I think my mom came up with this recipe because she had a bunch of mushrooms she needed to use before they went bad. This probably isn't her exact recipe but is fairly close (I lost the email she sent with the recipe when my computer died). My mom and I are not very good at measuring when we come up with recipes. We generally throw in a little of this, a bunch of that, a smidge of this, etc. It's been an effort for me to actually pay attention to how much of everything I throw into a new dish, both for the sake of sharing my recipes and also logging them accurately into my diet software.
This soup was nice and hearty and made a very filling meal all by itself. I estimated it at 4 servings, which turned out to be pretty nice sized bowls. If you are only eating it as a side to a meal, you should divide it into smaller portions.
Mom's Mushroom Clam Chowder
1/2 small onion
1 stalk of celery
4 oz mushrooms (I used 1/2 portabella and 1/2 button)
2 cloves of garlic
4 slices bacon
1 1/2 cup heavy cream
1 cup clam juice (1 bottle was 1 cup)
2 10z cans of clams (I used 1 can chopped and 1 can whole baby clams)
2 tsp celery salt
1 tsp black pepper
1/8 tsp nutmeg or allspice (Mom's secret ingredient)
pinch of cayenne pepper
low carb thickener of choice (guar gum, xanthum gum, Thicken Thin-Not Starch)
1) Chop onions, celery and mushrooms into chunks. The size of the chunks is really up to you. I diced my celery and onions fairly fine and left the mushrooms a bit chunkier.
2) Dice garlic.
2) Slice bacon into chunks.
3) Toss bacon into the bottom of your soup pot and fry until crisp. Remove with a slotted spoon to a paper towel.
4) Toss the celery, onions and mushrooms into the pot and saute in the bacon fat.
5) Once veggies are soft, toss the garlic in and cook for a few minutes.
6) Add cream, clam juice, spices and bacon. Stir and heat on medium heat.
7) Once the soup is warm, use thickener of choice to thicken the soup. The best way to do this is to add a little bit of thickener at a time (I put mine in a salt shaker), whisk and wait a minute. Repeat until the soup is the desired thickness. It's best to be patient adding the thickener, because if you add too much it'll become gummy and nasty.
8) Simmer for about a 1/2 hour then serve and enjoy.
Nutrition Information per serving (as calculated by DietPower):
Assuming 4 servings:
Calories 413, Carbohydrates 7.79 g (Fiber 1.72 g, Sugars 1.15 g), Fat 37.2 g (Saturated 21.7 g, Polyunsaturated 1.83 g, Monounsaturated 11.1 g, Trans 0 g), Protein 14.9 g, Cholesterol 157 mg, Sodium 400 mg, Potassium 526 mg
This is a pretty easy recipe I threw together that I like to serve as a side dish. I usually only eat 2 at a time because they are very rich and filling.
Low Carb Stuffed Mushrooms
8 average size button mushrooms (the 8 oz packages usually have 8 mushrooms)
3 slices bacon
1/4 medium onion, finely chopped (this worked out to be about 1 oz of onion)
3 oz cream cheese (I used the garden vegetable flavor), softened.
1 oz shredded cheddar cheese
Garlic salt
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
1) Gently wipe off any dirt from the mushrooms using a paper towel or mushroom brush (do not wash!).
2) Remove the stems from the mushrooms, leaving a hollow in the mushrooms to hold the stuffing.
3) Finely chop the mushroom stems.
4) Fry the bacon in a skillet until crispy. Remove the bacon, wrap in a couple of paper towels and allow to cool.
5) Toss the onion and mushroom stems into the bacon grease. Sprinkle on a couple dashes of garlic salt and saute until the onion is clear.
6) Crumble or chop the cooked bacon pieces. I like the pieces to be fairly small so I don't end up with huge chunks of bacon in my filling.
7) Mix the bacon pieces, sauteed onions and mushroom stems, cream cheese and shredded cheddar together in a bowl.
8) Stuff each mushroom cavity with a generous spoonful of the cheese mixture.
9) Bake in the oven for about 30 minutes, until the mushrooms release their juices.
10) Finish off for a few minutes under the broiler to brown the tops of the mushrooms.
Experiment with different flavors of the cheeses. I think next time I might try spinach and artichoke cream cheese with parmesan cheese in place of the cheddar.
Nutrition Information for each mushroom (as calculated by DietPower):
Calories 69, Carboydrates 1.33g (Fiber .254 g, Sugars .522 g), Fat 6.11 g (Saturated 3.5 g, Polyunsaturated .344 g, Monounsaturated 1.94 g, Trans 0 g), Protein 3 g, Cholesterol 17.3 mg, Sodium 78.6 mg, Potassium 91mg