Breadless Margherita Pizza on a Portobello
I miss pizza! I truly do. All of that mouth-watering melted mozzarella, all of that garlic, all of the wondrous herbs steaming out of the pie…
After making a low-carb vegan pesto, my mind started swirling with ideas of pizza toppings and sauces. Then, of course, I was disheartened by the fact that I swore I wouldn’t cheat on my diet the entire month of January. Swore it!
After lamenting about my pizza-less existence for quite some time (I even wrote a song about it), I was suddenly struck with the recollection of how utterly fantastic pizza toppings taste atop a portobello mushroom cap. That’s when I started salivating.
(It bothered me that I used the word “after” at the beginning of both of those little paragraphs, so I looked up alternate words in the thesaurus. One of the results? “Apoop.” I hope I’m not the only immature one chuckling to herself about this…)
Anyway, even though I have many favorite pizza combinations, most of them involving pineapple, I settled on one of the lightest, healthiest, but packing one heck of a lot of flavor styles: Margherita Pizza. In case you haven’t noticed by now, tomato, basil, and mozzarella is one of my all-time favorite flavor combinations. Oh my gggooosssshhhhhh this was good. The cheese was all bubbly and awesome… Plus, this particular style is not at all time consuming. I highly recommend it 
Breadless Margherita Pizza on a Portobello
- 2 Large Portobello Mushroom Caps
- 1 Medium Tomato, Thinly Sliced
- 12 Fresh Basil Leaves
- 1 Clove Garlic, Minced
- A Drizzle of Olive Oil
- Fresh Mozzarella Cheese
- Sea Salt
- Black Pepper
Preheat oven to 450°.
Lay the mushroom caps, bottom side up, on a baking sheet or a lightly grease glass pyrex baking pan. Drizzle each lightly with olive oil, sprinkle evenly with minced garlic, and then sprinkle with sea salt.
Cut your mozzarella (I recommend using the fresh mozzarella that comes in a ball) into 1/4″ thick slices. Lay them to cover the mushroom caps. Lay 6 basil leaves on each mushroom, then 3-4 slices of tomato on each mushroom as well.
Place in the preheated oven for 15 minutes.
Remove from oven and cut into triangles like a pizza. I would recommend cutting them on a paper towel, as mushrooms tend to accumulate liquid as they cook.
Serve hot!
- 2 Large Portobello Mushroom Caps
- 1 Medium Tomato, Thinly Sliced
- 12 Fresh Basil Leaves
- 1 Clove Garlic, Minced
- A Drizzle of Olive Oil
- Fresh Mozzarella Cheese
- Sea Salt
- Black Pepper
- Preheat oven to 450°.
- Lay the mushroom caps, bottom side up, on a baking sheet or a lightly grease glass pyrex baking pan. Drizzle each lightly with olive oil, sprinkle evenly with minced garlic, and then sprinkle with sea salt.
- Cut your mozzarella (I recommend using the fresh mozzarella that comes in a ball) into ¼″ thick slices. Lay them to cover the mushroom caps. Lay 6 basil leaves on each mushroom, then 3-4 slices of tomato on each mushroom as well.
- Place in the preheated oven for 15 minutes.
- Remove from oven and cut into triangles like a pizza. I would recommend cutting them on a paper towel, as mushrooms tend to accumulate liquid as they cook.
- Serve hot!
Thanks for this great idea, Rachel! For those of us who are “wheat challenged”, because of allergies, gluten intolerance or whatever, this recipe is most welcome. Since I am also “cow” challenged I think I can use buffalo mozzarella or some sort of goat cheese in place of regular mozzarella. We will be having pizza at our house this week!
I hope you enjoy it! Portobellos certainly have a wonderful flavor and texture. Plus, you don’t feel all puffy after you’ve eaten it like you do with regular pizza (or I do, at least!)
REALLY good idea! I’m having trouble sticking to my own diet resolution, but your recipes are helping!
This. Is. Brilliant.
No tomatoes this time of year because they’re mealy and gross, so I thew on a few sundried tomatoes instead.
Good god. SO. AWESOME.
Awesome! I’m so glad you tried it! And way to get clever with the toppings
Oh my word! Strangly enough I’m not a mad fan of pizza, but this just looks soooo delish. Like a fancy stuffed mushroom, I could totally get down with that, yumo!
Yes, think of it as a fancy stuffed mushroom
Since it doesn’t have marinara sauce, perhaps you will find that you quite love this dish more than pizza 