Quick, easy meatless Healthy Mushroom Stroganoff ready in 30 minutes! This hearty vegetarian meal with mushrooms, pasta and a creamy sauce is lower in calories and fat, carnivore approved and endlessly comforting!
For more meat-free healthy pasta recipes try this olive, tomato, and goat cheese penne or zucchini and tomato pasta!
Table of contents
The flavors in this healthy mushroom stroganoff are not only rich and balanced but elevated. We are not vegetarians but definitely trying to eat less meat. And mushrooms stroganoff with 2 lbs of meaty brown mushrooms is a good substitute for beef stroganoff.
Savory mushroom noodles with a flavor loaded creamy sauce; keep this recipe handy, it’s always a crowd pleaser when served for healthy dinner sides!
In fact, mushrooms appear a lot in my meat-free recipes; bean mushroom soup, lentil and mushroom casserole, cauliflower mushroom risotto, and a spaghetti squash quiche with kale and mushrooms – just to name a few!
Why Make Vegetarian Stroganoff?
- Meatless: Going meatless once a week can save on your grocery budget as well as increase fiber, vitamin and nutrient intake.
- Flexible recipe: Add white wine or not for stroganoff sauce, use mushrooms you have on hand or try any dairy in your fridge!
- Healthy comfort food: Meaty mushrooms combined with creamy dairy and warm pasta, this meal satisfies on wintry days!
- Superfood mushrooms: Are a plant source of vitamin D, rich in vitamin B and contain high levels of the antioxidant nutrient selenium, if you didn’t like mushrooms then, you will now with this mushrooms noodles recipe!
- Easy to make: So much flavor, ready in only 30 minutes!
Love healthy comfort food? Make this on rotation with mac and cheese or my baked mac and cheese with cauliflower, also meat-free, also super wholesome!
Ingredients for Creamy Mushroom Stroganoff Recipe
- Pasta: You can use any pasta that has openings and cavities to scoop up the stroganoff sauce. Not spaghetti. We like to use whole grain pasta for its fiber, vitamins and nutrients vs. regular pasta. But I will not judge. 🙂
Why not egg noodles for stroganoff sauce with mushrooms? By all means use egg noodles if that is your preference; our family prefers pasta with grooves to scoop up the sauce! If you are avoiding eggs or need a lower cholesterol pasta, using a different pasta such as penne, rigatoni, macaroni, rigatoni, rotini might become your new favorite for mushroom noodles!
- Mushrooms: I like to use brown mushrooms, also known as baby bellas or mini portobello. They don’t cost much more than white mushrooms but offer more flavor in the stroganoff sauce.
- Yogurt: To cut back on saturated fat, I like to use plain yogurt with 3.5% fat content.
- Onion, garlic and butter: Fresh onion and garlic sauteed in butter add sweetness, creaminess and flavor to stroganoff.
- Broth and spices: Any low sodium broth like vegetable and mushroom will work. Dried thyme goes well with mushrooms.
- Cornstarch or flour: This acts as a thickener for sauce and comes down to your personal preference and what’s in your pantry.
How to Make Healthy Mushroom Stroganoff
- Prep: Wash moss from mushrooms and slice.
To cook pasta, I recommend to start boiling water at same time as you start sauteing the onion. Then add pasta to water when you start making sauce. Maximum freshness guaranteed. 🙂
- Saute onion in melted butter: Just until translucent. Add dried thyme at the end to help it release its natural oils and flavors.
- Cook mushrooms and garlic for about 10 minutes: Or until a bit golden brown and amount reduced in half. Mushrooms consist of 90% water, so cooking them on medium-high heat before adding sauce helps with flavor.
- Make sauce: Whisk broth, cornstarch, salt and pepper and adding to the skillet. Let mushroom sauce first boil and then simmer for 5 minutes. And don’t forget to add pasta to boiling water now.
- Make sauce creamy by stirring in yogurt or sour cream off of heat. No need to cook it, especially yogurt that might curdle.
- Serve: Add cooked pasta to plates and scoop generous amount of sauce with mushrooms on top. Then nothing is better than freshly grated Parmesan cheese and a sprinkle of fresh parsley or dill, and a pinch of freshly cracked pepper. Call me when you make mushroom stroganoff. 🙂
Optional Add-In’s and Variations
- Mushrooms: You can use white, wild or combination of any mushrooms.
- Yogurt substitution: If you are used to less tangy taste of sour cream, go for it. You could also use plain Greek yogurt.
- Olive oil: Can be used instead of butter.
- White wine: Replace 1/2 cup of broth with white wine for additional layer of flavor.
- Seasonings: Sub dried oregano for thyme if you would like.
- Thickener: Arrowroot starch, tapioca or potato starch could also be used.
- Dairy free: Use your favorite dairy free brand of dairy free yogurt and Parmesan. Taste may be slightly different.
- Worcestershire sauce: Adds a umami savory layer of flavor! Use a vegan brand or regular for that additional meaty taste.
- Umami taste: Alternately, add a splash of soy sauce, amino acids or small amount of miso past to your mushroom noodles dish.
Tips for Best Results
- Don’t over soak your mushrooms in water: Mushrooms are spongelike in texture and absorb water and then that leads to a spongy texture when you eat them! A better way to remove the peat moss from them is to gently wipe them with a dry paper towel.
- Be careful not to overcrowd your pan: You want your mushrooms to sear and become a beautiful brown color, if you crowd the pan you risk steaming them instead, which also leads to a spongy texture!
- Don’t salt your mushrooms: This also draws out moisture, which once again could lead to a spongy texture!
- Stir mushrooms occasionally: Allow them to sear beautifully on each side, this leads to the incredible flavorful taste!
- Don’t mix your cornstarch slurry in the pan: This will not thicken properly, it will clump! Make sure to stir together your slurry separately then add to the skillet, stirring as you add it.
FAQs
If you omit using the Parmesan garnish then yes, this is a completely vegetarian stroganoff!
Yes! Just use gluten free noodles or serve over rice, quinoa or mashed potatoes! Also, be sure to use a gluten free thickening agent for your stroganoff sauce.
You could add diced carrots, eggplant or broccoli and cauliflower florets when you saute your onion or add frozen peas after you stir in your slurry. The heat from the hot skillet should thaw peas quickly.
If your slurry did not thicken it to your preference, let it simmer longer in step 5, it should continue to thicken.
Add additional seasoning (thyme, oregano, Italian seasoning etc), a pinch of garlic or onion salt and don’t skip adding the fresh herbs at the end!
This dish originated in Russia and it is commonly attributed either to the elderly Count Alexander Grigorievich Stroganoff whose French chef was said to have invented it with smaller pieces of meat so the count could chew them easier; it has also been said to have been first served for guests of Count Stroganoff who had ‘open tables’ where he would invite people to dine and he would serve stroganoff because it was easier to portion out to the guests.
How to Serve Mushroom Stroganoff?
- Grains: You could also serve this up with quinoa or a grain instead.
Apart from pasta, quinoa is my favorite to add to my meat-free meals (lots of protein!)– like my black bean quinoa casserole, spinach and artichoke quinoa casserole, or Mediterranean quinoa salad– yummy!
- Other carbs or low carb: Serve over healthy mashed potatoes or low carb cauliflower rice.
- A simple salad: Lettuce salad, lemon kale salad or cucumber and tomato salad would all
round out a dinner of mushroom stroganoff. - Fresh bread: Added to the table with garlic olive oil dip always gets big smiles in my house, plus that bread comes in handy for sopping up all that delicious stroganoff sauce!
- Protein: You could also serve this over top of oven baked chicken breast or pork chops!
How to Store Vegetarian Stroganoff with Mushrooms
Refrigerate sauce with mushrooms in an airtight container for up to 5 days. Reheat in a skillet by simmering on low heat and stirring. Perfect for healthy lunch ideas!
You can freeze mushroom stroganoff but I highly recommend to leave out yogurt or sour cream for any portions you plan to freeze. It freezes great and add dairy when reheating. Also don’t freeze with pasta, as cooked pasta doesn’t freeze well.
More Vegetarian Dinner Recipes
- Tex Mex sweet potato skillet
- Vegetarian quesadillas
- Buckwheat stir fry
- Spaghetti squash veggie quiche
- Instant Pot lentil dal
You might also enjoy browsing through these vegetarian recipes or my entire collection of healthy pasta recipes!
Healthy Mushroom Stroganoff
Ingredients
- 12 oz 4 cups pasta
- 2 lbs brown mushrooms sliced
- 1 medium onion chopped
- 1/4 tsp thyme dried
- 4 garlic cloves minced
- 3 tbsp butter unsalted
- 2 cups vegetable or mushroom broth low sodium
- 3 tbsp cornstarch or whole wheat flour
- 1/2 cup plain yogurt at least 3.5% fat
- 3/4 tsp salt
- Ground black pepper to taste
- Parsley or dill finely chopped
- Parmesan cheese grated
Instructions
- Cook pasta in salted water until al dente or as per package instructions. I recommend to add pasta to boiling water at same time as you add broth to mushrooms.
- Preheat large deep skillet on medium heat and melt butter.
- Add onion and cook for 3 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Add thyme and cook for 30 seconds, stirring often.
- Add mushrooms and garlic. Cook uncovered on medium-high heat for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- In a medium bowl, whisk broth, cornstarch, salt and pepper. Add to skillet, bring to a boil, reduce heat to low and let sauce simmer for 5 minutes.
- Don’t forget to add pasta to boiling water now as well.
- Turn off heat, add yogurt and stir. Garnish with more pepper to taste and dill/parsley.
- Serve over pasta garnished with parmesan cheese.
Notes
- Store: Refrigerate in an airtight container for up to 5 days. Reheat in a skillet by simmering on low heat and stirring.
- Freeze: Freeze in an airtight container up to 3 months. I highly recommend to leave out yogurt or sour cream for any portions you plan to freeze. Add dairy when reheating. Also don’t freeze with pasta, as cooked pasta doesn’t freeze well.
- Mushrooms: You can use white, wild or combination of any mushrooms.
- Yogurt substitution: If you are used to less tangy taste of sour cream, go for it. You could also use plain Greek yogurt.
- Olive oil: Can be used instead of butter.
- White wine: Replace 1/2 cup of broth with white wine for additional layer of flavor.
- Worcestershire sauce: Adds a umami savory layer of flavor! Use a vegan brand or regular for that additional meaty taste.
- Mushroom tips: Don’t over soak your mushrooms in water, don’t salt your mushrooms when you add them to the pan, don’t steam your mushrooms by overcrowding your pan.
This looks really nice, however I want to just point out that Parmesan cheese isn’t vegetarian.
Thank you! For strict vegetarians there is vegetarian Parmesan cheese that can be purchased in stores.
Wow!! This is a home run!! Followed the recipe and added a splash of red wine as another reviewer commented. My husband used a spatula to scape every morsel of sauce from his plate! He said he could eat this everyday. Thank you for such a delicious recipe!
So glad you enjoyed it!
Made this dish tonight in my Instant Pot using your IP Beef Stroganoff recipe. I skipped the beef, sautéed the mushroom and onions, then followed the Beef Stroganoff recipe to a T.
Was it ever good!!! It’s coming back for sure, so satisfying!
Also looking forward to try these mushrooms on steaks (without the noodles), thanks for the suggestion😁
So happy to Marie and yes over steaks = amazing!
I forgot to put the yogurt in at the end, and it was still really good! 🙂 Thank you! Nice and easy, too.
Next time for the yogurt! 🙂 Glad to hear it still turned out great!
What would happen if you use 0% fat Greek yogurt instead?
It will be less flavorful/creamy – maybe a bit more watery. It’s okay to use if that is all you have on hand, just note the differences that may occur. Can’t wait to hear how it goes.
Goodness gracious that was good!!!
I’m so happy to read this! Thank you for your positive feedback!
I think of mushrooms as ‘earth flesh’. My carnivore husband loved it and did not notice it was vegan! Added black garlic and shallots, did take the extra time to caramelize the onions. Black garlic and caramelized onions added depth and subtlety sufficient to omit dairy or substitute. Good splash of red wine helped too! Thank you for a splendid basic pattern to embroider. Shall make this often, and recommend to everyone!
I love the flavor the thyme gives the stroganoff! You always recommend the perfect amount of onion and garlic. My husband said he could smell dinner from outside and was very excited to try it. As usual, your recipe was spot on!
Wonderful to hear Betty!!!