Quick & Effortless Butterflied Mushroom Cacciatore: Best for Busy Nights

Plump and juicy butterflied and seared mushrooms with pasta in a rich and hearty tomato sauce on a bed of fresh spinach, so good nobody will know you barely lifted a finger.

Too busy to cook a healthy meal for dinner but still craving something nutritious and delicious? Quick & Effortless Butterflied Mushroom Cacciatore is the perfect solution for those hectic days when time is short, but health and flavor are essential.

Recipe Overview

no dairy, no eggs, no wheat, no nuts, no tree nuts, no shellfish, no seafood, no soy, no salt added, no oil added, no sugar added, and no coconut.

The Menu

Maximize Your Mushrooms – For Vitamin D

Vitamin D is known as the sunshine vitamin because we can get it directly from the sun through our skin—which has it’s own downsides, but in the fall and winter, it gets even harder to get enough of it if you aren’t getting it from supplementation.

Mushrooms, much like us can also get it from the sun but they are grown mostly in the dark and then kept in the dark (in boxes, crates, shipping trucks, etc.) until they finally end up under neon lights in your grocery store. These mushrooms have small amounts of vitamin D₂ and even smaller amounts of D₃ and D₄.

Many studies on mushrooms and UV seem to confirm that “when commonly consumed mushroom species are exposed to a source of ultraviolet (UV) radiation, such as sunlight or a UV lamp, they can generate nutritionally relevant amounts of vitamin D,” and that after the mushrooms would be “higher than the level in most vitamin D-containing foods and similar to the daily requirement of vitamin D recommended internationally.”

How to Maximize Mushrooms?

The cheapest way is to gently wash and leave them on a windowsill, stem-up, for at least 30 minutes, but an hour or two is even better. About 1-5 minutes with a UV lamp will have a similar outcome. They absorb sunlight best through the gills so stem up is preferred. If you have a UV lamp then 1-5 minutes should boost the levels far about what you need.

The same study as about also mentions studies that show that vitamin D “in UV-exposed mushrooms may decrease with storage and cooking,” they then go on to say “[c]onsidered together, these studies suggest that UV-exposed fresh mushrooms will retain nutritionally relevant amounts of vitamin D₂ when refrigerated for one week or less”

firstly, I personally think mushrooms should always be eaten cooked since they are such a high potential for contagions like Listeria, Staphylococcus, Salmonella, and many others, I treat them like I would treat meat (bottom shelve below all other raw fruit and veggies and always cooked through).

Want to learn how to hack and maximize other veggies and more?! Subscribe to me on Substack to get exclusive content for free!

Why This Recipe for Butterflied Mushroom Cacciatore?

I know how hard it can be to find time and effort to cook healthy WFPB meals and that’s why I wanted to create this new series of simple, healthy, and nearly effortless meals that take very little time—and mostly just consist of simply dumping all ingredients into a pot.

This is the start of a series of meals I’ve been testing out recently. This is one of the first ones I tried so it’s still a bit more involved (with pre-searing and then slicing the mushrooms) but the others will be more: toss it all in a pot, give it a stir, and then come back when it’s all done.

I don’t want to call them Dump Dinners, so do you have any ideas for the name of this series of toss-and-go recipes? If so please let me know in the comments or on substack

⭐Full Butterflied Mushroom Cacciatore Recipe⭐

Quick & Effortless Mushroom Cacciatore: Best for Busy Nights

Chef Rob

Juicy and tender butterflied mushrooms covered with pasta in a hearty tomato sauce on a bed of fresh spinach. A great dump dinner for hectic or lazy dinner nights.

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 5 minutes mins

Cook Time 15 minutes mins

Total Time 20 minutes mins

Course Comfort Food, Dinner, Lunch, Main Course, Pasta, Sauce, Side Dish

Cuisine American, Canadian, Italian

Servings 2 people

Calories 341 kcal

Equipment

• 1 Pot with a lid

Ingredients

  

• 4-6 ea button mushrooms large or stuffing mushrooms
• 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 1 tsp garlic granulated
• 1 tsp paprika
• 1 tsp oregano
• ¼ cup onions dehydrated, optional
• ¹/16 tsp celery seeds ground
• ¹/16 tsp white pepper ground
• ⅛ tsp dried sage or thyme ground
• 1 tbsp rice wine vinegar or balsamic vinegar
• 1 cup tomatoes diced, canned or fresh
• ½ cup tomato paste
• 2.5 cups water
• 2 cups pasta dried or fresh & homemade in 10 minutes

OPTIONAL

• 1 cup spinach or kale ort other hardy green
• ¼ cup bell peppers diced
• ¼ cup cheesy not-parm powder

Instructions

 

• In a pot with a lid, sear the tops of the mushrooms on high heat for 1-2 minutes or until a golden crust forms. Remove the mushrooms from the pot and butterfly the mushrooms by cutting from stem to the cap, but not all the way through so the two halves remain connected.

  NOTE: If you're in a rush just butterfly the mushrooms and put them open-side-down in the pot on high heat and cook them for 1-2 minutes or until you get a golden crust, they might separate and not be as juicy but should still work fine. Also, if you have the time then remember to maximize your mushrooms
  
• Add the mushrooms back to get a sear on the inside on high heat, then add everything else to the pot, including the noodles. Stir and make sure the noodles are covered in sauce. Cover the pot with a lid and simmer on medium-low heat for 10 minutes, or until the noodles are just cooked—or the time indicated on the package, mine say 10 minutes, you want them to have a bit of, al dente, bite still.
  
• On your plates, lay down your bed of spinach then ladle on your mushroom cacciatore and finally any additional garnishes. Red and green peppers are great!

  Enjoy!
  

Video

Notes

Additional garnish of black pepper and chili flakes if you want to add some spice and heat.

Keyword affordable vegan recipes, cheap vegan recipes, corn free, dairy free, dump dinner, dump meals, easy, easy recipe, healthy, homecooking, homemade, no added salt, no added sugar, no added sugars, no bake, no coconut, no gluten free, no nuts free, no oil, no shellfish free, no sos, no soy, no treenuts free, nomad recipes, plant-based cacciatore, soy tofu free, top 9 allergen free, vanlife, vegan, wfpb, wfpbno, wheat free, whole food plant based

Quick & Effortless Mushroom Cacciatore: Best for Busy Nights

Chef Rob

Juicy and tender butterflied mushrooms covered with pasta in a hearty tomato sauce on a bed of fresh spinach. A great dump dinner for hectic or lazy dinner nights.

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 5 minutes mins

Cook Time 15 minutes mins

Total Time 20 minutes mins

Course Comfort Food, Dinner, Lunch, Main Course, Pasta, Sauce, Side Dish

Cuisine American, Canadian, Italian

Servings 2 people

Calories 341 kcal

Equipment

• 1 Pot with a lid

Ingredients

  

• 4-6 ea button mushrooms large or stuffing mushrooms
• 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 1 tsp garlic granulated
• 1 tsp paprika
• 1 tsp oregano
• ¼ cup onions dehydrated, optional
• ¹/16 tsp celery seeds ground
• ¹/16 tsp white pepper ground
• ⅛ tsp dried sage or thyme ground
• 1 tbsp rice wine vinegar or balsamic vinegar
• 1 cup tomatoes diced, canned or fresh
• ½ cup tomato paste
• 2.5 cups water
• 2 cups pasta dried or fresh & homemade in 10 minutes

OPTIONAL

• 1 cup spinach or kale ort other hardy green
• ¼ cup bell peppers diced
• ¼ cup cheesy not-parm powder

Instructions

 

• In a pot with a lid, sear the tops of the mushrooms on high heat for 1-2 minutes or until a golden crust forms. Remove the mushrooms from the pot and butterfly the mushrooms by cutting from stem to the cap, but not all the way through so the two halves remain connected.

  NOTE: If you're in a rush just butterfly the mushrooms and put them open-side-down in the pot on high heat and cook them for 1-2 minutes or until you get a golden crust, they might separate and not be as juicy but should still work fine. Also, if you have the time then remember to maximize your mushrooms
  
• Add the mushrooms back to get a sear on the inside on high heat, then add everything else to the pot, including the noodles. Stir and make sure the noodles are covered in sauce. Cover the pot with a lid and simmer on medium-low heat for 10 minutes, or until the noodles are just cooked—or the time indicated on the package, mine say 10 minutes, you want them to have a bit of, al dente, bite still.
  
• On your plates, lay down your bed of spinach then ladle on your mushroom cacciatore and finally any additional garnishes. Red and green peppers are great!

  Enjoy!
  

Video

Notes

Additional garnish of black pepper and chili flakes if you want to add some spice and heat.

Keyword affordable vegan recipes, cheap vegan recipes, corn free, dairy free, dump dinner, dump meals, easy, easy recipe, healthy, homecooking, homemade, no added salt, no added sugar, no added sugars, no bake, no coconut, no gluten free, no nuts free, no oil, no shellfish free, no sos, no soy, no treenuts free, nomad recipes, plant-based cacciatore, soy tofu free, top 9 allergen free, vanlife, vegan, wfpb, wfpbno, wheat free, whole food plant based

🧂If you absolutely must add salt then try to add it to taste, to the top of the food, and in small amounts and only after tasting it first. The same goes for other “less healthy” additions, but the idea should be to try to limit and eventually remove adding them, over time, when you are ready.

After a few weeks of not eating a SAD diet your tastebuds reset and you’ll notice the natural sodium in foods, check out the great article, and subscribe to, Michael Corthell on Substack.

Protips

The perfect butterfly technique for mushrooms

• The biggest tip is to not peel your mushrooms! I know this may sound strange but some people do (or don’t) peel the thin skin that encases the mushroom caps. Do NOT remove the skin or the mushroom will likely separate—which isn’t a huge deal, but they don’t look as nice.
• The next biggest tip is to sear the tops of the mushrooms first. This makes the proteins denature and then rebind, while steaming the interior, to make it so everything remains connected on the outside and juicy on the inside.
• Using a sawing motion with a serrated knife and going slowly will make you less likely to cut too far through the cap of the mushroom.

Don’t forget cooking techniques

• Just because it’s all getting dumped in the pot doesn’t mean there isn’t an order to how you should dump it for the best result.
• Proper recipes should have the ingredients listed in the order you should add them and this recipe is no different. This way you will deglaze with mushrooms before toasting your spices then deglazing before sauteeing the tomatoes and cooking off the tomato paste so it is rich and full-bodied before adding the water and noodles. Even if it takes seconds between it will be better than any other order.

Maximize vitamin C

• Add diced peppers to get vitamin C, but don’t cook them, or at least all of them, since cooking foods can destroy a lot of the vitamin C.

Cook the pasta right

• Lentils, brown rice, quinoa, whole-wheat, are all good choices for pasta but cooking times might be drastically different than traditional wheat durum pasta. I take the pasta off the heat about 2 minutes before it’s done because it will continue cooking after the heat is turned off.

Nutrition Facts Table – Banana Cream Hand Pies & Cookies

The Science – Sources

Please tell me how it turned out! Did you: try it, like it, hate it, change it, or do something else unexpected???

If I’ve made any mistakes, or something doesn’t make sense, or if you want more/less details, please let me know in the comments.

Stay healthy and nourished!

Chef Robert Leigh.

Quick & Effortless Butterflied Mushroom Cacciatore: Best for Busy Nights