Easy Turkish Stuffed Mushrooms Recipe – Mantar Dolması

A delicious and easy stuffed mushrooms recipe; every get together needs one!

This mushroom recipe is perfect for barbecue season (every season is barbecue season in Turkey).

And it’s perfect as a meze plate, side dish or as finger food for your Christmas and New Year get togethers (or Thanksgiving for our US and Canadian readers).

Wherever you may be reading this article, we’re sure you’re going to love this recipe with its delicious filling as much as we do.

And if the weather’s not being kind enough for firing up your outdoor grill, fear not.

These stuffed mushrooms taste perfectly delicious when grilled, griddled on a cast iron skillet or oven-baked indoors, too.

If You’re Not A Meat Eater

Although this isn’t a vegetarian stuffed mushrooms recipe, it’s really easy to cater for your vegetarian friends with it by leaving out the meat.

Occasionally, we do get friends coming to visit us who are vegetarian.

And apart from attempting to impress them with a selection of our summer meze dishes, it’s good to be able to cater for them from the barbecue, too, before it’s been loaded with meat or fish.

So what type of mushrooms are we making?

Well, if you’re catering for a few people, it’s always good to keep things simple, so we’re doing cheese and sausage stuffed mushrooms.

The famous spiced Turkish sausage; sucuk.

As we’re in Turkey, let’s give it its Turkish name: Kaşarlı Sucuklu Mantar Dolması.

And just because this is easy stuffed mushrooms, don’t go thinking you’re eating a second best.

They taste fabulous!

Which Type Of Mushroom?

We first saw cheese stuffed mushrooms when we started going to barbecue restaurant, Cin Bal in Kayaköy.

And we’ve been making our own version – with little additions, as usual – ever since.

As with lots of other fresh produce in Turkey, it’s great to do stuffed mushrooms here because it’s easy to buy huge white mushrooms that are plump and super fresh.

In some supermarkets and local produce markets, they’re even sorted into size so you can just buy yourself a pack of larger ones that are perfect for stuffing.

Whilst some stuffed mushroom recipes use smaller white button mushrooms or chestnut mushrooms (cremini mushrooms or baby bella mushrooms), for our purposes, the best mushrooms are the large white ones.

They’re tasty and they just make life so much easier because they’re easy to work with. And they really look the part once cooked.

Whatever the size and colour, all of these mushroom varieties are the cultivated agaricus bisporus.

How Do You Make Turkish Stuffed Mushrooms?

The mushroom caps are going to be our little snug bed for the filling to nestle inside.

So, after cleaning our mushrooms and making sure they’re dry, we need to remove the stems.

Tip: Mushrooms are really absorbent and you don’t want wet, soggy stuffed mushrooms. To clean them, give them a gentle brush and use a damp paper towel for any stubborn bits. Allow them to dry thoroughly, uncovered before cooking.

First of all, we need to create those mushroom cavities by removing the stems.

If your mushrooms are fresh, a gentle twist and the stem should pop off quite easily.

Don’t throw your stems away as these are part of your filling in for the stuffed mushrooms!

We’re making use of the whole mushroom.

Our Turkish Stuffed Mushrooms Filling

Once you’ve got all your mushroom cups, put them to one side and then you can start to make your filling.

Remember, we’re trying to do an easy recipe for stuffed mushrooms – but, if you like, you can get as creative you want.

For us, though, we’re doing finely chopped mushroom stems and adding them to a large bowl.

In addition to this, we’re grating in some traditional Turkish cheese.

We use different types of cheese; either kaşar cheese or Izmir tulum.

Izmir tulum melts easily and has more of a tang, so, if you’re like us and you like strong flavours, this is probably the better option for you.

A strong Cheddar cheese will do the trick, too.

And some people even like to add a bit of cream cheese. Not for us, on this occasion.

Next, we’re going to be adding a clove of crushed or grated garlic, a generous sprinkling of chilli flakes (hot red pepper flakes) and a pinch of salt and black pepper.

At this point, if you’re doing vegetarian stuffed mushrooms, you can add two cloves of garlic for extra garlicky yumminess.

We’re only adding one clove. Because now, we’re moving away from the vegetarian version and taking some traditional Turkish sucuk, chopping it into small pieces and adding that to the mixture.

Sucuk is fatty, spicy and garlicky so that will give a burst of extra flavour as well as a juicy, meaty texture to our filling.

Italian sausage like salami or a Spanish chorizo makes a good alternative if you can’t find Turkish sucuk.

Stuffing Our Mushrooms

Now all you need to do is give all of your sucuk and cheese mixture ingredients a good stir in the bowl. And then, using a small spoon, fill your mushroom cups with the mixture.

You can pack the mushroom mixture in there; there’s nothing too intricate about these stuffed mushrooms.

Not Ready To Cook Yet?

Stuffed mushrooms are a perfect make ahead dish, making your life easier when you’re catering for a crowd.

Line an airtight container with paper towels – this will prevent your mushrooms from sweating – and store in the fridge for 3-4 days, until you’re ready to cook them.

Time To Eat

And now it’s time to cook your sucuk and cheese stuffed mushrooms.

On The Barbecue

If you are barbecuing, while your barbecue is still too hot to start cooking any meat (like köfte or shish kebab) or seafood, you can place the mushrooms on there; the bottom of the mushroom facing the hot coals, below.

Within 10 minutes, you’ll have a yummy spicy, cheesy, mushroomy snack to keep your guests entertained while they wait for the meatier side of things.

In The Griddle Pan (Cast Iron Skillet)

Heat your pan over a medium heat for a few minutes and then carefully place each mushroom, filling facing upwards, into the pan.

Cook for around 15 minutes until your cheese filling has melted and the mushrooms are oozing their juices.

In The Oven

If you’re baking your stuffed mushrooms in the oven, preheat it to 200 degrees Celsius (400 degrees Fahrenheit).

Place the mushrooms in a single layer, filling facing upwards, on a baking tray and bake for around 15-20 minutes.

That’s it! Simple but effective…

And that’s how to make sucuk and cheese stuffed mushrooms: Kaşarlı Sucuklu Mantar Dolması.

As you can hopefully see from the photo above, they are sooo tasty.

And, for us, they’re an essential part of the barbecue or get together feast; as good as any of the meat and fish dishes.

If you don’t like sucuk but want a an additional filling for your cheese, we also like to play around with seafood such as prawns.

Turkish Stuffed Mushrooms Recipe

So, let’s get all the ingredients and method together so that we have the full recipe to make stuffed mushrooms.

And check out our full list of Turkish recipes if you need some inspiration for what to serve with your delicious stuffed mushrooms!

Afiyet Olsun!

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