Sauteed Mushrooms with Red Wine-Miso Reduction Served Over Creamy Polenta (From The Complete Plant Based Cookbook by America’s Test Kitchen)

There are so many foods in this world that I love and one of them is polenta. In The Complete Plant Based Cookbook by America’s Test Kitchen, I came across this recipe for sauteed mushrooms over polenta. Doesn’t that sound like a dream? Well, I can vouch for both of these recipes saying they were delicious!

I started by preparing the creamy polenta because in total it took about 45 minutes. While the polenta was cooking, I started to prepare the sauteed mushrooms. The recipe calls for a variety of mushrooms. I ended up using white mushrooms and baby bella mushrooms. I quartered the larger ones and halved the smaller ones. I sauteed these mushrooms in oil with the lid on until they released their liquids. I removed the lid and let them brown. I removed them from the pan and began making the reduction. I used a dry red wine (I went with merlot), vegetable broth, soy sauce, and sugar. Eventually, I added a cornstarch slurry made from cornstarch and water. The wine mixture reduced down really well and the cornstarch slurry helped to thicken the sauce to the perfect glaze.

I was very happy with how the dish turned out! I think that this dish served four. The amount of polenta was generous and the amount of mushrooms for four was perfect. I loved the addition of the arugula on top to give it some freshness as well a bite of bitterness to help offset the sweet red wine-miso reduction. I enjoyed every bite of this meal!

Taste: 9/10 (the polenta was a bit lumpy)

Notes for next time: I loved the recipes themselves, but the polenta ended up a bit lumpy so I would like to work on getting it to be smoother.