Mushroom Bruschetta Toasts Recipe

When we were traveling to Paris for New Years, we had a layover at Heathrow airport in London. It was one of those layovers that’s so long and you aren’t really sure what you’re going to do with yourself for so many hours, but not long enough that you could actually leave the airport and have a visit in London. Next time, eh?

While we were in London, I had the most incredible mushroom toast. It was the kind of breakfast-lunch-brunch dish that has had me jonesing for round two ever since! The meatyness of the mushrooms with the creaminess of the butter and the crunch of the bread…don’t mind me while I day dream about it for the next few minutes.

This month, we’ve been trying to eat a little bit lighter, so if you’ve joined us for a dinner party this month you’ll likely 1. have had this and 2. have had some meatless dishes. All week this week I’m sharing some of my fav meatless dishes for entertaining, so stay tuned! I love this as a nice little starter, especially when the bread is toasted in butter. I mean. It’s just sheer perfection for absolutely any topping.

I throw a pat of butter in a pan over medium heat and let these little guys soak up all that creamy, buttery goodness until they’re golden brown. I love when you can actually take a bite of bruschetta, and when you toast up the bread this way, the butter soaks into the center and makes it softer to take a bite.

The parsley and squeeze of lemon breathes life into the mushrooms, which I think is what really makes it feel a bit like a lighter dish. If you want to really lighten it up, you could skip all of the butter in the recipe! Granted it won’t taste quite the same, but it’ll still be good. I’d recommend using some broth, any kind will do, to sautee the mushrooms if you forgo the butter. It’ll give the dish some flavor.

And you don’t need any fancy equipment! A sautee pan for the mushrooms, which can also be used for the toast, or you can use a grill pan, which will give you the nice grill marks on your toast. You may need more butter for a grill pan, since the butter will pool around the bumps and not be as evenly distributed as it would be in a flat sautee pan.

I’ve talked about it before, but whenever we are hosting a gathering I try to balance the menu with one warm/hot appetizer and one or two cold ones, such as a cheese platter. This is a perfect recipe to serve up as a warm/hot appetizer, and you can make the mushrooms ahead of time and just heat them up again while you toast the bread. It’s definitely a pleases-most-guests recipe to have up your sleeve!