How To Easily Separate The Cap And Stem For Stuffed Mushrooms

Stuffed mushrooms are a fun, easy, appetizer to make, but what we really love about them is how economical they are. Not only are mushrooms themselves generally fairly inexpensive, but you usually don't need a whole lot of filler, either. That means you can stretch out even pricy ingredients like the crab meat developer Laura Sampson is using in her crab-stuffed mushroom recipe. As she tells us, these mushrooms "should be stuffed but not overstuffed."

Before you can fill the mushrooms, though, you must first take off the stems. This is actually ridiculously easy — as Sampson tells us, "Once you've wiped the mushrooms clean, you can just pop the stems right out." Her technique for doing so can be summed up in just six words: "Grasp at the base and pull." Once you've done so, the stem should come out in one piece, leaving a neat little indent where the stuffing can go.

Sampson does not make use of the mushroom stems in her recipe as her filling consists of nothing more than a small can of crab mixed with cream cheese, bread crumbs, and seasonings. This mixture makes enough filling for 20 mushrooms with a little left over that she feels is "great for a quick cook's snack with crackers." As for the mushroom stems, though, she doesn't just toss them out. (We're all about reducing food waste, so that would be a major no-no.) Instead, she says "Those stems can be saved and used in other dishes or at a bare minimum, a vegetable broth recipe."

Some recipes such as our hearty stuffed mushrooms, however, allow you to use up the stems right away by incorporating them into the stuffing. In this recipe, the stems are combined with breadcrumbs, seasonings, soft cheese (such as cream cheese), and parmesan. They make for an even more budget-friendly appetizer that you can serve alongside the crab-stuffed mushrooms so you'll have an alternative available to anyone with a shellfish allergy.