Mushroom Stroganoff for World Vegetarian Day!

Happy World Vegetarian Day!  Whether you eat meat or not, I think we can all agree that more fruits and veggies are a good thing...a yummy good thing.  I was a vegetarian for most of my life, but let's be honest, I'm too much of a foodie to restrict myself (I'm looking at you delicious, delicious bacon jam!), especially when so many items are already off the table due to the Mister's and my food allergies.  But for the most part we practice Meatless Mondays in our home, and we would really be up a creek if it weren't for all those crafty vegan cooks, like Doron Petersan of Sticky Fingers Sweets & Eats,  who come up with new and interesting ways to make desserts we can safely eat.  So on this World Vegetarian Day, I give you a way to use up the mushrooms and most of that lone onion from this week's Crop Share...my version of Skinnytaste's Mushroom Stroganoff!

Mushroom Stroganoff

Ingredients:

1 Tbsp butter (I used Earth Balance Margarine for dairy-free)

1/2 sweet onion, chopped

2 Tbsp corn starch

2 cups reduced sodium vegetable broth

1 Tbsp plus 2 tsp soy sauce (I use Kikkoman's gluten-free soy, but you can also use 1 Tbsp only of Worcestershire sauce.  My Mama always used soy sauce in her stroganoff, so that's why I went that route)

1 tsp tomato paste

1 tsp Dijon mustard

1 pint mushrooms, gently washed, stems trimmed and sliced

1/4 tsp thyme

Ground black pepper to taste

2 Tbsp dry white wine

1/4 cup sour cream or plain Greek yogurt (I used Tofutti's Sour Supreme for dairy-free)

8 oz uncooked noodles (I use Schar's tagliatelle as it's gluten and egg-free, and you won't even know!)

Begin to bring your pasta water to a boil so that you can cook your noodles while you prepare the sauce.  If you want to mix your noodles into the stroganoff, then undercook them to allow them to finish in the sauce.  I prefer a larger noodle to sauce ratio, so I fully cooked the noodles and then spooned the amount of sauce I wanted on my portion.

In a skillet, melt your butter over medium high heat until it's bubbly.  Add in you onion and saute for about 3-4 minutes, until onions are translucent.  Stir in your corn starch and fully coat all the onions, allowing to cook for an addition 30 seconds.  Slowly add your vegetable broth, scraping up any browned bits from the bottom of the pan.  Add in soy sauce and tomato paste, making sure to fully mix in the tomato paste.  Bring up to a simmer and add your mushrooms, thyme and ground black pepper.  Simmer for about 4 minutes or until sauce has thickened up.  Stir in your white wine (and here would be where I had an oops, I thought 2 CUPS of wine -- wishful thinking -- so thankfully I only had a 1/2 cup at my disposal and caught myself before I added more, so if you'd like a more "winey" sauce, then add a half cup of white wine and then an addition 2 tsp of soy sauce) and bring sauce to a low simmer.

Once noodles are cooked either drain and mix in to the sauce, or set aside and toss with a splash of olive oil to keep them from sticking.

Before serving, stir sour cream into the sauce and leave on heat for an additional minute to bring it all up to the same temperature.

**You'll be easily able to convert this into a beef stroganoff by starting with 1 lb of beef round or chuck cut into 2 " cubes (my Mama always asked the butcher to run them through the meat tenderizer to make the pieces melt in your mouth even more) and brown that up in butter or olive oil before removing and adding in the onions and mushrooms to brown up.  Then add the beef back in, stir in your corn starch and add your liquid to loosen all the lovely browned bits from the bottom of the pan.  Proceed from there and simmer everything for about 30 minutes before stirring in the sour cream.**