Spinach Dip-Stuffed Mushrooms

Last day of January and I am more than ready for February, not because February is warm — it is not, not here, not reliably — but because it is shorter and it has Valentine's Day in the middle of it and Valentine's Day is a holiday I have always found useful regardless of romantic circumstance. It is a legitimate excuse to cook something extravagant for no one in particular, which is a thing I enjoy doing when I can justify it.

I have been thinking about the spring Memphis trip. Cousin Rosemary and I have been texting back and forth — she found her copy of Mama's tomato preserve recipe, written on the back of a Piggly Wiggly receipt in pencil, and she photographed it and sent it to me, and I sat with my phone for a long time looking at my mother's handwriting. Rosemary and I agreed on late April, which means I need to make sure Bernice's Table is covered for the Tuesday I'm gone. Odalys has been running it alongside me for months now and she is more than capable. That table is not mine alone anymore, which I know Bernice would have wanted. You build something strong enough that it holds when you step away from it.

Bernice's Table had sixty-one people this Tuesday, which is a record. The January cold brings people in and the word has spread further than I realized — we had a family this week that drove from the other side of the county because someone at their church told them about us. I don't know how to process that kind of reach except to make sure the greens are good and the cornbread is hot and there is enough of everything. If they drove forty minutes, they deserve a full plate.

January done. The light is already slightly longer. I notice this every year around the twenty-eighth — the evening holds an extra few minutes of pale light before it lets go. That is enough. That is the first sign. I take it every year as a promise.

Sixty-one people this past Tuesday, and what I keep coming back to is the greens—how the greens have to be right, how that is not negotiable when someone drove forty minutes and walked through the door not knowing what to expect. I have been thinking about what it means to feed people well in a small space with limited hands, and these spinach dip-stuffed mushrooms remind me of exactly that: greens made rich and warm, packed into something you can hold and pass and share without a second thought. They are the kind of thing Bernice would have set out on the end of the table and said nothing about, just let people find them.

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 20 min | Total Time: 35 min | Servings: 6

Ingredients

18 large white or cremini mushrooms, stems removed and reserved
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 cups fresh baby spinach, roughly chopped (or one 10-oz package frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed dry)
4 oz cream cheese, softened
1/3 cup sour cream
1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese, divided
1/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (optional)
Salt and black pepper to taste

Instructions

Preheat and prep. Preheat oven to 375°F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Wipe mushroom caps clean with a damp cloth and arrange them hollow-side up on the baking sheet.
Cook the filling. Finely chop the reserved mushroom stems. Heat olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add the chopped stems and cook 3–4 minutes until softened and any moisture has cooked off. Add garlic and cook 1 minute more. Add the spinach and stir until wilted, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool slightly.
Mix the dip. In a medium bowl, stir together the cream cheese, sour cream, 1/4 cup of the Parmesan, the mozzarella, onion powder, and red pepper flakes if using. Fold in the cooked spinach mixture. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Fill the mushrooms. Spoon the spinach filling generously into each mushroom cap, mounding it slightly. Sprinkle the remaining 1/4 cup Parmesan evenly over the tops.
Bake. Bake for 18–20 minutes, until the mushrooms are tender and the tops are golden and bubbling. Let rest 5 minutes before serving.

Nutrition (per serving)

Spinach Dip-Stuffed Mushrooms — A Little Something for the Table That Feeds Everyone