Name: Caramelized Mushrooms with Pesto Guacamole
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 12 min
Total time: 22 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 2 lbs. mushrooms (white button and baby bellas work well, cleaned, stems removed and halved or quartered if they are large.); 1/2 large yellow onion (sliced); 1/2 tablespoon butter; 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil; 4 cups tightly packed kale (stems removed); 1 cup spinach; 1 clove of garlic; juice of 1/2 lemon; 3 tablespoons pine nuts; 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil; salt & pepper; 1/2 avocado

So not to rub it in or anything but right now I’m in the sunny Dominican Republic, in my new bathing suit that despite my first attempts at trying on upside down, (it’s a halter top, I’ll let you picture my stupidity with that)fits perfectly, most likely sitting on a lounge chair by the pool waiting for a reasonable hour before attacking the bartender at the swim up bar.

Although all this is contingent upon my groupon purchase working out and not arriving to a place with no record of our reservation.

I’m only slightly concerned with that after an “OK- CONFIRM” email with nothing else in it from the hotel.

I brushed up my Spanish vocab in hotel nomenclature before coming fully anticipating something going wrong.

And here you are getting caramelized mushrooms.

I’d say I’m sorry but really, I’m not because these are not your normal ‘shrooms.

It’s so unfortunate that so many people don’t do the fungi.

I’m fully convinced it’s because they just haven’t had them prepared well.

And by well, I mean caramelized with some onions in butter and olive oil. It’s that simple. Or, air fried mushrooms. Those are pretty amazing too.

The only complication?

YOU CAN’T TOUCH THEM ONCE THEY’RE IN THE PAN.

Seriously, walk away from the pan, let them do their thing for about 10 minutes and the result will be perfectly caramelized mushrooms, not soggy bland ones that are reminiscent of a bad pizza topping choice. Assuming you cleaned the mushrooms properly and didn’t soak them in water trying to get the dirt off.

This goes for pretty much all mushrooms. I talk about it more in this lion’s mane mushroom recipe. In fact, those would be a great swap for the mushrooms in this recipe too.

caramelized mushrooms served with a green pesto guacamole

And because Bev totally had me drooling with her idea of kale pesto guacamole the other week, you should definitely do that too. It takes the term “side dish” to a whole other level.

I mixed some chicken sausage in and called it a meal.

If given the choice, I’d still take my piña something or another in the sunny DR over this, but it’s a close call.

Seriously.

Inspired & adapted from Bev Cooks.