Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms with Crispy Goat Cheese
Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms topped with marinara, sautéed spinach, and crispy panko goat cheese medallions. A delicious and easy vegetarian stuffed portobello mushroom recipe that is a reader favorite!
Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms
It has been nearly four years since I shared these amazing stuffed portobello mushrooms with you. These stuffed portobello mushrooms remain one of my favorite vegetarian recipes on this blog to date. It was high time they deserved some love and attention.
I’ve tested and re-tweaked the original recipe and procedure to make this dish easier to prepare (one less pot to clean!), as well as updated the post with new photos. These mushrooms have gotten a major facelift and I’m feeling it!
If you’ve never tried this recipe or are new to the site, be sure to bookmark or pin it for later. It has been a reader favorite for years!
These vegetarian portobello stuffed mushrooms are filled with marinara sauce (store-bought or homemade), sautéed spinach, and a crispy panko breadcrumb coated goat cheese medallions.
The trick to the crispy topping is to lightly sauté panko breadcrumbs with melted butter, finely chopped shallots, and garlic. What’s not to love, right?
Find my tips for recipe success, step-by-step instructions on how to make stuffed portobello mushrooms, and helpful equipment notes below.
How to Cook Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms:
Before filling portobello mushrooms, it is important to cook them through and remove some of their natural moisture.
All mushrooms, particularly portobello mushrooms, have a very high water content. Cooking them prior to filling allows the moisture to evaporate and concentrate their flavor.
This step also reduces the amount of liquid they will release later during the final reheating stage. For this recipe, the portobello mushrooms are roasted for 20 minutes at 450 degrees Fahrenheit, stem side facing up, on a standard sheet pan.
It is a very fast and efficient way to cook the portobello mushrooms and ensures that we don’t have one more pan to clean later.
While the mushrooms are roasting, you’ll want to prepare the mushroom filling components: the sautéed spinach and the crispy panko breadcrumb mixture.
How to Pick Portobello Mushrooms:
When picking portobello mushrooms, look for completely firm caps and gills. The skin should be dry and unbruised. Shriveled, bruised, or moist mushrooms should be avoided as they are past their prime.
While you can adjust this recipe to work for any size portobello mushroom, I recommend finding large portobello mushrooms that are roughly 4-inches in diameter and have slightly deeper caps for filling. This will make them easier to stuff.
This recipe calls for 8 large portobello mushrooms. The mushrooms will shrink considerably once cooked.
If you’re serving these as a main course, I recommend at least two stuffed portobello mushrooms per person.
If you’re serving these mushrooms as a side dish or with grains, etc., you can halve this recipe and serve one mushroom per person. It really depends on your appetite!
Tips for Recipe Success:
- If you do not enjoy the texture of mushroom gills, you can remove and discard them prior to roasting.
- To make this recipe extra time-friendly, use a high quality store-bought marinara sauce (thicker is better!). I highly recommend Rao’s Homemade brand. You can also use homemade marinara as well. Please see recipe notes for a basic recipe.
- Be sure to use chilled soft goat cheese (4-ounce log) for this recipe. Keeping the cheese chilled allows it to be more easily sliced into medallions and coated in breadcrumb mixture. I love the tangy, unique flavor that goat cheese lends to this recipe, but you can substitute with other favorite cheeses, such as mozzarella or whole fat ricotta.
- Make This Recipe Gluten-Free: Replace the panko breadcrumbs with a gluten-free breadcrumb mixture.
Tools I Used For This Recipe:
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- standard aluminum half sheet pan
- cooling rack that fits within a sheet pan (*optional, but using one will ensure the mushrooms do not sit in any liquid released during cooking)
- Rao’s homemade marinara sauce (the only brand of store-bought sauce that I enjoy and love)
- panko breadcrumbs
Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms with Crispy Goat Cheese
Ingredients
For the Mushrooms:
- 8 large (4-inch wide) portobello mushrooms stems trimmed (*see notes)
- extra virgin olive oil
- kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
For the Sautéed Spinach:
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 1 shallot finely sliced
- 6 ounces baby spinach
- kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
For the Crispy Breadcrumb Topping:
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 shallot finely diced
- ½ cup panko breadcrumbs
- 1 garlic clove finely minced
- kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
For Assembly:
- 1½ cups (12 ounces) high-quality store-bought (or homemade) marinara sauce I recommend Rao's brand (*see recipe notes)
- 4 ounce goat cheese cold from the fridge
Instructions
- Roast the Portobello Mushrooms: Preheat the oven to 450°F (230°C) with a rack in the center position. Lightly spray or brush a standard sheet pan with olive oil. Distribute the portobello mushrooms, stem side up, on the baking sheet and brush or spray lightly with olive oil. Season with salt and pepper. Roast for 15 to 25 minutes (*this time will vary depending on the size of your mushrooms, check after 10 minutes or so to be sure), or until tender. If any moisture collects in the mushroom caps, carefully drain and discard. Set mushrooms aside on a large plate as you prepare the filling and crispy panko breadcrumb topping.
- Prepare the Sautéed Spinach: Heat the oil in a large sauté pan over medium-low heat. Add the sliced shallots and sauté for 3 to 4 minutes, stirring frequently, or until soft and translucent. Add the baby spinach, increase the heat to medium-high. Sauté until just wilted, stirring continuously. Season with salt and pepper and set aside.
- Prepare the Crispy Breadcrumb Topping: Melt the butter in a small sauté pan over medium heat. Once the butter is just beginning to sizzle, add the chopped shallots and a pinch of salt and cook for 1 to 2 minutes, stirring continuously. Add the panko breadcrumbs and minced garlic, and toast for three to four minutes, stirring constantly to prevent the breadcrumbs from burning, or until the breadcrumbs are very light golden in color. Transfer to a shallow bow and season to taste with salt and pepper.
- Assembly: Reduce the oven temperature to 425°F (220°C). Line the same sheet pan with parchment paper (*note: if you have a baking rack that can be set within a baking sheet, I prefer to place the mushrooms on this, as it helps prevent the mushrooms from sitting in any juice that releases during cooking).
- Distribute the roasted mushrooms, stem side up, on the sheet pan, in the center of the sheet pan so that they are just touching each other. Fill each mushroom with a large spoonful of marinara sauce. Distribute the sautéed spinach evenly among the mushrooms, spooning it on top of the sauce.
- Slice the goat cheese into ½-inch thick slices (roughly half an ounce). It may crumble a bit, but do your best to keep it in a roughly round slice. Carefully press the goat cheese slices, on both sides, in the panko breadcrumb topping and place on top of each mushroom. Sprinkle the mushrooms with the remaining breadcrumb mixture.
- Bake at 425°F (220°C) for 10 to 15 minutes or until heated through and the breadcrumbs are golden brown and goat cheese is just beginning to soften. Be careful to ensure that the breadcrumbs do not burn. Serve immediately.
Video
Homemade Marinara Sauce:
- Using large saucepan, heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Once the oil is warm, add the 4 cloves roughly chopped garlic, stirring continuously for 30 seconds, making sure that the garlic does not brown (this is essential). Add 2 tablespoons tomato paste and stir over low heat for a minute or so, stirring continously. Add 2 dried bay leaves and 1 tablespoon dried oregano to the pan, and 1 (28 ounce) can Italian crushed tomatoes, stir together, and bring to low simmer. Cover and simmer sauce for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Tips for Success:
- When picking portobello mushrooms, look for completely firm caps and gills. The skin should be dry and unbruised. Shriveled, bruised, or moist mushrooms should be avoided as they are past their prime. While you can adjust this recipe to work for any size portobello mushroom, I recommend finding large portobello mushrooms that are roughly 4-inches wide and have slightly deeper caps for filling. This will make them easier to stuff.
- If you do not enjoy the texture of mushroom gills, you can remove and discard them prior to roasting.
- These stuffed portobello mushrooms are hearty enough to be served on their own with a simple salad. I find that 2 stuffed mushrooms per serving work well. If you serve these as a side, you can get away with just 1 stuffed mushroom per person.
182 Comments on “Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms with Crispy Goat Cheese”
This was delicious! I just did it in the air fryer to save time and keep the kitchen cool, and it came together brilliantly for an easy (but sorta fancy) lunch!
Awesome! Haven’t heard of people making this in the air fryer before, so glad it worked out well! Thanks for the feedback!!
I used Swiss Chard instead of spinach and loved it.
Hello Laura,
I’m not sure how I stumbled upon this recipe but I am so glad that I did. My husband prepared 4 of these Portobello mushrooms and they were simply the best! Yum! The crispy goat cheese madillions compliments all of the ingredients very well. Thank you for sharing your recipe. A beautiful plate indeed!!
Jerae 🙂
This is my favorite dish!
My husband hates mushrooms so whenever he leaves for a long trip this is the first thing I make. I feel like I am treating myself to a fancy dinner.
Thank you!
Just made this for my family of 5… 1 year old, 5 years old, 8 years old, and my husband. Everyone LOVED it! I checked my food at all the minimum cook times and those worked perfectly for me. Thank you:)
These are amazing, and I’ve made them many times , so thank you! Great if you want to impress for a small luncheon. I have used fresh mozzarella when I can’t get goat cheese. I have also added lump crab meat to the butter and bread crumb topping to kick it up a notch; it really compliments the dish!
20 pages of paper to print the recipe from the website and I stopped at 20 pages, there was more!!!
Just give us the recipe. Your experience doesn’t count, most people are going to change your original work, anyway, do it their own way, which, no doubt, will be sooooo much better according to their eval!!
Tried the “print the recipe” function… it wanted to download something to my computer before I could print. No, no, no.
I have absolutely no idea why you’re so angry with me, but the print button within my recipe card opens up the print page automatically (and ONLY prints the recipe).
And yes, I also provide all this content and convenience for free.
Wow so you’re using her recipe and then telling her how she should write it, insulting and complaining because you printed it wrong! Lol people are crazy.
Great recipe!!!
Will these be good the next day?! I have leftovers.
Yes, definitely! If you have an air fryer you could definitely pop them in there (or a toaster oven, something like that). If you just want to be quick, a little zip in the microwave is fine too – just the breadcrumbs won’t recrisp in this. Hope this helps!
450 degrees for 20 minutes ruined my caps. It ended up being very chewy. bummer!
I’m sorry to hear that! To be fair, my recipe instructions indicate to check on the mushrooms after just 10 minutes, as the size and thickness of whatever size mushrooms people choose will determine the cook time, and only specifies 15 – 20 minutes at the max. Also, if an oven tends to run hot, that would also impact the cook time.
I apologize that you weren’t happy with the outcome, but tried to be fairly clear in my recipe to avoid this issue.
Can the dish be brought to a bbq assembles and then cooked later.
I would leave off the breadcrumbs until the end, but yes, this should work!
These look amazing! I plan to make them this weekend. Can I put them on the bbq instead of grilling in the oven?
Yes, you can grill them too!
A great and filling vegetarian recipe. The goat cheese was so delicious. I wish I had left overs. Can’t wait to make again!
So glad you enjoyed it!
Amazing! Love the combinations of the flavors and textures. The tip of precooking the mushroom caps makes all the difference. Thank you! Made it the first time for Valentines Day for my husband, it exceeded my expectations. Making it again for the guests. Making slight adjustments to the sauteed spinach, sauteed garlic slices until crisp, then added spinach. YUMMY
Loved this so much! I made it two nights ago and had leftover breadcrumbs and sauce, but no more portobellos. So tonight I sautéed some sliced mushrooms I had on hand and put them as the base in individual ramekins, then followed with the remaining steps. Also beautiful presentation and delicious!!
I’m so happy to hear that! Thanks so much Rebecca and really appreciate you taking the time to come back and leave a recipe review.
I made this for friends tonight. I followed the instructions and the tips for success. I had to do a few ingredient replacements like baby kale and leeks for spinach and shallots and crushed Oval brand stoned wheat thins and scallions in place of panko bread crumbs and shallots- but my friends said it was the best vegetarian meal they had ever been served. Thanks for making me look so good. 😉
Wow! Such a compliment and love that you made it your own too. Thank you for leaving a comment and feedback! I really appreciate it.
Made this dish tonight and it was fabulous! I’ve never been great at following recipes but I loved these ingredients. Followed steps 1 and 2 (didn’t have shallots so I used red onion and garlic). Assembled as though it were a pan of lasagna – put sauce on the bottom, arranged roasted portobellos, covered portobellos with sauce, spread sauteed spinach on top, then sprinkled with feta cheese and shredded mozzarella (since that was what I had). Baked until melted and heated through. Still beautiful to serve and easy to make. My hubby said it was great. Will make this again. Thank you so much!
So glad you enjoyed it, and love how you adapted the method to suit you 🙂
How long ahead of time can you assemble these without getting soggy? Id like to heat them as an appetizer before guests arrive
Hi Linda,
Sorry for the delay in getting back to you! Are you planning on making them full size? Or smaller using baby Bellas? I would prep all the components separately if possible, but you could probably assemble them at least an hour prior and they would be fine. There isn’t much that would get soggy – with the exception of the breadcrumb mixture.
Very yummy! I was slightly confused by the layout of the recipe but now that I understand it I am good to go. I added more cheese and panko. Super delic! Thank you.
I just made this with a couple of changes and it was to die for. I added garlic to the shallots and sautéed spinach and added a roasted red pepper on top of spinach before breadcrumbs and goat cheese. I will make this over and over. My husband cannot believe he had a meatless meal and he’s stuffed. Love this recipe.
This recipe was wonderful. Made it for my mom and granddaughter. Both want me to make it again and again and again! Loved it!
I am a long time cook for my wife and myself and we both have been vegetarian, though not vegan, for many years. My challenge as a cook are compounded by her being both celiac and dairy alergic, though fortunately she can eat goat cheese. With the one obvious modification of substituting gluten free panko bread crumbs, this is easily made into a gluten free recipe.
I am generally a ‘free-style’ cook, who my wife insists is far better and innovative Celiac cook then any restaurant /recipes we have found. Atypically I pretty much followed your recipe. The king has been deposed! If this was not the best dish meeting those requirements , I do not remember it. Thanks for a wonderful meal even at the cost of my crown!
Thank you so much for sharing! This was perfect for a hearty, delicious, low-prep winter weeknight dinner. Delicious!