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You know you have a hit on your hands when a plate of pesto stuffed mushrooms disappears before the plate of mini donuts and potato chips during a football-watching party with friends. These are so delicious!
More importantly, they’re easy to prepare. The pesto comes together in about 5 minutes, then you stuff it into mushrooms and bake until tender.
Did I mention you don’t need cheese to make these? I’m always prepared for my dairy-free friends, so you won’t notice at all in the final dish. The pesto tastes like regular pesto, only it’s made without Parmesan cheese. No weird substitutes required!
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Featured Review
“My go-to appetizer! Everyone loves them, even my basil hating hubs! I’ve used pine nuts, cashews, and pistachios– they all work perfectly!” – Kelli
Ingredients You’ll Need
- Mushrooms. This works best with smaller mushrooms, like button or Cremini (baby bella). This recipe makes enough pesto to fill at least 16 ounces of mushrooms, but you may have a little leftover depending on how many mushrooms you get in a package. I usually get 20 to 24 small mushrooms from one pound.
- Basil. Fresh basil makes the best pesto in my opinion. But if you have a different herb you love, feel free to experiment with it.
- Spinach. I use this to help stretch the pesto without an overpowering basil flavor. I don’t notice the spinach taste at all!
- Nuts. You can use any nut you have on hand to make pesto. I originally shared this recipe with pecans, but I use pistachios most often. Pine nuts work, too! (They’re just more expensive.)
- Lemon Juice. A hint of fresh lemon juice makes pesto taste better, especially since we’re not using cheese in this.
- Garlic. A clove of fresh garlic is necessary in classic pesto. I use a microplane to finely mince it, so the flavor is well distributed.
How to Stuff Mushrooms Stuffed with Pesto
Step 1:
Preheat the oven to 350ºF and line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. The rimmed pan is important because the mushrooms release liquid as they cook. You don’t want that to spill into your oven!
In a mini food chopper (affiliate link), add the nuts, then secure the lid and pulse briefly until they look finely ground. Then add the spinach, basil, garlic, lemon juice, salt, and 2 tablespoons of water. Secure the lid again and pulse until the pesto looks pulverized. You may need to add up to 2 more tablespoons of water to get a smooth result; add water 1 tablespoon at a time until the mixture looks good.
Step 2:
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Wipe off the mushrooms with a damp cloth to remove any dirt or debris. Then grab the stem and twist to remove it from each mushroom. (I discard these, but you can save them for a stir fry if you like.)
Arrange the mushrooms stem-side-up on the prepared baking sheet in a single layer. Then add 1 to 2 teaspoons of pesto into the holes left behind from the removed stems. They should be slightly heaped.
Place the pesto-stuffed mushrooms in the oven to bake until tender, about 25 minutes.
Note: You can arrange the stuffed mushrooms on a wire rack (as I do with baked chicken legs) to let the liquid drip off as they bake.
Step 3:
When the timer goes off, remove the mushrooms from the oven and let them cool briefly, about 5 minutes. Then they are ready to serve!
I like to top these with a dusting of chopped pistachios, just to make them look a little prettier, but they are delicious either way.
Storage Tip: If you have any leftover pesto, store it in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days.
Pesto Stuffed Mushrooms (No Cheese!)
Ingredients
- ½ cup pistachios (or other nuts)
- 1 cup fresh spinach , tightly packed
- 1 cup fresh basil leaves , tightly packed
- 1 garlic clove , minced
- 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- 2 tablespoons water , or more as needed
- 16 ounces whole cremini or button mushrooms
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF and line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. In a mini food chopper, add the pistachios, then secure the lid and pulse several times until the nuts are finely ground.
- Next, add the baby spinach, fresh basil, minced garlic, lemon juice, salt, and 2 tablespoons of water. Secure the lid and process again until the mixture starts to break down. If needed, add another tablespoon of water and process until the pesto looks pulverized. (I need to use 4 tablespoons of water in total when using a very tightly packed cup of spinach; the amount may vary each time.)
- Gently remove the stems from the mushrooms and wipe off any dirt with a damp cloth. Fill the centers of each mushroom with 1 to 2 teaspoons of pesto, then arrange all the stuffed mushrooms in a single layer on the prepared baking sheet. Bake at 350ºF for 25 minutes until the mushrooms are tender.
- Let the mushrooms cool briefly, then serve warm. (You can sprinkle some extra chopped pistachios on top to make them look prettier, if desired.) If you have leftover pesto, enjoy it over pasta or grain bowls this week. It also makes a delicious dip for veggies.
Notes
Nutrition
More Recipes to Try
- Pesto Pasta Salad
- Ground Beef and Broccoli (with sneaky mushrooms)
- Healthy Peanut Butter Eggs
- Carrot Cake Baked Oatmeal
- Bunny Cinnamon Rolls
If you try these Pesto Stuffed Mushrooms, please leave a comment and star rating below to let me know how you like it.
I plan to make these for a party next month. I plan to also pulse in the mushroom stems, add more garlic and some red pepper lakes.
These look amazing. I am making them for our holiday party this weekend. Just wondering if it helps to bake the mushrooms a bit prior to stuffing them to release some of the moisture? Thanks
Love these! So super easy. I did a small tweak. I added 2 tbs of nutritional yeast, extra teaspoon of lemon juice and and 3 cloves of garlic instead of one. As well as a little extra pecans. So delicious & nutty you won’t miss dairy or gluten
I made these with cashews instead of pecans and lime juice instead of lemon juice – they were awesome!
Glad to hear it! Thanks for sharing. 🙂
I used portabello mushrooms and topped with breadcrumbs. I also used olive oil instead of water. They were great.
Absolutely delicious. I followed the recipe exactly except I doubled the garlic. The hint of lemon highlights the freshness of the spinach and basil, and the meatiness of the mushrooms. Everyone in my family enjoyed them!
This looks delish!! I want to make these tonight but use large portabella mushrooms instead. Does the recipe need to be modified at all for the larger mushrooms?
Just made them yesterday, there were absolutely delicious! Pecans are very expensive in my country, so I substituted it with walnuts – pesto still turned out great. The amount of salt in the recipe is on point – pesto itself was quite salty, but with pretty plain tasting mushroom it was awesome. Thanks for amazing recipe!
IF I am allergic to pecans is there anything I can swap for it or just leave it out???? Or will that ruin the overall taste?
Thanks,
G
I omitted the nuts entirely and used the stems from the mushrooms to give the stuffing some body. I also added onions and sautéed everything on Earth Balance, and added a little bread crumb as a binder…
I guess what I’m saying is, make this idea your own…it’s cooking, not baking, roll with it. I might not have come up with this idea, which is whi I’m here, and this was great, but I never worry about a tweak, and you shouldn’t, either.
I have to comment. These things are amazing! I feel like a gourmet chef. WOW. They were so easy to make and my bf, who hates all my vegan stuff, LOVED these. We ate 12 between the two of us. We were so full but there was no way we were letting any of these go to waste. Thank you so much for the wonderful healthy recipe.