Healthy, delicious. HEALTHY. Mouthwatering. These oven roasted portobello mushrooms are not only tender and flavorful, but are also incredibly good for you! Slices of garlic, fresh parsley and extra-virgin olive oil. Ohhh my! Aren’t they beautiful?

To be quite honest with you, I sort of created this recipe by accident! It was a few months ago that I wanted to make a little roasted mushroom side dish to accompany some steaks that we were going to grill. I remember it was a super busy week for us, probably like most weeks, but this was one that I just couldn’t seem to find time to get to the grocery store. Thankfully, my sweetheart husband, Andrew, was more than willing to go to the store one night after work. So I emailed him my detailed list and then waited.

I’m always thankful when Andrew offers to go to the store for me, but at the same time, it can makes things just a bit more interesting. I mean, each loving trip usually results in us ending up with some new kind of snack or a different dessert to try. Then however, there are the times when they don’t have something that I wrote on my list, and that’s when the substitutions can possibly be left up to the shopper. Making the chef, me, have to be just a bit more flexible. I guess it’s that or lose the option of having a husband who is excited to grocery shop. So of course you know what I’m choosing!

Ok, so after Andrew got home from the store that evening, he was bringing in the bags of groceries and I was unpacking them. It looked like he had gotten everything on my list (with only a few impulse additions), until I pulled out BABY PORTOBELLO mushrooms! “These are NOT what I wanted!” I remember grouching to him. “I wanted REGULAR mushrooms!” I guess it must have been a long day or something, because in retrospect there probably wasn’t any reason to get so upset about mushrooms. He explained to me that the white mushrooms didn’t look as nice as these and that he really wanted to try them. I gave him a big hug and apologized for getting in a tizzy over something so silly as mushrooms. Then I brainstormed and did a little planning to create a recipe for this new development to our meal.

The next night when I made a special steak dinner for Andrew and I, guess which side dish was the biggest hit? Yep, these oven roasted portobello mushrooms have basically become one of our new favorite things of all time! So, I guess the moral of the story is that when you send your husband to the grocery store, you might never know what surprises are in store for you. But, with an open mind, you might just create something truly amazing. A great rule in the kitchen and in life 🙂

Note: Since this dish has quickly become such a hit in our house, I was more than excited to share it with my whole family on Christmas. So naturally when I offered to make it for such a large group, I made about five times what this recipe makes. However, with everything I love about this recipe, it wouldn’t be my first choice to make again for a large family gathering. The problem is that if you overcrowd the pan (or pans in my case on Christmas), the mushrooms don’t have enough room to really roast, and therefore get too watery. They still tasted great, and I did receive numerous complements on them, but they just weren’t as good as they normally are. So, while many recipes are ideal for making for large groups, my advice is that this is not one of those.

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