Mushroom and Onion Casserole

Sweet and warm vegan casserole. Excellent for dinner on a cold winter's evening.

This is a Fairtrade and vegan rework of a Nigel Slater recipe first published in the Observer 21st October 2012.

This recipe contains the following types of ingredient: plants and fungi.

350 g

onions (or two shallots per person)

4 to 6

fat cloves of garlic

2 per person

large open cap organic field mushrooms

150 g

FAIRTRADE white rice

250 ml

FAIRTRADE dry white wine

750 ml

vegetable stock

10 g

Zaytoun Fair Trade za'atar herb mixture

Skin the onions and either leave whole (shallots), or cut top to tail into quarters or chunks.

Skin the garlic and slice.

Wash the mushrooms.

Preheat the oven to gas mark 5 (190 °C; 375 °F).

Using a metal dish that can go on the hob and also in the oven, gently fry the onions and garlic until the onion is browning.

Add the rice, the wine and the stock and heat through almost to boiling.

Add the mushrooms skin side up. Sprinkle on the Za’atar and be generous with salt and pepper.

Bake in the oven for 30 minutes, then turn the mushrooms over.

Bake for a further 20 minutes checking that the dish is still moist, add a little more wine if needed.

Sprinkle with a little chopped fresh basil if available just before serving.

For an evening meal we served this with jacket potatoes and broccoli.

This needs a fairly large metal pan if feeding more than two people.

Use fresh herbs if available.