Asian-Inspired Mushroom Ragu
The perfect topping for anything Asian, this recipe is the epitome of umami goodness.
I love this recipe because I'll often receive large amounts of mushrooms from food banks that need to be used up immediately, so I use them to make this. For the sake of this recipe, I purchased the mushrooms as they were on sale at my local asian market, and so I used baby king oyster mushrooms. However, regular white mushrooms or baby bellas work as well. It is especially good when made with shitake mushrooms, but those are rarely on sale so I rarely make this recipe with them.
This Asian-Inspired Mushroom Ragu is a vegan alternative to asian minced meat recipes. If you aren’t vegan, don’t focus on the fact this is a “vegan” recipe; it wasn’t intended to be vegan, it just happens to be. It is downright delicious and so versatile. Top a rice bowl, noodles, ramen, tofu, or even blanched greens with it! Sprinkle it over eggs at breakfast, or try adding it so sandwiches, wraps, and different entrees.
Start by laying out all of your ingredients. If you don't have chili oil then you can use regular canola oil or your oil of preference and add in some fine Korean chili powder instead. I was running low on chili oil so I used a mixture of both.
It takes much less time to make this recipe if you use a food processor to pulse the mushrooms until they measure about 1/6 of an inch, and you can use it to brunoise or finely mince the aromatics as well. Sadly, my food processor broke right before making this recipe, so I chopped up everything by hand which still works, it just takes more time.
Once your oil is smoking hot, add in the mushrooms and cook for about 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Throughout the entire cooking process you want to avoid “piling” the mushrooms up on top of each other. After stirring, flatten out the mushrooms on pan so you cook them evenly.
After cooking the mushrooms for five minutes or once they start to brown, add in your aromatics, and if you didn't use chili oil, add in your fine Korean chili powder. Cook, stirring frequently, until the aromatics start to become sticky on the bottom of your pan.
Once the aromatics begin to stick on the bottom of the pan and caramelize, add in your Shaoxing wine or sake to deglaze the pan.
Cook, stirring constantly, until you have cooked off the alcohol and can no longer smell it.
Move the mushroom ragu to a bowl to stop the cooking process and season with the tamari and rice wine vinegar.
Taste the ragu so you know what the starting flavor is. Then add in a splash of tamari and a splash of rice wine vinegar. Taste it again. Continue adding tamari and rice wine vinegar until it is seasoned to your liking. Make sure to season while hot as the flavor changes when cooled down.
This recipe is a great way to use up a lot of mushrooms, and it is so delicious!
You can serve it on a rice bowl, use as an asian noodle sauce, top fried or steamed tofu, or use to top blanched greens such as bok choy. Our favorite way to enjoy this Asian-Inspired Mushroom Ragu is over salt n' pepper fried tofu.
Keeps in the fridge for 7 days.
- 4 Tbsp Chili Oil (If you don’t have chili oil use canola oil and add in fine korean chili powder (I used 1.5TBSP but tailor it to your preferred spice level), I was running low on chili oil so I used a mixture of both.)
- 2.5 cups diced mushrooms (Pulsed in a food processor until you the mushrooms are quite small but not so small that they’ll burn. About a 1/6 of an inch. My food processor sadly broke right before making this so I hand chopped the mushrooms. Feel free to hand chop them but it is much more time consuming. I used mini king trumpet mushrooms but regular white mushrooms, porabellas all work great. Shitakes are the best but they are pricier.)
- 6 cloves garlic (brunoise or finely minced)
- 2 inch piece ginger (brunoise or finely minced)
- 1 large shallot (brunoise or finely minced)
- 3 tsp fine korean chili powder (only use this if you don't have chili oil and used canola oil instead)
- 1.5 Tbsp Shaoxing Wine or Sake (any cooking wine will do but try to use something that is low in sugar)
- - to taste tamari (If you don't have tamari you can use soy sauce instead.)
- - to taste rice wine vinegar (If you don't have rice wine vinegar dissolve some sugar in regular white vinegar and use the vinegar sugar solution to season instead.)
Measure out all of your cooking ingredients as well as your Shaoxing wine or sake. Pulse your mushrooms, or dice them, until they measure about 1/6th of an inch. Brunoise or finely mince your aromatics: ginger, garlic, and shallots. Instead of manually cutting your aromatics you can also throw them in the food processor separately to finely mince them.
Heat Chili oil or canola oil until smoking hot.
Add mushrooms to the pan. Cook for about 5 minutes stirring frequently.
Throughout the entire cooking process of this recipe you want to avoid “piling” the mushrooms up on top of each other. After stirring flatten out the mushrooms on pan so you cook them evenly.Add in aromatics (garlic, ginger, and shallots). Cook for 5-8 minutes stirring constantly to avoid the aromatics from burning until the aromatics start to stick to the bottom of your pan.
If you used regular canola oil instead of chili oil add the fine korean chili powder along with your aromatics.Deglaze your pan with Shaoxing Wine / Sake. Cook off the alcohol stirring constantly. Once the alcohol smell is gone remove from heat.
Place the mushroom ragu in a bowl to stop the mushrooms and aromatics from continuing to cook.
Taste it so you know what the starting flavor is. Then add in a splash of tamari and a splash of rice wine vinegar. Taste it again. Continue adding tamari and rice wine vinegar until it is seasoned to your liking. Make sure to season while hot as the flavor changes when cooled down.
I used about 2 tsp of tamari and 2.5 tsp of rice wine vinegar. If you don't have tamari you can use soy sauce instead.Serve over a bowl of rice, use as an asian noodle sauce, top fried or steamed tofu, or use it to top blanched greens such as bok choy. Enjoy!