Vegan Seared Miso Butter Maitake Mushrooms with Black Lentils and Cauliflower Apple & Leek Puree
These vegan maitake mushrooms are a delicious, umami-rich centerpiece, seared with miso butter and served alongside aromatic black lentils, a lightly-sweetened cauliflower puree, and nutty bits of toasted walnuts. Fancy-looking yet deceptively simple, this dish comes together in under an hour and features 8 nourishing whole plant foods with a slightly indulgent kick from the miso butter for a tasty vegan meal!
This past Valentine’s Day, my husband Nick and I (by which I mean mostly Nick) created a dish centered around maitake mushrooms, which I loved so much that I decided to polish the rough vision into a share-able recipe! This dish looks kinda fancy, but it’s very approachable and totally do-able at home without making a night out of it as it comes together in under an hour. Delicious, slightly indulgent yet still nutritious, and loaded with various plant foods, it’s a great example of the endless ways of creating satisfying vegan dishes.
Why You’ll Love this Dish
Flavorful & fancy-looking. This dish is loaded with flavors - umami-rich seared miso mushrooms, earthy and aromatic lentils, apple-sweetened cauliflower puree, and nutty bits of toasted walnuts. It’s reminiscent of a restaurant-style dish since the ingredients add multiple textures and deep, complex flavors while creating a polished-looking plate.
Ready in under an hour. That’s right! This dish comes together in under an hour - even if you’re not the fastest cook out there! You can certainly whip this up on a weeknight, but it’s also great as a weekend dinner that’s fancy-looking yet relatively quick to assemble.
Made with whole foods, yet slightly indulgent. The dish is built around mushrooms, cauliflower, and lentils, all of which are incredibly nutritious whole foods. While the cooked lentils and cauliflower puree remain relatively wholesome, the mushrooms are seared in olive oil and coated in miso butter (i.e. a mix of vegan butter and miso) to transform them into a delicious, indulgent-tasting centerpiece that you’ll continue dreaming of post-meal.
Loaded with plant variety. In addition to the cauliflower, maitakes, and lentils, this dish packs in an apple, a leek, garlic, miso, and walnuts - that’s 8 different plant foods! Not a bad start to meeting the weekly target of 30-40+ different plant foods to fuel a healthy gut.
Approachable for non-vegans. Before going vegan, a lot of my dinners followed that “animal protein + some form of potato side + other (probably boring) side” formula that so many of us had the misfortune of growing up with (shout out to the incredibly non-imaginative culinary “ingenuity” of the Standard American Diet (S.A.D., appropriately named)). Although far more flavorful, this dish is familiar to that since it’s centered around “a main,” in this case the maitake mushroom, with a couple sides. So if you’re a “main + sides” kind of person looking to introduce more plant foods into your diet, I recommend starting with a dish like this as it will feel somewhat familiar!
Dish Component Overview
Seared maitakes with miso butter. Maitake mushrooms are some of my favorite mushrooms because they’re earthy, meaty, umami-rich, and even have some slightly nutty notes - they’re just insanely delicious! You can take them in lots of different directions, but some of my favorite flavor pairings are white miso and black pepper. Since maitakes hold their shape well, searing them in a cast iron pan with a bit of salt and some black pepper keeps the cooking process simple while maximizing flavor and achieving the perfect tender-on-the-inside-yet-slightly-crispy-on-the-outside texture. They’re then coated in a layer of miso butter that further crisps on the outside to create a delicious umami-infused centerpiece! I could eat these seared miso butter maitakes for days.
Lentils. Black lentils are the perfect earthy and hearty pairing to maitake mushrooms, and they’re also incredibly nutritious! In this recipe, the ¾ cup of dried black lentils adds about 39 grams of protein and somewhere between 18-24 grams of fiber (a ton!), along with iron, potassium, loads of B vitamins, and more nutrients! Cooking the earthy lentils with aromatics like a dried bay leaf and fresh thyme gives them a big flavor boost, which helps to layer more flavor depth into the dish.
Cauliflower purée. Adds a creamy component, while also introducing another nutritious (and tasty!) vegetable into this dish! Steaming the cauliflower makes it absorb water, which softens it and allows it to blend into a light, fluffy purée (just make sure you don’t oversteam it - you don’t want to add so much water that the purée turns runny!). Combined with a sautéed leek, apple, and garlic, and a bit of lemon juice (a hint of acidity is key for flavor balance!), the cauliflower turns into a smooth, delicate purée with aromatic notes from the leeks, a hint of garlic, and some sweetness from the apples that adds a bright contrast to this otherwise very earthy dish.
Toppings. Toasted walnuts add satisfyingly crunchy bits into the dish, along with some nutty notes that complement the earthy lentils and umami-rich maitakes. Lastly, a few fresh thyme leaves garnish the dish with some extra fresh, aromatic notes.
Seared Miso Butter Maitake Mushrooms with Black Lentils and Cauliflower Apple & Leek Puree
Vegan, gluten-free
Serves 2-3
Ingredients
Toppings:
2-3 tablespoons walnuts
A few fresh thyme leaves, to garnish
Lentils:
¾ cup black beluga lentils
6-8 fresh thyme sprigs
1 whole garlic clove, peeled
1 bay leaf
Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
Cauliflower purée:
1.5-lb. cauliflower (about 1 small or ½ very large), broken into florets
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large leek (white and light green parts only), halved lengthwise, thoroughly rinsed to remove any dirt trapped between the layers, and thinly sliced
1 medium crisp, sweet/sweet-tart apple (I like Envy or Winesap varieties), cored and diced
1 large garlic clove, minced
½-1 teaspoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt (or sub ¼-½ teaspoon Morton’s kosher salt or sea salt), divided
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
½ - ¾ teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
Seared maitake mushrooms:
2 tablespoons vegan butter (I used Miyoko’s), softened at room temperature
2 tablespoons white miso
1-2 tablespoon(s) olive oil (or enough to coat the bottom of your pan)
7 ounces maitake mushrooms (about 2 large or 4 smaller maitake mushrooms), halved down the middle to create a flat side
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Directions
Walnuts:
In a dry cast iron skillet or other small-medium skillet over medium heat, toast the walnuts until lightly browned and fragrant, stirring occasionally, about 2-4 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool until safe to handle, then roughly chop the walnuts into small pieces. (Skip this step if using store bought pre-roasted walnuts instead of raw walnuts.)
Lentils:
In a small pot, combine the lentils, thyme sprigs, bay leaf, and garlic. Cover with about 1 inch of water and bring the liquid to a boil. Once boiling, add in a sprinkle of salt and some freshly ground pepper and reduce the heat to low to maintain a gentle but steady simmer. Partially cover the pot and cook the lentils until fork tender, about 25 minutes (exact cooking time will depend on the freshness of your lentils).
Drain the lentils and discard the bay leaf, thyme sprigs, and garlic clove. Transfer them back to the pot and set aside until ready to serve.
Cauliflower purée:
In a large pot with a steamer basket, bring 1-2 inches of water to a boil. Once boiling, add the cauliflower florets to the steamer basket and steam until softened but still fork-tender, about 8 minutes. Transfer the steamed cauliflower to a blender.
In a cast iron pan or other medium-sized saute pan, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the leek, apple, garlic, ½ teaspoon kosher salt, and some freshly ground black pepper and sauté briefly until the leek has softened, about 3 minutes. Remove from heat and transfer everything to the blender with the steamed cauliflower.
Add ½ teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice to the blender, and starting on low-medium speed, start blending the mixture while using a tamper to help the mixture blend, then gradually increase the speed to high and blend until smooth.
The cauliflower will have absorbed a lot of water during the steaming process so you shouldn’t need any additional liquid to blend the purée!
Taste the purée and adjust the seasonings, adding a bit more lemon juice for tang/acidity (I added another ¼ teaspoon), freshly ground pepper, and salt (I added another ½ teaspoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt), and blend to combine.
Seared maitake mushrooms:
In a small bowl, whisk together the softened vegan butter and miso to form a miso butter.
Heat oil in a cast iron skillet over medium heat. Arrange the mushrooms in a single layer with the flat side down (do this in 2 batches, if needed), and cook, undisturbed, until the bottom side is golden brown, about 3 minutes. Season with a sprinkle of salt and a generous amount of freshly ground black pepper, flip the mushrooms, and continue cooking until the second side is also golden brown, about 2-3 more minutes.
Brush half the miso butter onto the mushrooms, flip, and cook for just a few seconds until the butter has melted and formed a slightly crispy exterior, being careful not to scorch the mushrooms (miso burns very quickly!). Repeat with the second side. Remove from heat and serve immediately.
To assemble:
Spoon some purée to cover ~⅔ of the plate and add the lentils to the other half of the plate, overlapping some of the purée. Add the seared maitakes, then top with chopped toasted walnuts and some fresh thyme leaves to garnish.
Note:
You may have some leftover lentils - these are great repurposed in salads or as a side dish!
Enjoying this dish? Don’t forget to leave a review in the comments below and tag me on Instagram (@teostinykitchen) when you share it!