Mushroom Meat

I used to rely on heavy-handed meat substitutes to give my meals that old, familiar texture and flavor that we all grew up on as the center of our 1980's meat-and-three dinners. As I shy away from more and more processed foods, I began looking for a way to get that same familiar result from my own kitchen. The solution for me was to take two things I already love, mushrooms and eggplant, and turn them into a multi-purpose "meat." It's so simple and requires little hands-on time. Make this in large batches, freeze what you don't use, and defrost it to add to tacos or burritos, fill ravioli, or cobble together a homemade veggie burger.

Mushroom Meat

Yields about 4 cups

3 cups finely chopped eggplant (about one medium, peeled)
3 cups finely chopped portobello mushroom (about three medium)
2 cups finely chopped white onion (about one)
2 bouillon cubes (like Not Beef brand)

1/4 cup olive oil
1/8 cup balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon garlic powder

1/8 teaspoon black pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. This is so simple if you use your food processor to do the chopping. Add roughly-chopped mushrooms, stems and all, to your food processor and pulse three or four times until finely chopped. You do not want to find the vegetables into a paste. The pieces should be about the size of a black-eyed pea. Dump processed mushrooms onto a large, parchment-lined, rimmed sheet pan (12x17). Pulse the roughly-chopped eggplant in the food processor in the same manner and dump it onto the sheet pan with the mushrooms. Repeat this process with the onion. 

Crumble the bouillon cubes on to the pile of processed vegetables. Drizzle the mound of mushrooms, eggplant and onion with the olive oil and vinegar. Using your hands, toss it all together. Spread the mixture evenly over the sheet pan. Sprinkle the mixture with garlic powder and pepper. Pop it into the oven for a total of 20 minutes. Remove and allow it to cool in the pan. Some eggplant will contain more water than others. If there is excess moisture in the bottom of the pan drain it off using a colander. Reserve the liquid to add to soups or stews. It's very flavorful.

For an Italian variation, add fresh herbs from the garden. To make a Mexican version, I add cumin to the mix along with a palmful of ancho chili powder and chipotle pepper. The possibilities are endless. Sub this for any recipe that calls for ground beef.

* cut olive oil in half 2/20