What To Do With It Edition: Nectarines + Mushrooms

Welcome to What To Do With It Wednesday!

This week our contestants are nectarines and mushrooms! Most of us are ready for fall sweaters and cooler weather, but there’s always a reason to fire up the grill.

First up: Grilled Romaine Salad with Nectarines, Bacon + Poblano Blue Cheese Dressing

Grilled lettuce? Don’t knock it til’ you try it! Lettuces like hearty romaine actually do really well on the grill. Caramelized on the outside but remaining crisp on the inside. Adding a gooey cheese like blue cheese right after it comes off the heat helps set in the melty yumminess.

To make this salad, I used the Poblano Blue Cheese dressing featured on last Saucy Sunday. It’s a super easy blender dressing - check out the post here.

What You’ll Need: (just up the ingredients if you’re making for more than 2-3 people)

-3 romaine hearts - washed and cut in half but still attached at the base

-1 nectarine - sliced thin

-few slices of crisp bacon - roughly ripped into bite size pieces

-1-2 tablespoons blue cheese

-poblano blue cheese dressing

Method:

Lay hearts on a sheet pan and drizzle with olive oil, then sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Grill over medium heat 2-3 minutes per side just to obtain great grill marks, then remove from grill and sprinkle blue cheese over lettuce while it’s still warm.

Transfer hearts to serving platter (feel welcome to chop lettuce up at this point, but the whole hearts give that ‘wow’ factor). Top with sliced nectarines, rustic ripped pieces of bacon, and drizzled Poblano Blue Cheese Dressing. Enjoy!

Buffalo Chicken Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms

Lots of hype surrounding the pizza stuffed portobellos I made a few weeks ago so I decided to provide another variation! This time with a fan and family favorite: buffalo chicken! Ya’ll know I love my Franks Hot Sauce… but in this recipe I doctor it up a bit to enhance the portobellos!

What You’ll Need:

For the Buffalo Sauce:

-1 cup Franks RedHot Original Hot Sauce

-1/2 cup butter

-2 tablespoons Apple Cider vinegar

-1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

-1/2 teaspoon onion powder

-1/2 teaspoon salt

*Makes about 1 1/2 cups - you’ll need about 1/2 cup for the chicken mixture in mushrooms but I always like to have extra for other things.

Method:

Melt butter, then combine with all other ingredients until mixed well.

For the Mushrooms: (just up ingredients for how many mushrooms you are making! I’d say 2 per person if no other sides)

-4 portobello mushrooms

-2 cups shredded chicken

-1/2 cup buffalo sauce from above

-olive oil

-2 cups spinach or arugula

-mozzarella cheese - enough to cover top of mushrooms, maybe 1 1/2 cups

-salt and pepper

-poblano blue cheese dressing from above

Method:

-Preheat oven to 400

-Lay cleaned mushrooms on baking sheet lined with foil or silpat (need some?) face up, drizzle with olive oil and salt - bake for 10-15 minutes depending on size (you should see a small pool of liquid in mushrooms)

-With a paper towel, gently soak up pooled liquid and set mushrooms aside

-In a small bowl, mix together buffalo sauce and shredded chicken and set aside for assembly

-Drizzle about a teaspoon of Poblano Blue Cheese dressing on slightly cooled mushrooms

-Top with spinach, then buffalo chicken, then mozzarella cheese to cover

-Bake for another 10 minutes or until cheese is melty and starting to bubble!