>>I love a good vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free recipe that I can use with my friends.

So this recipe is so adaptable and I just want to share how simple it can be to make a really great entree that's just right for your friends who are gluten-free, vegan or vegetarian or if they just want a healthy option.

So in my bowl here I have five ounces of spinach.

I sprinkled it with about a quarter to a half teaspoon of salt.

I'm gonna add two tablespoons of water, cover it with plastic wrap, stick it in my microwave for two minutes while I prepare my mushrooms.

Now let's get our mushrooms ready.

The first thing you wanna do is just take a paper towel.

It doesn't have to be wet, but just kind of dust off any dirt that you have on the mushroom.

As you dust it, you'll notice that the paper towel actually becomes a little bit moist.

So let's just pull that all together, make sure all the dirt is off.

Now with these mushrooms, portobellos, you always want to take out the gills and the stems so any of that excess dirt that falls into the gills will hopefully be coming out.

So while that spinach is steaming, just a couple of minutes, I first want to take out my stem.

You just give a little press right there on the stem and it pulls right out.

Now I like to chop my stem so I can use them in this filling, and then we want to take out any of that just rubbery kind of edge.

Sometimes it almost feels like a foam.

And then with a spoon, you can see these gills right here.

That's what captures all of that dirt that falls into the mushroom.

So we want to just kind of come around the edge and pull all those gills right out and this is what it's gonna look like.

It almost looks like dirt.

We want to pull that out and then just clean up the inside.

There we go, I've got all of that out.

You can see now that it's a nice smooth finish.

What I wanna do now is something that a lot of people don't think about, but I do because I make a lot of mushroom appetizers.

I want to poke a couple of holes in the bottom of this mushroom.

That way the moisture from all of these things has a chance to start to run out and you don't end up with a soupy mushroom.

So I've got two holes in it.

Now let's go about making that filling.

First thing I wanna do is get some garlic ready.

Now, when you buy garlic, make sure that the garlic bulb is nice and tight.

When it starts to split apart and you're seeing each individual clove of garlic, that garlic has started to dry out and the flavor will not be that great.

So let's just cut down through the top.

There we go.

And cut all the way around if you can.

I'm gonna use all this garlic today so I don't mind trimming off all that top part.

Then I just want to take my knife and give a little whack like that, that separates all of those cloves and let's put our mushroom over on our pan.

There we go, now we can just kind of peel back and we have some great cloves of garlic.

Just pull away all of that papery part that grows.

There we go.

Got one there.

I've got another right here.

These are big cloves of garlic and I want about four large cloves of garlic.

So this is great.

That's two, three, four.

So to chop your garlic, it's really important that you cut the root ball piece off.

You cut that first, and then if your peel doesn't come automatically, and usually it doesn't, give it a little whack just like that.

And what happens is all the oil that's natural in the garlic will come up to the surface and it just releases that clove, just like that.

All right, so let's mince up this garlic.

Now to do that, it's pretty simple.

All you have to do is squash it really well with the side of your knife.

Let's just give it a good squash.

There we go.

Once in a while you get a little jumper, be ready to catch it.

Okay, so now we have this garlic that's partially minced already, right?

It's partially chopped because we've cut it, squashed it, and now all we have to do is mince through and you wanna mince this garlic really, really well because you don't wanna get a chunk of garlic in this recipe.

There we go.

All right, so we've got that ready.

I've chopped up my stems.

I have some breadcrumbs and some onion, let's get that spinach.

So here we have our steamed spinach.

You can see it's nicely wilted but it still has beautiful color.

I just wanna pull back that paper and drain and what I usually do is pull from both sides.

That way, the water doesn't collect in a big bubble.

What I'm looking for here is a little bit drier spinach.

So I want to take a couple of paper towels, just kind of grab my spinach.

Be careful because it will be hot and make sure any excess water just gets dripped off.

There we go.

Another tablespoon or so and then I want to just lightly chop this.

Now I'm gonna chop it right in with the garlic 'cause it's all going to the same place.

And just run your knife through a few times.

And there we go.

Pretty nicely chopped garlic and then you can put it right back in that bowl where you steamed.

Now let's mix in our other ingredients.

So simple, I love this recipe.

It is just so simple.

You can use the stems or don't use the stems.

If you don't wanna use the stems, then you need about 16 ounces of spinach steamed to do four really nice sized portobellos.

Then we're gonna take some breadcrumbs.

Now if your friends are gluten free, use gluten free.

This is about a half cup.

There we go, just get that mixed in and then some onion, about a third cup of onion.

And I like for the onion to be about the same size as the portobello stems.

Now you don't need a binder for this, so we're not looking for egg or anything like that.

This really is more about the moisture, the vegetables, the deliciousness of all of it together and then I'm gonna take some salt and pepper and I'm going to use my mixed salt and pepper, half salt, half pepper, about a half teaspoon right there.

Now let's stuff those mushrooms.

I have four nice portobello mushrooms here.

Remember, I've put the holes in the bottom so they are ready to be baked.

So let's just kind of fill and what I'm gonna do is take a good size scoop per mushroom to start, and then we'll go back and fill in with everything we have left.

Mm, so good.

Now this is really great with the cider I'm serving it with.

Hewes crab apples have become really important in the Virginia cider industry and this happens to be a Hewes Crab apple cider.

And I love using Hewes Crab because it just has a boldness about it that really works well with these vegetarian dishes.

Particularly works well with mushrooms.

Now I have Parmesan cheese that I'm going to use.

There's great vegan Parmesan cheese on the market.

So if your friends are vegan and you think they'd like the taste of cheese, use it.

If they don't like the taste of vegan cheese, just bake them just like this.

I'm gonna take about two tablespoons per mushroom.

There we go.

I have just a little bit left and I want to bake these at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes.

So here's our beautiful stuffed mushroom.

Oh, it looks so good.

Ah, can't wait to taste this.

I just love portobellos and I love spinach.

And Parmesan is one of my favorite cheeses.

Mm, so good.

Mm, this is so good.

It's meaty without having any meat.

Now let's try it with the Hewes Crab apple.

(relaxing music) Oh yeah.

This particular apple with portobello mushroom and spinach, it's a natural.

So I hope you'll enjoy this recipe.

(relaxing music)