but prepare the rest using 1/2 the sour cream for dinner. When ready, thaw the frozen "base", turn out into a skillet, add 1/2 the sour cream and heat over medium for 8 minutes or until flavors are blended. Add a little water as needed. 
• Don't like a strong mushroom flavor? Substitute more button mushrooms for the portobello.
• Prepare fettuccine or bow tie pasta instead of noodles if you wish.

THE RECIPE:
Per serving:
351 cal; 11.2 g. total fat; 4.1 g. saturated fa; 0 g. trans fat; 61 mg. cholesterol; 54 mg. sodium; 892 mg. potassium; 51.3 g carb.; 4.4 g. sugar; 13.3 g. protein. 

1 T unsalted butter

2 large garlic cloves, smashed, pealed and sliced

1 small yellow onion, chopped

8 ounces button mushrooms, thickly sliced (I bought mine already sliced)

.75 pound of portobello mushrooms, thickly sliced or chopped into 1/4 inch pieces (I used a 3/4 pounds portobello mushroom caps)

salt and pepper to taste

4-6 T reduced-fat sour cream (I used Breakstone and 4 T)

2 T fresh dill, minced (use a little more for garnish if you wish)

2 T scallion (retain 1 T for garnish)

2 T white wine or sherry

1/2 t apple cider vinegar

tiny pinch of freshly ground nutmeg (literally run the nut over the grater 2x)

8 ounces no yolk noodles or egg noodles

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat a large skillet over medium heat. Wipe off mushrooms to remove dirt. Remove gills from portobello if you like (I didn't). Add butter and olive oil to pan. Once butter is melted, add garlic and onion. Sauté for 3 minutes. Add mushrooms and cook for 5 minutes. Start a pot of water to cook the noodles. Meanwhile, season mushrooms with salt and pepper to taste. Cook another 6 minutes or until mushrooms are cooked down.  Add noodles to the boiling water pot. To mushrooms, add 4 T sour cream, dill, 1 T scallion,  wine, vinegar and nutmeg. Add the remaining sour cream if the mixture is too dense. Stir to combine, reduce heat to low and cook for 10 minutes. Take a little of the noodle water and keep to the side. While the mushrooms are cooking for the 10 minutes, add 2 T of the noodle water. Once cooked, turn off heat and finish cooking the noodles. Drain noodles, add to the skillet, turn heat to medium and add 2 T more of noodle water if the mixture is dry. Heat up, garnish with additional scallions and serve!