Portobello mushroom burger

All week I've made some E2L recipes either from, Eat To Live or from the Eat For Health Cookbook. 

Today I decided to try something different.  I made a portobello mushroom burger for my dh.

I, of course had to have one too.  hee hee  I also included some baked sweet-potato fries with the burger, and oh what a treat!  Both of these recipes are from, The Engine 2 Diet which my husbands been reading.  If you read yesterday's post, you know he just started eating a heathy diet on Monday.   The burger was very filling; I almost couldn't finish it. 

The picture above is a toasted whole-wheat thin bun, spread with hummus on both halves.  I topped one side with torn romaine pieces with a slice of tomato on top of that.  There's no sodium in the buns and only a very small amount of fat.  Not perfect, but not bad either.  My hfs doesn't carry buns or rolls, or if they did they weren't on the shelf.

The picture to the left has some carmelized onions atop the other half.  I water sauteed one onion which wasn't part of the recipe, but since my dh loves onions, I decided to add them to the burger for added flavor.  There was extra onion left over after topping both burgers so next time I'll probably use a small onion instead.

The recipe had you oven roast the mushroom.  I only used a little vegan worcestershire sauce and not the tamari sauce or the beer.  It came out of the oven with quite a bit of moisture, so I was glad I decided  to toast the bun.  I think next time what I'll do is marinate the portobello for a couple hours in some balsamic vinegar, onion powder, garlic powder, and whatever else strikes my fancy and then grill it .

The portobello is now on the bun.  I thought about what else I should add to the burger, but decided it was already going to be stacked high enough without being too cumbersome so I decided not to add salsa or avocado which I really wanted to do. :) Next time I will definitely be adding the salsa. 

If I and dh were at our goal weight I'd also add the avocado, but since we aren't, that would have been way too much since we add avocado every other day to our evening salad.

The sweet-potato fries were delicious, even though the texture wasn't crunchy like a fry.  But they were oh so sweet.  I could have made a meal with only the fries.  :)  The picture to the left is 2 medium sweet potatoes cut up into fries.  They just barely fit on the pan and that was the largest one I had. 

I baked them in the oven for a tad too long - the ends were a little over cooked.  Here again I altered the recipe a bit.   I added some seasoning to coat them for some added flavor.  The recipe recommended using a casserole dish, but I didn't think they'd cook right if I did that. So I sprayed a sheet pan with an olive oil spray to help the potatoes to not stick to the pan and it worked pretty well.

All in all it was a very tasty dish, and we both enjoyed it.  We will be eating this again with the added changes I mentioned. 
Portobello mushroom burger

4 Portobello mushrooms, rinsed
Low-sodium tamari
Vegetarian Worcestershire sauce
Splash of beer (optional)
Cracked pepper to taste
1 large red onion, sliced into thin rounds
4 whole grain buns
Dijon mustard or Healthy Homemade Hummus

Tomato slices, lettuce, spinach, or other favorites

1.Preheat oven to 450º
2.Snap the stems off the mushrooms.
3.Place the mushrooms face-up on a baking sheet.
4.Splash a few drops of tamari and Worcestershire (beer splash is optional) into each cap.
5.Place the stems into the caps.
6.Cook in a casserole dish for 10–15 minutes, until the mushrooms are soft and filled with liquid. Enjoy the stems as starters!
7.Cook the onion rounds on high heat in a sprayed skillet for 5 minutes, stirring often, until wilted and brown.
8.Spread the buns with Dijon mustard or hummus.
9.Place each mushroom on a toasted bun with cooked onion, tomato, lettuce or spinach, and your favorite fixings.
10.Serve with healthy fries.

Sweet Potato Fries

2 sweet potatoes with skins on, scrubbed and sliced into strips (I peeled mine - next time I'll leave the skins on and maybe they'll crunch up a bit.)


1.Preheat oven to 450º
2.Place the potato slices on a sprayed baking sheet and cover with aluminum foil.
3.Cook for 30–40 minutes, turning once.
4.Remove the foil after 20 minutes to allow the slices to brown.