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 pasta dishes try this 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 mushroom stroganoff with 2 lbs of meaty brown mushrooms is a good substitute for a beef stroganoff. Savory mushroom noodles with a flavor loaded creamy sauce, even my carnivore husband can’t say No.
Why Make This Recipe?
- 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 healthy mac and cheese or my baked mac and cheese with cauliflower.
Ingredients You Will Need
- 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.
Why not egg noodles? 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 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 paste 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.
How to Serve Mushroom Stroganoff?
- Grains: You could also serve this up with quinoa or a grain instead.
- 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 olive oil bread 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 baked chicken breast or Instant Pot pork chops!
How to Store
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 Mushroom Recipes
- Mushroom bean soup
- Mushroom appetizers
- Stuffed mushrooms
- Lentil casserole with mushrooms
- Chicken and mushrooms
- Instant Pot mushroom risotto
You might also enjoy browsing through 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 recipe was amazing – even my kids (age 7 and 10) loved it. I substituted cashew yogurt for the Greek and no one knew it wasn’t cream/sour cream. We will def make this again.
That is so amazing to hear! Glad you and kids enjoyed my recipe, Kelly.
This recipe is great my only change to it is I add garlic and Italian herb and I use 1lb of mushrooms
Awesome!!! Happy to hear, Cinnamon. 🙂
This was delicious!
Easy to make and a pleasant change from eating meat.
I have made this several times and we really enjoy each time. This is a great base recipe and I like to add some shallots, garlic, Worcestershire sauce and top the individual servings with a bit of Parmesan. I know the cheese adds some calories, but a little goes a long way and it is worth it for us! Thanks so much for the great recipe!
A little cheese won’t make you unhealthy. I used to be a crazy strict dieter when I made this recipe, so go for cheese I would say now, a bit.:) Glad you enjoyed it!
I was just wondering if you have ever added curried chicken to this. Curried chicken (to me) is different from chicken curry. Chicken is in the pan with the curry ingredients and the curry soaks into the chicken while it cooks. Any chicken, however, can be curried chicken, just by adding separately-cooked curry to it.
I know what you mean. I haven’t tried but I cook chicken like this sometimes and I think it would be good in this recipe. Why not?!
I’ve used the Pacific organic cream of mushroom soup in my stroganoff. It’s great and doesn’t have anything in it that triggers my MSG sensitivity. I make mine with Gardein crumbles instead of beef and it’s very filling.
Yes, I like that soup. Pricey but worth it.
That’s so simple!!! I love a good stroganoff but often hate the high calories not to mention that I don’t digest red meat well. Thanks for sharing 🙂
Nobody should digest red meat often so feel like a lucky one that’s immune to it. You are not missing out on anything except health problems!
My 5 yr. old does not like mushrooms, unfortunately. We try and get him to try a bite of everything we serve, but sometimes that entails him touching it to his tongue and declaring that he doesn’t like it. I think texture if a big issue for him. Then there are times when he willingly tries things without us asking him to. Once we ordered Chinese takeout and he wanted to try the broccoli. I don’t understand how he works sometimes. 🙂 I just wish he was a little more adventurous in eating. All in due time I suppose.
Depends on a kid and age too. My 8 year old is easy but my 4 year old is hard. However, he is slowly getting better because growing up and I keep offering. I also know what texture he doesn’t like. Like jake goes into smoothies and wraps are served deconstructed lol. Just keep offering! Broccoli is a mystery to me how so many kids don’t mind it!!!
Being a Russian Gal, I have this great love of beef stoganoff. But I love how you used 3 pounds of mushrooms in here. Also have a few blood sugar issues and mushrooms are actually really good for regulating. Plus, makes pasta more edible for me. So I love this. My Russian and Ukrainian grandma would be proud if I made this =)