Pesto-Ricotta Portobello Burgers

By The No Meat Athlete
WebMD Recipe from Foodily.com

For dinner last night, I made a vegetarian version of a Rachael Ray recipe from 365: No Repeats, the book that really got me started with cooking about five years ago. We've made Portobello burgers before and really enjoyed them, but this recipe has bonus stuff piled on top- Arugula, a caramelized onion-olive sauce, and pesto ricotta.

Ingredients

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
4 Tbsp canola/olive oil blend
4 large Portobello mushroom caps
1 red onion, sliced thin
2 garlic cloves, chopped (don't mince too small or it will burn)
1 Tbsp tomato paste
3/4 cup part-skim ricotta cheese
4 Tbsp pesto (we bought it premade, use your own if you have it)
1/2 cup vegetable stock
4 whole wheat rolls (we used Ezekiel sprouted wheat)
1/3 cup kalamata olives, pitted and chopped
2 cups arugula
salt and pepper

 

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.  In a wide bowl, combine the balsamic vinegar with half of the oil blend (2 Tbsp) and some salt and pepper to taste.  Toss the Portobello caps in the mixture to coat them. 

Place the mushrooms on a cookie sheet gill-side up, pour leftover oil/vinegar mixture onto the gills.  Place in the oven for about 12 minutes, until they're tender.

While the mushrooms cook, heat the rest of the oil in a skillet over medium high heat.  Add the red onion slices, the garlic, the tomato paste, and some salt and pepper.  Mix it quickly together and stir frequently to prevent anything from burning.  Let it cook for about 8 minutes to get nice and brown, but reduce the heat if things start to char.

Combine the ricotta cheese with the pesto in a bowl.  When the mushrooms have each finished cooking, spread the ricotta mixture on top of them and return to the oven for one minute.  Pour the vegetable stock and olives into the onion mixture, increase the heat to boil it, and let it reduce for a few minutes.

Assemble the burgers: place a Portobello topped with ricotta on each bun, then top with the onion-olive mixture, then arugula.
Total Servings: 4

 

Nutritional Information Per Serving

Calories: 283.7
Carbohydrates: 16.7 g
Cholesterol: 13.9 mg
Fat: 20.9 g
Saturated Fat: 4.5 g
Fiber: 2.9 g
Sodium: 455.2 mg
Protein: 9.4 g