Portobello Burgers with Aioli

I never got around to posting yesterday because we had a crazy busy day. In the morning was my Bible study group, then we met my friend Gina for lunch at Z Tejas. I heart Z Tejas. I used to frequent their happy hour quite often because they make a darn good margarita and just a couple will knock you on your butt. I like a lot of bang for my buck when it comes to happy hour. Or liked I guess, since I really have no idea when the last time was I went to a happy hour. Anyway, I had the smoked chicken chile relleno. I'd never had it before and was feeling slightly adventurous. Per the menu on their website, it's a "Grilled poblano pepper stuffed with chicken, pecans, apricots, raisins, a blend of spices and Jack cheese, served over a green chile and picante cream sauce with green chile rice and black beans." Lordy mama, was it ever tasty. I ate every last bite and only left a couple black beans--and the stem of the pepper--on my plate. Yum. I've never been disappointed with anything there.

Anyway, we got home from lunch and I quickly fed the baby because my mom was coming over to watch the kids so I could try and get the boy in a preschool and then go grocery shopping. The boy didn't win the lottery for the preschool, so after I got home I spent the rest of the afternoon looking up preschools to check out for him. There are a few that look good, so I'm hoping I end up liking one of them. I was way too caught up in preschool searching to stop and post my recipe for last night, so I'm doing it this morning.

Truth be told, I was more disappointed that the grocery store I went to only had one pacakge of portobello mushrooms than I was that the boy didn't get in to the preschool. My two grocery choices are Fry's and Safeway, and I like Safeway so much better, but I went to Fry's because they had portobellos on sale--and then didn't even have enough! Grrrr. I made due, though, and bought a package of the baby portobello caps to make up the difference. It worked out okay. This is another recipe from RecipeZaar.com.

Portabella Burgers With Aioli
Recipe #19147
By: Kim Weimer

4 medium portabella mushrooms
1 cup gouda cheese, shredded
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 garlic cloves
4 hamburger buns (We prefer whole wheat)

Aioli:
1/2 cup light mayonnaise
1 teaspoon italian seasoning
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon dill weed

First make the aioli sauce. Just add all the Aioli ingredients and whisk together. Chill for approximately 20 minutes.

Lightly clean the Portobello mushrooms and remove the stems. Mix the Olive oil and Garlic and brush all over Mushrooms. Broil Mushrooms for 3-5 minutes with rib side down. Turn over and top with cheese. Broil an additional 3 minutes. Place on Hamburger bun and top with aioli or anything you would prefer.

*****

I used my grill pan instead of broiling them, and I used slices of provolone instead of gouda. I still had some of the whole wheat buns I had made leftover, so we had our sandwiches on those. They were super yummy!! The aioli was really tasty and a nice complement to the mushrooms. I love having portobello burgers because they're so easy to put together, and the mushrooms just have so much flavor. Yum!

For side dishes I made butternut squash fries (I'm posting that recipe after this one) and some roasted asparagus. It was quite a vegetarian feast. For the asparagus I just lay it out on a cookie sheet, pour some olive oil over the spears, sprinkle with salt, and throw in the oven. Easy and so tasty.