Ay-Oh-Lee and Portobello Sandwich

I've been on a serious mushroom kick lately. I put them in EVERYTHING. Salads, soups, pastas, rice, you name it, I shroomed it. This obsession reached a fevered pitch a few weeks ago when I decided to buy bulk portobello mushroom caps.

2 containers to be exact.

If you haven't noticed this about me yet, I have eyes that are bigger than my stomach. I also get really nervous when food sits in my refrigerator for longer than 3 days. Put those two lovely character traits together and you get a wasteful person who throws out a lot of food.

But, I've been working on this.

Matt will eat things that have mold blatantly growing on them. He says it helps fight staph infections.

We'll leave that little tidbit alone for the time being...

Anyways, I had to move quickly with these mushroom caps, so I found a recipe in the "Clean Food" cookbook that utilized the mushroom caps as the star of a hearty sandwich. The only problem was that I had no idea what Aioli was.

Oh well, I decided to do it anyways.

One thing I love about this cookbook is that it allows for much variety depending on what you have in the kitchen and what you like. It even seems to allow for those moments where you realize that you've put in an entire jar of sundried tomatoes including their juices even though the recipe only called for 6 and sans juice.

Oh well.

These were delish.

And so hearty, but we served with some leftover frozen corn (dethawed of course...but barely).

And we had leftover aioli for days...which meant we could repeat this recipe again and again.

Oh yea, and I realized that aioli is just like...a mayo based sauce. Garlicky I presume. Not scary at all!

Here's the recipe for "Roasted Portobello Sandwich with Sun-dried Tomato Aioli" from Clean Food by Terry Walters.

Ingredients:
- Portobello mushrooms (1-2 per serving)
- Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- 1 tbsp minced fresh herbs of choice (thyme, oregano, parsley, basil)
- Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 4 slices of bread
- Roasted red peppers, sliced into 1/2 inch strips
- Avocado, thinly sliced
- Romaine or fresh spring mix lettuce
- Mustard (honey dijon)- optional

Aioli:
- 6 sun dried tomatoes
- 1 garlic clove, peeled
- 1 1/2 cups grapeseed oil mayo (I used Nayonaise).
- 2 tbsp fresh italian herbs of choice
- pinch of sea salt

Preparing Aioli- soak dried tomatoes in hot water for 15 mins. or until soft. With food processor/blender running, drop in garlic. Process until minced. Squeeze excess water form tomatoes and add them along with mayo to the food processor. Scrape down side of the processor as needed and blend until smooth. Add herbs, salt and process lightly. Transfer to a container and refrigerate to allow flavors to blend. This aioli will last approx. 4-5 days in the fridge.

Roasting Portobellos- Preheat oven to 400F. Line cookie sheet with parchment paper. Wipe mushrooms with a damp towl to clean. Discard stems and rub smooth side with olive oil. Place smooth side down on cookie sheet and sprinkle insides with italian herbs, pepper and pinch of salt. Roast for about 8-10mins. until soft. Remove and set aside.

Assembling- Slice bread and lightly toast. Spread aioli on toast and top with roasted portobello, roasted red peppers, avocado and lettuce. Spread mustard on second piece of toast and top sandwich. Serve warm.