Bacon, Spinach & Feta-Stuffed Mushroom Caps

This retro-inspired snack delivers all the flavor

Why did we ever stop making stuffed mushrooms? The conceit is genius: Mushrooms are absolutely delicious when roasted with a bit of olive oil; when you remove the stems and gills they make a perfect, self-contained cup; and they go with pretty much any savory flavor combination. And as long as you don’t fill them with an overly fatty cheese mixture, the high veg-to-filling ratio means they’re a very healthy snack. As far as I can tell, the only reason we’re not making them for every party is that we over-used them (and probably created some uninspired and fat-heavy fillings) in the 80s and they fell out of fashion. That said, this treat originated in Italy, where it may go back as far as the Renaissance, so it’s actually timeless.

I found myself thinking about stuffed mushrooms recently while I was leafing through the vintage cookbook Snacks & Sandwiches, which was published as part of the Good Cook series by Time Life that came out from 1978–1980. (There’s no actual pub date on the book, but the most recent photo credits in this one are 1980.)

While the photos in that book aren’t exactly appetizing by today’s food photography standards, the various stuffed mushroom ideas sounded delicious, so I decided to come up with a combination of my own. This recipe will be the first in a series I’m calling Retro Snacks Revisited that will give me an excuse to explore/rework old or out-of-fashion recipes. (Any favorite retro snacks you’d like me to take a look at? Let me know!)

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For this rendition, I decided I wanted to stick to a flavorful but relatively healthy cheese. Since I was feeling inspired by Alyse Whitney’s red pepper and feta dip from last week, I opted to stick to the feta theme (though goat cheese would also have worked well here). To stay in a kind of retro flavor vein, I also added some finely chopped bacon and spinach (from frozen, to speed up the prep process). A little Greek yogurt helped smooth out the crumbly feta, and a small touch of lemon zest (from my Meyer lemon tree) added a fresh pop and helped give the whole thing a more current flavor profile. The result was absolutely delicious—worth writing down so that maybe in another 45 years someone else will come along and “rediscover” this fantastic dinner hack.

Bacon, Spinach & Feta-Stuffed Mushroom Caps

12 brown button-style mushrooms, each 2”–3” in diameter
Extra virgin olive oil
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 strip bacon, very finely chopped
⅓ cup thawed frozen spinach (pre-chopped)
1 garlic clove, minced
¾ cup (100g) crumbled feta
3–5 teaspoons Greek yogurt (depending on the texture of your feta)

1. Preheat the oven to 350℉.

2. Prepare the caps: Pull the stems out of the mushroom caps, use a paring knife to trim away the edges of the caps that curl over the gills, and then use a very small spoon to scrape out the dark brown gills. Brush the tops of the caps with a bit of olive oil, season each with a tiny bit of salt and pepper, and put them on a sheet pan, curved-side down. Bake the mushroom caps for 15 minutes, then use tongs to pick each one up and empty the water that has seeped out of the caps and pooled in the middles. Set the mushroom caps aside. (Leave the oven on.)

3. Prepare the filling: Cook the finely chopped bacon in a small non-stick pan, stirring frequently, until it is starting to crisp and has released all its fat. Remove the bacon from the pan but leave the fat. Add the spinach to the pan and cook it in the bacon fat, on high, stirring constantly, for about 3 minutes, until cooked through and hot. Add the minced garlic and continue to cook for 1 minute, until the garlic no longer has such a sharp, raw smell.

4. Combine the bacon, spinach-garlic mixture, and feta in a small mixing bowl and use a fork to mash everything together. Season the mixture with a couple good cracks of fresh pepper and mix. (Don’t add salt, as the feta is already quite salty.) Add 3 teaspoons of yogurt and mix everything well with the fork. Taste and add more yogurt as needed to get a creamy filling; the amount will depend on how dry and salty the feta is. Use a microplane zester to grate in a tiny bit of lemon zest, if you like. (Alternatively, you could grate the zest onto the finished caps, after step 5, for a pretty presentation.)

5. Fill the mushroom caps with the bacon-spinach-feta mixture, then bake them for 15 minutes, until they’re melty and very hot. Let them sit for 5 minutes before eating, so that the cheese doesn’t burn you.

While I was making this more grown-up combo, I also put together a little pizza-inspired version for my kid. When I serve it, my tween informed me that she doesn’t like mushrooms but that she would try a bite—and then proceeded to eat half of the tray. (There’s nothing you can’t make more delicious by making it “pizza flavored.”) I thought I’d share that little method, too:

Variation: Pizza-Flavored Stuffed Mushroom Caps

Follow the instructions above using white button mushrooms (of the same size). Mince some pepperoni slices and grate + mince some low-fat mozzarella; low-fat cheese melts more easily than the full-fat style. Fill each pre-roasted mushroom cap with ½–1 teaspoon jarred marinara sauce (or chopped canned tomatoes) and top the sauce with a mix of the cheese and pepperoni. Bake for roughly 12 minutes, until the cheese is bubbly. Wait 5 minutes to eat, as melted cheese is very hot!

More to Snack On

There have been a few really delicious-looking snacks on Substack recently. Here’s one I’ve added to my to-try list:

no. 136: whipped blue cheese dip with buffalo-honey chickpeas

Photos: Georgia Freedman (5), courtesy This Shit Rocks