Way back in July 2021 while scrolling through Instagram I came across this video by Hotel Los Castaños in Ronda, showing them making a mushroom stroganoff. I immediately thought about my portobellos in the fridge that were probably close to the “use it or lose it” stage, so I decided that I was going to make mushroom stroganoff too. Then I also checked out a few recipes online as I never have cream (used in the video) and saw that sour cream is more usual in a stroganoff. I never have that either, but I have found that straining greek yoghurt for an hour or so using a melitta coffee filter makes a more than acceptable substitute. Los Castaños added chopped spinach to theirs at the end of the vid, which I thought was an excellent idea, though I found out later that fresh parsley is the usual addition. Having neither of those at the time, I tossed in a handful of arugula and it turned out great.

Since then I have made roughly a gazillion different versions of this but somehow have never got round to publishing any of them here (though many have ended up on my azahar Instagram hashtag #thestroganoffvariations. I’ve made it with different meat options (chicken, meatballs, sausage, bacon, beef) and vegetable combos (spinach, arugula, courgette, parsley, cilantro) with portobellos being the one constant ingredient, along with the onions and garlic.

I’ve also served it in various ways, on fat egg noodles, spaghetti, penne or fideos, with roasted or mashed potatoes, and even on crusty toasted bread. As you can tell, it’s quite a versatile dish if you’re not too concerned about making AN ACTUAL STROGANOFF 😉 (in which case it’s probably best to google “authentic beef stroganoff recipe”).

I think what’s happened is that MY stroganoff has turned out to be a bit like a risotto bianco, which you can use as a base and just add whatever the heck you want. Which, as is often my case, whatever happens to be hanging around in the fridge. So yeah, it’s not a classic or even remotely authentic, stroganoff recipe. But damn it’s always good. And so here is the basic mushroom version and hey, just have some tasty fun with it.

Ingredients and instructions below…
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