sweet miscellany

These oyster mushrooms steaks with polenta and miso gravy are a great meatless main dish for the holiday season! Oyster mushrooms are seared then served atop an herbed polenta with a dollop of miso gravy. You can enjoy this vegan and gluten free recipe during the holidays and beyond.

If you’re looking for an umami-rich main dish this holiday season without the meat, try these oyster mushroom “steaks” with miso gravy! The oyster mushrooms are seared to perfection then served atop a bed of pillowy herbed polenta. The dish is topped with a generous pour of miso gravy right before serving. This dish is vegan and gluten free which makes it a great option for those avoiding meat, dairy, and wheat.

Don’t be intimidated by this three-component recipe! You’ll start by making your polenta. You’ll thicken it to a certain point, then cover it and let it do its thing. While the polenta finishes cooking, you can sear off the mushrooms. Then comes the gravy! To keep the mushrooms warm while you make the gravy, you can cover the pan with foil and place it in the warming drawer of your oven. If you don’t have a warming drawer, you can either use the “warm” setting or set your oven to about 175 degrees.

Since the gravy will thicken as it sets, make sure to have some extra stock on hand in case you need to thin it out a bit. You can keep it in a small pot over low heat so that it’s ready to go. Simply add warm stock to the gravy a bit at a time until is loosens back to a pourable consistency.

Oyster Mushroom Steaks with Miso Gravy

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Author: Courtney West
Total Time: 45 minutes
Yield: 4 servings 1x
Diet: Vegan

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Description

Ingredients

Units Scale

for the polenta:

4 cups vegetable stock
1 cup polenta
sea salt, to taste
1 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary
1 teaspoon chopped fresh sage
1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
1/2 tsp garlic powder

for the mushrooms:

8 ounces oyster mushrooms, separated into at least 4 large clusters/steaks if possible
sea salt, to taste
pepper, to taste
1 tablespoon olive oil

for the miso gravy:

2 teaspoons olive oil or vegan butter
2 tablespoons oat flour
1 1/2 cups vegetable stock, plus a bit more as needed to thin the gravy
1 tbsp mellow miso paste
sea salt, to taste

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Instructions

Make the polenta: add the stock to a pot set over medium high heat. If you are using low sodium stock, add a pinch of salt. Once the stock comes to a boil, whisk in the polenta. Keep whisking the polenta until it thickens and begins to sputter, then mix in the herbs and garlic powder. Turn the heat down to medium low, cover the pot, and let it cook undisturbed for 15 minutes. Remove it from the heat and keep it covered until ready to serve. If you like, you can taste it and add more salt if needed.
Make the mushrooms: while the polenta is cooking, heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Sprinkle a bit of salt and pepper on each side of the mushrooms. Once the oil is heated, place the mushroom “steaks” into the pan. Press them gently with the spatula, then let them cook undisturbed for 3-4 minutes or until you see the edges turning golden. Carefully flip the mushrooms, then cook an additional 2-3 minutes on the second side. Turn off the heat and cover the pan with foil to keep them warm while you make the gravy. Or, place the pan in the warming drawer of your oven.
Make the gravy: Add the oil or butter to a sauce pan set over medium heat. Once heated, sprinkle in the flour then whisk continuously until it begins to smell nutty and has darkened a bit in color (about 3-4 minutes total). Add the vegetable stock and the chickpea miso, then continue to whisk the gravy until smooth and thickened. It should be a pourable consistency. If it’s not, add a bit more vegetable stock. Taste the gravy and add salt and pepper as needed to suit your tastes.
To serve, divide the polenta between 4 shallow bowls. Top the polenta with a mushroom steak, then drizzle it with a hearty helping of the miso gravy. Makes 4 main course servings.

Notes

Typically oyster mushrooms are sold in large clusters. For this recipe, I kept them in their clusters so I could cook them into “steaks”. If the mushrooms you come across are already broken down into smaller pieces, you’ll simply cook them as-is.
Your gravy will be thinner than is shown in the photos as it thickened over the course of taking photos. Make sure to keep some stock in a pot on the stove set over low heat in case you need to thin it a bit!

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 35 minutes
Category: main

If you are new here, or perhaps have only come to know me or the blog in the past couple of years, this is likely the only capacity you’ve ever seen Sweet Miscellany. But, when I started this blog over six years ago, it was as a companion to my baking business of the same name. It was a small business with a sole owner and employee (ahem, ME) and the goal was to create treats for those that suffer from food allergies or cannot indulge in the typical dairy and gluten-laden baked goods. For three years I sold at my local farmers market up in Longview and via a shop on Etsy. It was a lot of hard work and late nights but oh so rewarding. One of my favorite moments was when a market customer told me her son loved Saturdays because it meant he could eat get his weekly cookie treat. He had so many food allergies that he couldn’t enjoy one elsewhere in our town. That moment was why I did what I did. That and the fact that I got tired of the sub-par crap passed off at gluten free and/or vegan baked goods.

When I moved back to Houston in 2014, I originally had the intent to bring that part of Sweet Miscellany with me. I was going to find a suitable farmers market and kitchen space to rent. But once I started settling in, everything seemed overwhelming. There were already so many people here doing what I did but on a much larger scale. It seemed as if I would get lost in the noise. I thought on it for weeks and ultimately decided to “retire”. I decided to take the portions I really loved about it and translate it elsewhere into recipe development and teaching. So I focused all of my effort into the blog, getting freelance work with a few publications, and working with yoga retreats and other events as a plant based chef. But every time I went to get rid of the supplies and equipment related with my baking business, something told me to wait and hold onto it. So there everything sat, hidden away but holding steady. Waiting.

Back in the damning heat of the late summer as I was visiting the farm I freelance for, the topic of their farmers market came up. And for whatever reason, I decided to give them my business card as a potential vendor. Apparently three years was what my body and mind needed. I decided I would officially re-launch the dormant business side of Sweet Miscellany because no matter how many other similar products there are on the market, there will never be anybody that does what I can do. I recognize that now but it wasn’t so apparent three years ago.

And so here we are. The reason I’ve been somewhat absent from the space the past couple of weeks is that I was busy preparing and baking for the official “come back” event. It was last Saturday out by the farm I work with. And although I didn’t sell as much as I would have liked to, it felt great to be back in that capacity. To pour my heart and soul into something and be able to pass that on to others. To connect. To interact. To share. I’m not yet sure what event I will do next but I am set up to make and deliver goods in the Houston area. I’ll be adding a “Products” tab to the blog menu soon in case anyone would like to peruse what I have thus far. And, I might even do some Black Friday deals so stay tuned. 😉