These baked portobello mushroom pizzas use large portobello mushroom caps instead of pizza crust for a quick and easy dinner with plenty of veggies! Topped with mozzarella cheese, tomato, and fresh basil. Vegetarian.
We love a quick homemade pizza crust as much as the next person (maybe more!) but sometimes, we're just craving an extra dose of veggies alongside our favorite pizza toppings.
Enter: these easy pizza stuffed portobello mushrooms!
Large portobello (sometimes spelled portobella or portabella) mushroom caps are the perfect veggie "crust" for your favorite pizza toppings. Portobello pizza crust is an easy gluten free pizza crust option, and the mushroom caps are sturdy enough to hold a generous scoop of cheese and veggies!
Our basic order of operations:
- Mix some quartered cherry tomatoes and fresh mozzarella together with a bit of olive oil, salt, and pepper.
- Spread a layer of pesto over your mushroom caps, then top with your cheese and tomato mixture.
- Bake until the cheese bubbles, then top with fresh basil and a drizzle of balsamic glaze!
Pro Tip: We're roasting these pizza stuffed mushrooms in the oven today, but this recipe is also great on the grill!
How to avoid soggy mushrooms
As they cook, mushrooms can release a lot of water - and if they're just sitting in that water while they bake, you end up with soggy mushrooms (NO THANK YOU).
Fortunately, there's an easy fix!
Just place an oven-safe cooling rack on top of your rimmed baking sheet, and set the mushrooms on top. As the mushrooms cook, the rack lets any water drain away so the mushrooms roast evenly without getting soggy or mushy.
Riffs and Substitutions
This portobello pizza recipe is very forgiving and easy to customize! Some of our favorite swaps:
Extra Veggies
- Minced garlic (or roasted garlic!)
- Spinach
- Sliced green bell pepper
- Roasted red pepper
- Sliced onion
- Black olives
- Extra mushrooms
Mix up the cheeses
- Parmesan cheese
- Ricotta
- Buratta
- Provolone
Swap the sauce
- Easy Arugula Pesto
- Pizza sauce
- Alfredo sauce
- BBQ Sauce
- Ranch Dressing
Add your favorite protein
Love this summery recipe? Try our spaghetti squash with roasted tomatoes →
VIDEO: How to make Portobello Mushroom Pizzas
📖 Recipe
Portobello Mushroom Pizzas
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 mins
- Total Time: 35 minutes
- Yield: Serves 4
- Category: Main Dish
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Vegetarian
Description
These easy baked portobello mushroom pizzas are perfect for a quick, easy, veggie-packed dinner!
Ingredients
- 4-6 large portobello mushroom caps, stems removed
- ½ cup pesto
- 1 Tablespoon olive oil
- 8 ounces fresh mozzarella, cut into small cubes
- 1 heaping cup cherry tomatoes, quartered (or 2 large diced tomatoes)
- Salt and pepper to taste
- ½ cup fresh basil, sliced, for garnish
- ¼ cup balsamic vinegar reduction (optional)
Instructions
- Heat oven to 375°F.
- Place an oven-safe wire cooling rack on a rimmed baking sheet. Place portobello mushrooms top-side down on top of the rack. (The wire rack lets moisture drain away from the mushrooms as they cook to prevent any sogginess!)
- In a medium mixing bowl, stir together olive oil, mozzarella, tomatoes, salt, and pepper.
- Spread a layer of pesto over each mushroom cap.
- Divide the cheese and tomato mixture evenly among the mushrooms, gently pressing the mixture into each cap so it stays in place.
- Bake mushrooms at 375°F for 20-25 minutes, until cheese is melted and bubbly.
- Garnish mushrooms with fresh basil and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar reduction. Serve immediately.
Notes
You don't need to remove the gills from the mushrooms here - just press the toppings down into the mushroom and they shouldn't fall out!
Additions and Substitutions. Use any pizza toppings you like here! We like swapping the pesto for pizza sauce, alfredo sauce, BBQ sauce, or Ranch dressing depending on the toppings we're using. Add extra veggies (spinach, minced garlic, bell peppers, onion, and black olives are all good) or add your favorite protein (Italian sausage, ground beef, meatballs, grilled chicken, pepperoni).
Which pesto should I use? We used store-bought basil pesto in these photos, but we also love using this homemade arugula pesto!
Do I need the balsamic vinegar? We love adding a kick of flavor from some balsamic vinegar here. Make your own balsamic reduction or use a store-bought balsamic glaze. If you have an aged balsamic hanging around, older high-quality balsamic vinegars are often on the thicker side (so you can just drizzle it over the mushrooms straight from the bottle!)
Nutrition
- Serving Size:
- Calories: 280
- Sugar: 6.9 g
- Sodium: 1034.1 mg
- Fat: 16.8 g
- Carbohydrates: 11.4 g
- Protein: 21.8 g
- Cholesterol: 10.2 mg
Keywords: summer, gluten free, grilling
The photos for this recipe were taken by Casey at The Mindful Hapa!
Casey Colodny
Made these for a quick and healthy dinner the other night and wow, we loved them!! The portobello mushrooms have amazing texture and create so much flavor with the pizza fillings!
★★★★★
Team Life As A Strawberry
WAHOO! Thanks, Casey!
Meredith
I like to set my mushroom caps on little donuts of foil to help keep them from getting soggy.
Lee
My girlfriend wasn't sure she was going to like this, however after my first try at it, she said to definitely make this again.
★★★★★
Jackie @ Life As A Strawberry
Hi Lee, woohoo - win for you!
Deb Soro
My mushrooms were huge. I put a hole in the centre of each mushroom using a chopstick. Marinated them in oil, garlic, salt, pepper, fresh basil and a bit of balsamic vinegar. Pre-cooked for 15 minutes. Also added the halved tomatoes to the baking sheet. After 15 minutes, mushrooms were perfect. Put a bit of cheese on them, then the pre-cooked tomato. Added chopped fresh spinach and then more cheese. Baked 20 minutes. They were delicious and different. Thank you for the recipe. A nice change and will be good for company too.
★★★★★
Jessie
So happy you liked it, Deb! Love your recipe tweaks!
Yeni
This was simply delicious! Thank you
★★★★★
Jessie
I'm so happy you liked it, Yeni! Thank you for letting me know how the recipe turned out!
Krista
I am currently trying to eat low carb as a vegetarian and the thing I miss the most is pizza! This was a great recipe even though I am not a big fan of mushrooms. The first version I made ended up being a bit soggy and the mushroom was still very thick at the bottom when I took it out from the oven (I prefer thin pizzas). It also tasted much too mushroomy for me lol!
I made some modifications to the original recipe and thought I would share them here in case someone else wants to turn this into a non-deep-dish and drier bottom version with much less of a mushroom taste.
I first removed the stem and trimmed off the gills by scraping with a knife. Then I put the cap on a plate and put it in the microwave - stem-side up - at 800W for about 4 minutes until it was fairly dry and had shrunk quite a bit. I then used a fork to press out the last of the juices and make it about 1/4 of an inch thick (it actually acted a bit like dough haha!). I also added a bit of garlic (a small clove) to help mask the mushroom taste. Aside from that I followed the rest of your recipe, except I kept it in the oven for only about 10 minutes as it wasn't as thick. It ended up perfect and the edges were all crispy from the cheese too! Yum! 🙂
Thank you for bringing pizza back into my life, Jessie!!
Jessie
I'm so happy you liked the recipe, Krista (and thanks for sharing your modifications - they sound delicious!) Yay for guilt-free pizza!
James
I used your recipe for these (they were great!) and what I did for my Portabellos, I grilled them before baking. Added a nice crust (just butter brushed, then grilled them until almost done) and totally saved the sogginess. : > I like your ideas for the low-carb version because everyone else is still using processed tomato sauce. Not too Atkins / Paleo friendly, so good work!
Jessie
Love that idea, James - thanks for the tip! I'm happy you liked the recipe!
Barbara Howard
Loved this...might just eat this every night for a while. I scraped out the gills before filling...use Parmesan and mozzarella, lots of basil and oregano, a bit of cayenne, and roasted tomatoes and red peppers. Might also add spinach, or arugula next time (which might be tomorrow!). thank you!
Jessie
I'm so happy you liked the recipe! Thank you for letting me know how it turned out!
Alice
Making this now for the second time as it turned out so great the first time - many thanks!
Jessie
I'm so happy you like the recipe, Alice! Thank you for letting me know how they turned out!
moestock
I used a stainless steel cupcake pan instead of the foil rings, after reading claims of aluminum seeping into food. Can't say if its true but I've been using parchment paper or stainless steel whenever possible.
I also poked holes in the bottom for drainage as mentioned in other comments, and used jarred pizza sauce, garlic, chopped pepperoni slices and mozzarella for the filling. Also pulled the mushroom stems, broke into pieces and added to the mix.
These are so much better than any cauliflower or zucchini crust I've tried to make and of course so much easier, thanks for posting!
Jessie
Love the cupcake pan idea! I've been baking them on top of a wire rack lately (just like in the video here) but will totally give the cupcake pan a try next time. I'm so glad you liked the recipe - thanks for letting me know how it turned out!