Crispy Stuffed Mushrooms With Harissa and Apricots Recipe (2024)

I have ground cumin but no seeds. Avoiding the grocery store. What's the calculation for subbing ground cumin for seeds, please. Thanks. A faithful Melissa reader!

any dried fruit - raisins, prunes, dates might be sweeter, but....

Whenever something calls for cumin seeds, I always just sub ground cumin in the same amount (ie. 1 tsp seeds = 1 tsp. ground). Don’t know if that’s right, but it’s always worked out for me.

Piper W re your question "Does anyone have a substitution for the dried apricots? Dates?", while another dried fruit would work I'm not certain dates are best option. Consider the chewy-ish texture and bright flavor of dried apricots (even tart-ish if CA ones are used and not Turkish ones). Dates, while yummy, might be too sweet, soft, warm-ish flavors here. I might choose golden raisins or even dried cranberries followed dried apple or even currants.

I'd use dried figs in lieu of apricots. I ordered several boxes of Greek dried figs earlier this year from Diane Kuchilas' website and have been using them for everything from breadmaking to topping salads with them.

I have found that this is variable for a lot of reasons like how old your cumin seeds may be as well as certain crops of cumin just seem to produce more pungent seeds.... I just season to taste. Cumin seeds also distribute differently than ground cumin. I think in this recipe that the ground cumin will actually be more effective.

Use a melon baller to scoop the stem. It makes a perfect cavity in the mushroom cap

I used Korean ketchup instead of harissa paste. Anything spicy probably works well. This recipe is a winner

Faithfully followed the recipe and it was truly delicious! Yes there was too much stuffing, even after scraping out the Cremini mushrooms to make extra room, but in my family there is truly no such thing as too much stuffing. It disappeared quickly.

Know thy harissa. If yours is a very spicy one, as is mine today as I make these for the umpteenth time, you will not need the extra fresh hot pepper. Can omit salt too. So easy and always turn out splendidly. Stuffing can be made in advance. Mushrooms can be stuffed (then held room temp) in advance. Had leftover stuffing for 1st time. (Usually 8 oz mushrooms = 12'ish, today 10.) Will use that crumb mixture atop roasted veg (like cauliflower or sweet potatoes) or to finish salads.

Recipe was a little too salty for me. I would definitely make again and use less salt. I would also double the recipe if serving to more than 2 people. Very tasty! And definitely a notch up from most stuffed mushrooms.

This recipe didn't work for me. There were too many flavors that weren't obvious together: parmesan cheese (Italian), harissa (North African), jalapeño (Mexican), etc. and the stuffing was almost without flavor and very dry. Also, the proportions didn't work - a lot of leftover stuffing.

Has anyone tried freezing this recipe and reheating?

So far, so good. I used much bigger mushrooms, thanks to which I wound up with just the right amount of filling. I suspect these will go perfectly with a sturdy Spanish rosado on this muggy evening.

Made the stuffing two days ahead except for lemon zest and cilantro. Added those on day of and stuffed mushrooms, sprinkled with cheese in the morning. Turned on oven when first guests arrived, roasted and served them 45 minutes into the co*cktail party as the second hot offering. These are very filling, meaty. Next time I might serve them first and would need less of the second hot offering.

Use a melon baller to scoop the stem. It makes a perfect cavity in the mushroom cap

Can I make ahead and freeze a few days before Tgiving? or should I make stuffing ahead and assemble day of?

Going to make these today to serve 6 as an appetizer. Is this recipe sufficient or should I double it? I did see a number of comments that there was extra stuffing left...

We loved this, but watch out with the heat: the first batch I did, with a full red chili pepper, the heat overwhelmed the other flavors--couldn't really taste the apricot. Second batch with just harissa was divine.

Harisssa paste brings enough heat so can skip chili. Subbed a little more harissa for tomato paste.

Curbside delivery gave me larger mushrooms than I would have gotten on my own, so I made them as an entree for my husband and me. Wonderful. I served them on top of egg noodles with the leftover stuffing as garnish over everything. Will definitely make again, but perhaps with ground cumin as suggested.

I've made this fantastic recipe several times and it's pretty forgiving. Raisins are a fine substitute for apricots. Rule of thumb for cumin seed to ground cumin conversion is that 1 tsp of cumin seeds translates to about 1 1/4 tsp ground cumin. But agree with Liz that it depends on freshness of the spices.

*These were excellent made per recipe. Keeper!*Noting some others say they had leftover filling, I found it just right amount to compactly fill mushrooms w/no extra. For context, I used cremini and 8 oz was 12 mushrooms. I wonder if different takes on what "1/2 small onion" is might be at root of too much fill?*Made through step 5 about 90 min in advance and held at room temperature before step 6. Worked well.

Kinda nice. I normally fill the caps with mashed leftovers like aloo/gobhi (potato cauliflower) and top with cheese (cheddar or any other) and bake. The leftover cooked veggies always have all the other ingredients so no need for further cooking onions etc.