The Homegrown Gourmet: Portobello Pizzeti

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Portobello Pizzeti

The Portobello mushroom makes a great platform for building a healthy little personal pizza. They are large enough to hold toppings and meaty enough to withstand baking without falling apart. Plus...they are delicious! One portobello has as much potassium as a large banana. For those with high blood pressure potassium plays a crucial role in escorting sodium out of the body and thereby helping to decrease blood pressure. If you take a NON potassium sparing diuretic, chronically low potassium levels can cause Hypokalemia. Potassium rich foods include dark leafy greens, mushrooms, oranges, legumes, tomatoes, kiwi, peaches and bananas of course! Not that this article is specifically about potassium but...one of the best sources of potassium and my personal favorite is young green coconut water. I'll take that on in another post soon!

As to our recipe...there is no grain crust for these pizzeti or "little pizzas". The mushroom caps are the "crust". Filled with low fat, high protein ground white turkey and low sodium, lycopene rich marinara sauce; they certainly aren't missing any of the flavor! I use reduced fat (organic) mozzarella cheese but if you have dairy allergies you could substitute a rice milk based cheese product. Check the label for the words casein, caseinates or whey even on cheeses that claim to be non-dairy. These ARE milk proteins and will aggrivate your dairy allergy.

Portobello Pizzeti

8 extra large organic portobello caps

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 lb. organic ground turkey breast

1 medium onion, diced

1 medium green bell pepper, diced

2 cloves pressed garlic

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1 teaspoon dried Italian Herb blend

1 1/2 cups Muir Glen organic Marinara Sauce

1 cup organic reduced fat shredded mozzarella cheese

*I always have homemade marinara in my freezer but I realize everyone doesn't so I wrote the recipe using Muir Glen for the sake of figuring out the nutritonal content of the dish.

**Using a dark/white ground turkey blend will significantly affect the fat content of this dish

Heat a large saute pan over medium high heat and add olive oil. Break up ground turkey into the hot skillet and cook until most of the pink is gone. Stir in chopped onions, bell peppers and garlic. Saute 3-5 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Season with black pepper and Italian herbs.

Stir 1 cup of the marinara sauce into the turkey mixture.

Set the prepared turkey aside and clean the mushrooms. Wipe with a damp towel to remove any loose dirt. Remove stems and scrape out dark "gills" with a spoon.

Place prepared musroom caps in baking dishes. You will probably need two to hold all 8 mushrooms. Divide turkey mixture evenly among the 8 portobellos.