Slacker "Cheese" Fondue
1 (8- to 12-ounce) package brown or white mushrooms, minced in food processor
1 cup dry white wine
1/3 cup nutritional yeast
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper (optional)
2 tablespoons arrowroot powder
1. To a saucepan, add mushrooms and dry white wine. Bring to a simmer over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally. Simmer until most of the free liquid is gone, 15 to 20 minutes.
2. Whisk in nutritional yeast, salt, and pepper.
3. Whisk in arrowroot powder. (You could use a different thickener, but arrowroot will give it more of a stringy cheese-like finish.) If all of the free liquid hasn’t absorbed or evaporated, simmer fondue while whisking continuously until no free liquid exists at the bottom of the pan when mixture is stirred. Remove from heat and serve with French bread cubes on sandwich picks.
There are a lot of variations for cheese fondue. You could add 1 tablespoon kirsch or other cherry liqueur, 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder, 1/4 teaspoon ground mustard, a pinch of ground nutmeg, etc., but that wouldn't be the slacker way.
Source of recipe: I make mushroom spread to eat as an after-workout protein snack and discovered this when experimenting.
SO HOW'D IT GO?
Hmmmm.... I'm eating this with crackers right now, and I'm not enjoying it. Ditto on the pate texture. I'll try it on a veggie burger. Maybe I can try it MIXED INTO a veggie burger. That might be interesting.
Chuy the cat thinks it's delicious, though. Huh. If all else fails....
This was really good!
I think I let the wine cook down too much, because I didn't have any need for a thickener, but it was still delicious. Mine was more of a pate than a fondue...I used it as the cheese on my Amy's burger and a topping for my eggplant chips the next day. I even added way too much salt - and I still loved it. Very creative!
It doesn't taste mushroom-y at all! It tastes like cheesy white wine. I fed some to an omni and he volunteered that he couldn't taste the mushrooms. For a more wine taste, use 1/3 cup nutrtional yeast. For a more cheesy taste, use 1/2 cup nutritional yeast =or= reduce the wine to 3/4 cup.
I haven't tried it with tapioca starch. Even if it didn't have the same type of stringy-ness, it'd still be thick and could coat bread or whatnot.
Nutrition:
A cup of white wine has about 157 calories (5 from carbs, 1 from protein, 0 from fat, and the remainder from alcohol). If alcohol is simmered for 15 to 20 minutes, about 40% or a bit less of the alcohol remains, so the wine accounts for about 66 calories in the final product.
8 to 12 ounces mushrooms: 64 to 95 calories (5 to 7 grams protein)
1 cup dry white wine: 66 calories
1/3 cup nutritional yeast: 132 calories (21 grams protein)
Has anyone tried this with tapioca starch? I think this would be a good thickener, because it seems really stringy too (and it is what I currently have on hand!). Good looking recipe! Whether it tastes like mushrooms or cheese, I'm on board either way.
this sounds good, does it taste mushroomy or cheesy?