14 Shiitake Mushroom Recipes You're Sure To Love
Hunting and harvesting wild mushrooms is an adventure unto itself, with wide-ranging seasonality within the United States or abroad. Though romping through a forest in search of fresh shiitakes, morels, or chanterelles awakens the culinary voyager inside us all, it's much more common to pick up mushrooms in local grocery stores or farmer's markets. That's where it's easy to lump these umbrella-shaped fruiting fungi into a single category, reaching for a carton of whatever generic "mushrooms" perch within the produce section. But that would be a big mistake as far as flavor, texture, and complexity in mushroom-centric recipes.
With that in mind, this recipe roundup singles out shiitake mushrooms, which are considered the oldest known cultivated mushroom. They stand out for their deep, earthy, and savory umami profile, and are widely known for significant health-enhancing properties. Tasting Table developers have put together some creative ways of incorporating shiitakes into everyday dishes or special-occasion meals, generating flavor bombs of deliciousness and nutrition.
Following are 14 shiitake mushroom recipes ranging from soups to sandwiches, salads, scampi, ravioli, meatloaf, Korean japchae, meatless Bourguignon and Wellington, and much more. They'll quite likely send you running to the kitchen with fresh inspiration, new techniques, and a bit of mushroom magic to guide the way.
Mixed Mushroom Scampi
The word "scampi" typically conjures images of shrimp swimming in a saucy mixture of garlic, white wine, butter, and lemon juice, tossed with Italian pasta. However, the term scampi isn't proprietary to shrimp — in fact, it can bypass seafood altogether. That's exactly what Tasting Table recipe developer Miriam Hahn did when creating this marvelous mixed mushroom scampi recipe. The key word here is mushroom, and the dish features three varieties, with shiitake leading the way. Other classic scampi ingredients make an appearance, including generous splashes of pinot grigio, sauvignon blanc, or chardonnay.
Recipe: Mixed Mushroom Scampi
Shiitake Mushroom Soup
Mushroom soup is a staple of the American pantry, especially the creamy condensed kind that comes in a can. But mushroom soup isn't all about casseroles and quick-fix cooking. Thanks to recipe developer Miriam Hahn, we get a glimpse of what fresh shiitake mushrooms and extra-firm tofu do in a boiling pot of broth and veggies. This shiitake mushroom soup recipe features the likes of ginger, minced garlic cloves, white miso paste, baby bok choy, shredded carrots, scallions, and an optional shakeup of red pepper flakes. It all comes together in about 45 minutes.
Recipe: Shiitake Mushroom Soup
Vegetarian Mushroom French Dip Sandwich
Here's another twist on a classic recipe, one traditionally incorporating thinly sliced roast beef, a French roll, and "au jus' dipping sauce served on the side. We're talking about the French dip sandwich, which, ironically, was born far from the shores of France. But recipe developer Tanika Douglas has her own take on the French dip, and it happens to be a vegetarian sandwich made with portobello mushrooms, caramelized onions, provolone cheese, and an au jus created from dried shiitake mushrooms, white wine, and more umami-inducing goodness.
Fall Harvest Caramelized Mushroom Salad
If ever a salad encapsulated the aura of autumn, it would be this fall harvest caramelized mushroom salad from recipe developer Jessica Case. It features classic crisp-air ingredients such as butternut squash and pomegranate seeds, plus fresh goat cheese and a glorious mix of tasty mushroom varieties. Case explains how multiple types of mushrooms create intriguing textures and flavors in the spinach-based salad, uplifted by homemade dressing from balsamic vinegar, honey, and Dijon mustard. After a base of cremini mushrooms, suggested additions include shiitakes, black trumpets, and wild chanterelles.
Mushroom Ravioli With Bacon and Spinach
Shiitake mushrooms reign supreme in this simple ravioli dish by Tasting Table developer Leah Maroney. You won't find any tomato sauce in this recipe for mushroom ravioli with bacon and spinach, and there's no meat tucked inside the handmade ravioli rounds. Instead, there's a blend of mushrooms, with Maroney declaring a love for shiitakes. However, the key to complexity lies in creating a mix of whatever mushrooms are in season — the more, the merrier. The ravioli gently meld with a creamy spinach and bacon sauce.
Mushroom and Veggie Japchae
If you've never tasted or cooked Korean japchae, this is a good place to start. Created by recipe developer Miriam Hahn, this mushroom and veggie japchae dish foregoes meat as the conventional core ingredient, opting instead for glass noodles made with sweet potatoes. Sweet, chewy, and translucent when cooked, the noodles share bowl space with shiitake and cremini mushrooms, an array of veggies, and a unique sweet and savory sauce featuring brown or coconut sugar, soy sauce, and other unexpected touches.
Recipe: Mushroom and Veggie Japchae
Savory Mushroom and Lentil Hand Pies
Though not an everyday term in American cooking vernacular, hand pies are exactly how they sound: small, handheld, pastry-based pies filled up, folded over, crimped together, and baked to a crispy golden brown. What makes this recipe stand out are the two defining ingredients. Recipe developer Miriam Hahn created the template for these savory mushroom and lentil hand pies, which blends the nutty characteristics of black lentils with umami tones from shiitake or other mushroom varieties. Making the encapsulating pastry is super simple, as it comes from frozen puffed pastry sheets.
Warming Hungarian Mushroom Soup
Tasting Table recipe developer Miriam Hahn took a dive into Hungarian cooking after a trip to the Central European country, returning with a fresh bounty of Hungarian paprika for experimenting. That's how she created this warming Hungarian mushroom soup recipe, which is her take on the regional favorite soup using what's considered the national spice of the country: paprika. In this recipe, you'll enjoy cooking with fresh mushrooms of your choice, including shiitake, cremini, oyster, portobello, or whatever's readily attainable. It's a creamy concoction, but Hahn offers tips for making this soup dairy-free and vegan.
Recipe: Warming Hungarian Mushroom Soup
Vegetarian Mushroom Meatloaf
Meatloaf carries a humble reputation yet somehow retains its spot on countless restaurant and home-kitchen menus. Its very name identifies meat as the core component, but what if you could have that nostalgic meatloaf experience in a non-meat version? Thanks to the Tasting Table Test Kitchen, you can. This is our vegetarian mushroom meatloaf recipe made with, you guessed it, a mix of mushroom varieties, including shiitakes. They're then caramelized and blended with oats, bread, walnuts, ketchup, binders, and spices such as sage, thyme, and oregano. Meatless meatloaf is suddenly a thing.
Recipe: Vegetarian Mushroom Meatloaf
Hearty Mushroom Stew
This recipe proves a meal can be hearty with no meat in the mix, even when it's a warm, thick, tummy-filling stew. Wellness coach and recipe developer Miriam Hahn created this hearty mushroom stew recipe using cremini, white button, and dried porcini mushrooms, yet encourages trying other types of mushrooms, including shiitakes. However, keeping dried porcini in the mix retains the concentrated flavor boost that defines this dish. You'll also be working with green beans and peas as well as broths, sauces, spices, tomato paste, and a few ounces of Marsala wine.
Recipe: Hearty Mushroom Stew
Hearty Mushroom Bourguignon
If Bourguignon has a claim to American fame, it comes by way of celebrity chef Julia Child in the 1960s. She didn't invent the dish but certainly popularized its stewy delight outside French borders. Defined by Burgundy wine from the Bourgogne province, this rendition by recipe developer Michelle Bottalico ditches the beef for mushrooms while maintaining other classic Bourguignon components. Bottalico's recipe employs cremini and porcini mushrooms, but it's fine to mix shiitakes with other varieties for your own customized version. The entire dish mercifully comes together in less than an hour.
Recipe: Hearty Mushroom Bourguignon
Fall-Forward Vegan Mushroom Wellington
Aptly named fall-forward vegan mushroom Wellington for employing autumn offerings such as pecans and sweet potatoes, this recipe by developer Annabelle Randles is a twist on classic beef Wellington. Rather than centering on meat, it comes together with a mix of mushrooms, herbs, and spices, all wrapped in strips of puff pastry. The recipe calls for baby bella and porcini mushrooms, but Randles encourages flexibility with shiitakes, buttons, portobello, and others. This artistic recipe includes instructions for cutting, wrapping, folding, egg-washing, and cooking the showcase Wellington pie.
Mixed Mushroom Grilled Cheese
Get ready for a grilled cheese sandwich unlike any you've imagined. As a go-to American standby, that's saying a lot. But Ksenia Prints has managed to create a grilled cheese with three types of mushrooms and outside-the-box cheeses such as Boursin and the nutty, sweet Comté. You'll get a subtly different flavor profile when subbing in shiitake mushrooms and combining them with other varieties of your choosing. This mixed mushroom grilled cheese works with sourdough bread, grilled to crunchy goodness in a stovetop skillet.
Recipe: Mixed Mushroom Grilled Cheese
Steakhouse Mushroom Sauce
For the final shiitake mushroom recipe in our collection, we bring back the meat, specifically steak. However, recipe developer Michelle McGlinn focuses only on the sauce to accompany your carefully cooked, meticulously seared steaks. This steakhouse mushroom sauce recipe keeps things juicy and flavorful with butter-sauteed shiitake or baby bella mushrooms and dry sherry. It's a quick and easy sauce to make, basically involving cooking the mushrooms and creating a roux, thinning or thickening it per preference, reducing the sherry, and adding beef broth and soy or Worcestershire sauce.
Recipe: Steakhouse Mushroom Sauce