Rosemary Shallot Mushrooms

Sautéing mushrooms with some herbs and flavourings like rosemary and shallot creates a delicious side dish good on its own or that can be added to omelettes, pizza, pasta and panini or used to top steak, baked potatoes or rice bowls. The process seals the outside, browning the edges and keeps the insides juicy. Rosemary is a strong, woodsy herb that can stand up to the earthiness of mushrooms and impart just enough flavour to contrast them and compliment the sharpness of the shallot. Shallots are like small reddish onions and their taste is similar but a bit sweeter and more potent. They are from the same family as both onions and garlic and are a good option when you want that kind of flavour with a bit less harshness. Like onions they caramelize well, if you cook them for long enough they will start to soften, brown and become much sweeter.

I used shiitake and portobello mushrooms here but any kind work, as long as they are cut to relatively the same sizes. The smaller shiitake mushrooms are little power houses for our immunity systems and have been used in China for their medicinal properties for 6,000 years. Portobello mushrooms are part of the crimini family with smaller, regular brown mushrooms and like shiitake mushrooms they are good sources of selenium, a mineral that acts as an antioxidant in our bodies and a few different B vitamins.Adding in the rosemary during the cooking process is enough to impart its flavour and then it can be removed before eating. Either the cooked or a few fresh sprigs can be used as a garnish to offset the rather unattractive look of the cooked mushrooms.