Asian Mushroom Spread

Asian Mushroom Spread is not a traditional Japanese dish, but I decided to post it because it uses only Asian mushrooms. Asian Mushroom Spread is made from a mixture of different mushrooms with a hint of spice from chilli.

My spread is very light since it does not use cream, but it is still tasty. I used 5 kinds of Asian mushrooms today, but you can make it with just a couple of different kinds of mushrooms. You can make this a vegan spread by replacing the butter with oil.

Spread or Dip?

When I gave this dish to my friend saying that it was ‘Asian mushroom spread’, the first thing this friend said was ‘So, you put it on a piece of bread?’ That’s when I realised that perhaps today’s dish should not be called ‘spread’.

I was not thinking of having it on bread but on a piece of cracker, like a dip. But my Asian Mushroom Spread is not as thin or smooth in consistency as a dip.

Dips are usually eaten by scooping them with a cracker or a vegetable stick, like my Perilla and Tofu Dip (photo below). On the other hand, spreads require a knife or a spoon to scoop and put on a cracker or a piece of bread.

Peanut butter, Nutella, and Vegemite are spreads. People spread them on a piece of bread, and they never call these a dip. Perhaps this is the reason my friend assumed my Asian Mushroom Spread is to be consumed with a piece of bread.

But like today’s dish, there are dips that can also be classified as a spread – hummus, for example. There are many avocado dip recipes, including guacamole. But guacamole can also be classified as a spread, I think.

It is so confusing. To make it more confusing, you could call my Asian Mushroom Spread a pâté, although it is not like a traditional pâté that uses forcemeat.

Today’s dish is definitely not a dip as you cannot put in a veggie stick to scoop it. So, I think ‘spread’ is probably the best name for my dish. No matter what I call it, it is a tasty food to go with crackers or bread.

What’s in my Asian Mushroom Spread

Mushrooms are the key to this recipe, and I strongly recommend using very fresh mushrooms.

Asian mushrooms from top left clockwise: enoki, shiitake, king oyster, pearl, and shimeji.

• Mixed Asian mushrooms
• Oil
• Butter
• Garlic, flattened
• Dry white wine
• Dried chilli finely chopped
• Salt

I used shiitake mushrooms, king oyster mushrooms, shimeji mushrooms, enoki mushrooms, and pearl mushrooms. As mentioned earlier, you can make today’s dish with just a couple of different mushrooms. The proportion of each type of mushroom can vary too.

I used just 1 piece of dried chilli, so you can taste only a tiny bit of spiciness.

How to make Asian Mushroom Spread

As you can see in the video, making Asian Mushroom Spread is a 3-step process – chop, sauté, and blend.

1. Chop all the mushrooms into small pieces.
2. Sauté the mushrooms, then add garlic. Continue to sauté.
3. When the mushrooms are cooked through and become wet, add wine.
4. When the liquid almost evaporates, add salt and chilli.
5. Mix well, then turn the heat off.
6. Make a paste using a food processor or a blender.

I chopped the mushrooms into very small pieces so that they cooked through faster.  When mushrooms start getting cooked, the volume shrinks, and the mushroom pieces become wet.

I used a stick blender to make a paste. Because the mushrooms hardly contained liquid, I had to stop halfway and push the large mushroom pieces down to the bottom so that the blender could process them into paste.

You can decide how smooth/coarse the spread needs to be. My spread doesn’t retain the shape of the chopped mushrooms (there might be one or two large bits leftover, though), but it is not as smooth as pâté either. It has a grainy texture. As you can see in the photo below, there are a few large mushroom bits in it, but that’s OK.

Asian Mushroom Spread is very quick and easy to make. It takes 15 minutes in total, of which sautéing takes about 10 minutes. This is assuming that you chopped the mushrooms finely. If your mushroom pieces are larger, you will need a bit longer time to cook them.

It is simple but very tasty, and you don’t need to worry about calories.

Yumiko

Watch How To Make It

5 from 1 vote

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Asian Mushroom Spread

Prep Time

5 mins

Cook Time

10 mins

Total Time

15 mins

 

Asian Mushroom Spread is not a traditional Japanese dish, but I decided to post it because it uses only Asian mushrooms. Asian Mushroom Spread is made from a mixture of different mushrooms with a hint of spice from chilli. See the video.

If you are vegan, use oil instead of butter.

Don't forget to see the section 'MEAL IDEAS' below the recipe card! It gives you a list of dishes that I have already posted and this recipe that can make up a complete meal. I hope it is of help to you.

Recipe Type: Appetiser

Cuisine: Japanese

Keyword: Asian mushroom recipe, healthy dips, mushroom paste, sauteed mushroom recipes

Serves: 1 cup

Author: Yumiko

Ingredients (tbsp=15ml, cup=250ml)

• 300g/0.7lb mixed Asian mushrooms (note 1)
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 dried chilli finely chopped (note 2)
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 tbsp oil
• 1 tbsp butter
• 2 tbsp dry white wine

Instructions

1. Finely chop all the mushrooms. Flatten the garlic using the side of a kitchen knife.
2. Heat oil and butter in a frying pan over medium heat.
3. Add the mushrooms to the pan and sauté for 2-3 minutes, until the mushroom pieces start sweating.

4. Add the garlic and continue to sauté for 5 minutes or until the mushroom pieces become wet (see the video).

5. Add wine and cook for 15-20 seconds until the liquid almost evaporates.
6. Add salt and chilli, mix well, then turn off the heat.

7. Transfer the mushrooms into a tall and narrow container if you are using a stick blender like me, or in a food processer.

8. Blitz until the mushroom becomes like a paste (note 3). Because the cooked mushrooms hardly contain liquid, you may need to push down the mushroom pieces stuck around the container wall a couple of times to make sure that all the mushroom pieces turned into paste.

9. Transfer the paste to a serving bowl and smooth the surface.

Recipe Notes

1. I used 5 kinds of Asian mushrooms - shiitake mushrooms, king oyster mushrooms, shimeji mushrooms, enoki mushrooms, and pearl mushrooms (see the ingredients photo in the post).

You don’t need to have the same kinds of mushrooms as mine and the quantity can also vary as long as the total weight is as per the recipe.

Make sure that all the mushrooms are very fresh.

2. One chilli does not make the spread very hot, but if you are sensitive to chilli, you can omit it.

3. You can decide how smooth/coarse the paste should be. I made it like a paste so that you don’t see chunks of mushroom pieces, but the texture of the paste is a bit grainy. Some recipes purposely leave chunks in the paste.

4. Nutrition per serving, assuming that it is consumed by 8 people.

serving: 46g calories: 44kcal fat: 3.3g (5%) saturated fat: 1g (5%) trans fat: 0.1g polyunsaturated fat: 0.4g monounsaturated fat: 1.6g cholesterol: 3.8mg (1%) sodium: 161mg (7%) potassium: 135mg (4%) carbohydrates: 2.4g (1%) dietary fibre: 0.7g (3%) sugar: 0.6g protein: 1.2g vitamin a: 1% vitamin c: 0.9% calcium: 0.2% iron: 1.8%