One of my guilty pleasures is cookery programs. Yes, I like to make food and then eat it whilst watching other people make food, strange I know but satisfying and surprisingly homely, especially around this time of year. Anyway, many months ago I saw a recipe involving shiitake mushrooms and learnt that they can be a good source of protein. Now, I’d eaten shiitake mushrooms before and knew what they were, but I never bought them or cooked them, partly (as strange as it may sound) because I didn’t know how best to cook them. Do they take the same amount of time as ordinary mushrooms? Do they need to be washed or prepared? Stupid really, but hey that’s what I thought. I stumbled across them in my local supermarket and thought I’d try them out; here is the result.

I’ve made this recipe several times and made a few minor changes to it, the recipe is very similar to my Mediterranean Vegetable Salad (as the basis of it is cauliflower rice, courgettes and aubergine) but the addition of mushrooms and an Asian inspired  dressing turn it into something new and very delicious. The recipe is perfect for vegetarians and vegans, in fact I recently made this for a vegan friend of mine and he really enjoyed it, I hope you will too. As with most of my recipes, if you want to make a larger quantity simply add more vegetables, I’d recommend doubling the vegetables and increasing the mushrooms by half.

Shiitake Vegetable Salad
with
Wasabi & Sesame Dressing

Preparation to plate: 50 minutes

Serves 4-8 people

Keep refrigerated

Consume within 3 days

Ingredients:

2 Aubergines, chopped

2 Courgettes, chopped

1 Large Cauliflower, for cauliflower rice

1 Pack of Shiitake Mushrooms, chopped (approximately 125g)

1 Pack of Chestnut Mushrooms, chopped (approximately 200g)

1 Large White Onion, chopped

1 Large Garlic Clove, grated

Wasabi Paste

Sesame Oil, cold pressed

Coconut Oil

Coconut Aminos/Soy Sauce (optional)

White Pepper

Salt

Recipe:

Preheat the oven to 200ºC. Heat two teaspoons of coconut oil in heavy bottomed pan and cook the onion to start make the cauliflower rice, once these onions are translucent add the blitzed cauliflower (see Cauliflower Rice if this is your first time cooking paleo). In a wok or skillet add one teaspoon of coconut oil and fry up the courgette pieces over a high heat until they start to brown, they should ideally still have some bite to them.

Once the oven is preheated put the aubergine on a baking tray and pour over 2 tablespoons of melted coconut oil before roasting for 10-12 minutes. After the aubergine is cooked, add to the courgettes along with the mushrooms and continue to cook over a medium-high heat.

Once the mushrooms are cooked add the cauliflower rice to the mix (or add the vegetables to the cauliflower rice, which ever is the bigger of the two pans) and mix together.

In a small dish mix together four tablespoons of sesame oil with one teaspoon of wasabi paste using a fork or small whisk. If you’re using coconut aminos/soy sauce then use two table spoons of sesame oil, three table spoons of the aminos/soy and one teaspoon of wasabi paste.

The sauce is best poured fresh so I don’t recommended that you pour it over the whole batch, unless you intend to eat the whole batch now. Serve in a bowl and enjoy.