The savoury depth here comes from the soaking water, not from fat. If mushrooms do not agree with you, this is not the recipe to prove yourself on.
Serves 4. About 1 g fat and 140 kcal per serving.
Phase & care: P2, and small amounts to start. Fresh mushrooms are a later-phase food for me and dried ones are stronger again, so this is one to try once things have settled, on a day when nothing else is new. Tolerance varies per person.
Ingredients
- 20 g (about two thirds of an ounce) dried mushrooms
- 200 g (7 oz) fresh mushrooms, sliced
- 100 g (half cup) white rice
- 1.2 litres (5 cups) low-salt vegetable broth
- 1 carrot, diced small
- 1 small onion, chopped, optional and phase 2
- 1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves, or half a teaspoon dried
- Fresh parsley to finish
- Salt to taste
Method
- Cover the dried mushrooms with 250 ml (1 cup) of just-boiled water. Leave 20 minutes. Lift them out, chop them, and keep the soaking liquid. Pour it off carefully at the end and leave the last spoonful behind, that is where the grit settles.
- Dry-cook the fresh mushrooms in a hot pan without any oil, stirring, until they give up their water and it evaporates. This is where the flavour is made. Do not rush it.
- Add the carrot, the onion if you are using it, the chopped soaked mushrooms, the rice, the broth and the soaking liquid.
- Simmer 18 to 20 minutes until the rice is soft. Add thyme in the last five minutes, salt at the end, parsley in the bowl.
Rice keeps drinking liquid overnight, so a leftover portion wants an extra splash of broth when you reheat it.
Stepan’s rule: dry-frying mushrooms in a hot pan with nothing in it feels wrong the first time and right every time after that. Fat was never what made them taste of anything.
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Not medical advice. This recipe reflects one patient’s low-fat approach grounded in published guidance. Fat tolerance is individual. Check with your own healthcare team before changing your diet.