Holiday Potluck Extravaganza - Spinach and Feta Stuffed Mushroom Caps

One of my bestest friends from university (the first time) invited us over for a holiday potluck this weekend! We had 6 people, a massive dinner of roasted chickens, mashed potatoes, curried cauliflower, copious amounts of wine, and fun appies and desserts.

I made spinach and feta stuffed mushroom caps for appetizers (pictured above - orange plate), and chocolate candy cane cake pops for a delicious tiny dessert. Whooooa! The recipes are a bit long, so I'll have to post them with pictures separately. In this edition...

Spinach and Feta Stuffed Mushroom Caps

You need:

• 1 package frozen spinach, well drained and squeezed dry
• 3 ½ oz crumbled feta cheese (about ½ cup, I weighed it out)
• 2T olive oil
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• Stuffing mushrooms (sometimes you can find big button mushrooms. Alternatively you can use regular sized mushrooms, but it’s trickier to stuff them)
• Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350.

Remove stems from mushrooms. You can chop them up and stuff them into the upcoming mixture if you like (I didn’t this time, because I had tiny mushrooms and needed all the room I could get to stuff in the spinach/feta goodness). If your mushrooms are small, it will probably be easier to stuff them if you scoop out the gills inside at this point.

In a skillet, heat olive oil. Add garlic, spinach, salt and pepper. Cook until spinach is heated through and garlic is distributed evenly throughout the mixture. Remove from heat and allow to cool (I put it in a bowl in the fridge for about 10 minutes)

Combine spinach mixture with feta cheese. Stuff each mushroom with about 1T of the mixture (depends on the size of your mushrooms)

Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray. Place mushrooms on sheet in the oven for 20-25 minutes, until mushrooms are soft and a bit darker in colour. Serve warm.

Pre-cooking: