This pasta recipe is all about the umami. That fifth flavor that is a bit salty and a bit sour, and mostly is simply umami. There’s no other way to describe it. This recipe combines pasta with mushrooms, sautéed in vegetable oil, along with a miso-based sauce. The miso is mixed with butter, which greatly refines the strong miso flavors. The result is a delicious miso mushroom pasta, simple to make, special, and one that you just can’t stop eating.

Miso is a seasoning paste that comes from Japanese cuisine. It is (mostly) based on soybeans that are fermented together with koji mushrooms. In Japanese cuisine miso is very common and is used for seasoning almost any type of dish. There are many types of miso, but you can roughly divide them into two – the light miso and the dark miso. The light miso (white / yellow) ferments less time than the dark (red), and therefor less salty. In today’s recipe I use dark miso.

How to make this miso mushroom pasta?

The first step is mixing butter with miso. The butter should be soft (but not liquid), so you should take the butter out of the fridge before starting to prepare the recipe. If it is hot outside – a few minutes will do. However, in the winter, take out the butter about half an hour before start. Beat the butter with the miso until a smooth, uniform mixture is obtained. Set aside.

The next step for the miso mushroom pasta is to sauté the mushrooms. I used portabella mushrooms and shimji. You can use any type of mushrooms that are suitable for sautéing, including button mushrooms. Roughly slice the mushrooms. Grease a wide pan with some vegetable oil (neutral in flavors). Than, sauté the mushrooms for a few minutes while stirring. After a few minutes, add about 3 cloves of crushed garlic and continue to cook for another minute, just until you start to smell the garlic. Transfer the mushrooms from the pan to a separate plate.

Cooking the pasta –

Now you can start cooking the pasta. An important pasta rule is that pasta should be transferred immediately after cooking into an already ready sauce. Pasta can’t wait for the sauce, because it almost certainly will leave us with overcooked pasta. In the recipe I use dry pasta. You can use any type of pasta, just pay attention to the cooking time which varies depending on the type of pasta. Cook the pasta one minute less than the cooking time recommended by the manufacturer. That is because the pasta will continue to be cooked in the sauce for another minute.

The last part of preparing the sauce should take only 3-4 minutes. Time to start cooking the pasta accordingly. You can definitely start the next step about 5 minutes before the end of the pasta’s cooking time, and if you have to wait for the pasta to be ready – lower the flame to minimum heat and wait.

Transfer the miso and butter mixture to the same wide pan in which we sautéed the mushrooms. Add one cup of the pasta’s cooking water to the miso mixture. Mix until a smooth, uniform sauce is obtained. Bring the sauce to a boil and add the mushrooms we sautéed and kept aside. Lower the heat and wait until the cooking time of the pasta is over. Add the cooked pasta into the sauce, stir and continue to cook for another minute. Turn off the heat, stir in chopped green onions and serve immediately.

Looking for more great recipes?

• Wild Rice with Red Cabbage
• Lentils and Roasted Beets Salad
• Sautéed Green Beans with Mushrooms
• Vegan Cherry Crumb Bars

Print Recipe

Miso Mushroom Pasta

Prep Time5 minutes mins

Cook Time15 minutes mins

Total Time20 minutes mins

Course: pasta

serves: 2

Ingredients:

• 250 gr/ 9-oz dry pasta
• 2 tablespoons red miso paste
• 3 tablespoons soft butter (40 gr / 1½-oz), regular or vegan
• 2 tablespoon vegetable oil (eg canola, grape seeds)
• 400 gr / 13-oz mushrooms , clean and coarsely chopped. use any kind of mushroom suitable for sautéing (button, portabella, shimji, carmine etc.)
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• ½ teaspoon black pepper
• pinch of salt
• 2-3 springs of green onions, chopped
• for cooking the pasta – a pot with plenty of boiling and well-salted water

Instructions:

• Place the miso paste and soft butter in a small mixing bowl. Whisk the miso and butter together until a uniform paste is obtained. Keep aside.
• Heat a wide skillet with vegetable oil. Add the chopped mushrooms, a pinch of salt and a teaspoon of black pepper, and sauté while stirring for 2-3 minutes. Add the crushed garlic and continue sautéing, while stirring, for another minute and no more. Transfer the prepared mushrooms to a separate plate and set aside.
• Cook the pasta in a pot with plenty of boiling and well-salted water (at least one teaspoon of salt). The cooking time depends on the pasta you have chosen to use, but in any case the pasta should be cooked one minute less than the cooking time recommended by the manufacturer. Start preparing the next step 5 minutes before the end of the pasta's cooking time.
• Heat a wide pan, the same pan in which we made the mushrooms. Place in it the miso and butter mixture and add one cup of the pasta's cooking water. Mix well until a uniform mixture is obtained and bring to a boil. Add the sautéed mushrooms that we kept aside and mix. If you have to wait until the pasta is ready – then lower to minimum heat and wait until the pasta is done cooking.
• Strain the cooked pasta and transfer it to the prepared miso and mushrooms sauce. Mix well so that all the pasta is covered in the sauce and continue to cook for another 1 minute. Turn off the heat and add chopped green onions. Serve immediately. Enjoy!

Did you make this recipe?
Please let me know how it turned out!
comment below or share it on instagram and tag #thehappylentils

הפוסט Miso Mushroom Pasta הופיע לראשונה ב- The Happy Lentils.

19 New Year Resolutions:

1. Going through an entire week without cooking israeli couscous. For what is worth, I’m the queen of israeli couscous. My kids can eat that for morning (…?!), lunch and dinner. With all due respect (and I do respect) to this lovely carb, it would be a dream to go through a whole week without it. (Of course, this decision bares a hidden wish that instead of israeli couscous my kids will start to like whole rice, but this is really a secret wish and we beter not tell them).

2. Listen to my body. To rest when it’s time to rest, breathe when it’s time to breathe. To nourish my body with delicious and real food, full of things that are good for it.

3. Drink less coffee.

4. Go on a date with Tamar once a month. Only me and her, the girls.

5. To have more patience, especially with the kids.

6. To go dancing

7. Meditation. I start and stop and start again and stop again. Rumor has it that practicing meditation is a key element in a person’s happiness. Will I be able to give myself the gift of a daily meditation practice in 2019?

8. Travel more. That’s a star in every list, isn’t it? To travel in Israel, to travel abroad, to travel with my kids, to travel only with Lior and to travel only with myself. To get to know at least one new country.

9. Buy less. Teach my kids how important it is.

10. Meeting at least one new friend, but the kind of friend that will be around for many many years.

11. Organize all the pictures laying across computers and mobile devices. I swear, this year it will be done.

12. Write every day one thing I’m grateful for. It’s part of a positive self-talk I’m trying to make with myself. I already bought a special notebook

13. Getting a gel manicure. Wait, don’t leave. As a daughter to a hair designer dad and a mom who sells beauty products, there is no better phrase to describe my grooming habits than “the shoemaker’s children go barefoot”… I feel like making one new beauty care habit this year, and stick with it.

14. To take an Indian cooking course. If I don’t get to visit India this year, at least I’ll learn a little more about this lovely cuisine.

15. Dental floss. Every day.

16. Not to go on the scale. At all. All year round.

17. To find the perfect recipe for pizza dough.

18. Continue to make this blog a home. “The Happy Lentils” has been out there for less than two months, and its birth has been such a joyous event for me. I wish more and more guests will come to visit this home this year

19. To live a simpler life. Live simple, think simple, cook simple. To find inspiration in the way my children see the world. The simplicity always makes the things that are really important shine, so this year, let’s make the really important things be the stars.

19s. (what? it’s allowed!) To sit on the 31.12.2019 and see with pride that I have marked all the sections. Nothing is more satisfying, and I say this as an enthusiastic fan of lists, than seeing a list with a small check mark next to each item. It is also just the right moment to start putting together a new list.

Have a beautiful 2019 everyone

A simple, quick, seriously delicious pasta dish. Perfect for a mid-week dinner. Try it today.

Broccoli, Leek and Walnuts Pasta
serves 4

Ingredients:
9 oz/ 250 gr pasta, according to preference
1/2 head broccoli, cut into small florets (about 7 oz/200 gr)
1 cup leek, sliced in half and then into thin strips
4 garlic cloves, crushed
1 cup basil
1/2 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped
1/2 teaspoon chili flakes
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:
1. In a large pot with boiling water and a tablespoon of salt, cook the pasta according to the package’s instructions. Add the broccoli florets 5 minutes before the end of the cooking and continue cooking the pasta and the broccoli together. When done, reserve 3/4 cup of cooking water, then drain the pasta and broccoli.
2. In a deep pan, or in the same pot where we cooked the pasta and broccoli, heat olive oil. Add leeks, ground chili, salt and pepper. Toss the leeks, while stirring, for about three minutes. Add the crushed garlic, and cook for another minute.
3. Add to the pan/pot the cooked pasta and broccoli, walnuts and the reserved cooking water. Mix well and cook for about 2 more minutes. Turn off the heat and add in the basil – chopped, torn in the hands or whole.
4. The dish can be kept in a sealed container in the fridge for up to 3 days.

הפוסט Broccoli, Leek and Walnuts Pasta הופיע לראשונה ב- The Happy Lentils.