Herbed Oyster Mushroom Roast Recipe on Food52 (2024)

My main goal in developing this recipe was to create a scrumptious plant based roast that will easily become the centerpiece of your next Thanksgiving dinner. I wanted to create something that imitates the smoky meaty flavor of a roasted turkey and that also looks slightly similar to this classic holiday dish.

I ended up creating a smoky, spicy and pleasantly sweet mushroom roast that will definitely impress your guests at your next dinner. Oyster mushrooms were the perfect candidate for this recipe.

Although often overlooked, oyster mushrooms can provide a very rich and meaty texture to any sort of dish. This type of mushroom is very mild and humble in flavor, and while they still have that characteristic earthy note, they constitute the perfect blank canvas to play around with. One of the many reasons I enjoy working with this type of mushrooms, is the fact that they are incredibly absorbent and they will gracefully embrace any marinade you will coat them in.

For the marinade, I decided to go with a very flavorful combination of ingredients, a slightly smokey, umami, spicy mixture balanced out by a few sweet notes. The smoked paprika, soy sauce and garlic really elevate the mushroom from its humble vegetable state to this complex, meaty entity. The tomato paste and brown sugar are added to contrast the subtle bitter notes of the other elements in the marinade, they will caramelize in the oven, intensifying the flavor and aroma of the whole dish.

This recipe celebrates oyster mushrooms, emphasizes their natural qualities and elevates them to a whole new level, which will make them worthy of becoming a centerpiece at your holiday dinner. —Carolina Gelen

Directions

1. Heat the oven to 375°F or 190°C.
2. Using a damp paper or kitchen towel, gently clean the oyster mushrooms, then tear them apart from the main stem.
3. Prepare the marinade: Whisk all the remaining ingredients together in a large bowl.
4. Add the oyster mushrooms to the bowl and gently toss them using your hands, making sure all of them are well coated.
5. Place 3 long wooden or metal skewers on your work surface, connecting their non-pointed tip at one end (you can secure this with a piece of twine as you are building the skewers). Alternately thread mushrooms on each of the skewers until you've used just about all of them up. (Any pieces too small for the skewers can be stuck in between the skewers once you've arranged them in the baking dish.)
6. Place the onions cut in half and the rosemary sprigs in a deep rectangular baking dish. Place two skewers parallel to the shorter length of the baking dish, a few inches from each edge of the baking dish.
7. Arrange the three skewers on top of the onion and rosemary in the baking dish. Use the two supporting skewers to help prop up the mushrooms. Make sure the skewered mushrooms are arranged so they are slightly overlapping; you want it to look like a robust and uniformly thick roast.
8. Bake everything for 25 minutes. After 25 minutes, remove the baking dish from the oven, brush the mushrooms with more olive oil, and pop it back in the oven for 20 more minutes. If you are not using a convection oven, you might want to rotate the mushroom roast from time to time, to make sure it’s evenly roasting. You will know it is ready to be served once the mushroom shawarma is a deep, dark brown color and very caramelized on top.
9. Once the roast is out of the oven, let it rest for 5 to 10 minutes, then serve immediately.

Recipe by: Carolina Gelen