Mushrooms are cheap, healthy and have a low calorie content. Recently having realized how wonderful mushrooms are, I tried to form this easy dish. They make a great addition to most dishes and a great substitute for pasta. Everybody loves pasta; but in times of urgency and low supplies, pasta can take a while and a lot of patience to cook.

Mushroom marinara is basically pasta without the pasta. It’s an ideal dish for a wintery evening or even a quick snack before you head out for some grocery shopping or afternoon classes. Just like the Pita-Bread Pizza, this recipe is a quick, marinara sauce based dish and is a faster and easier way to fill your stomach. This is the perfect solution for the times when you are a little hard on the pocket, especially during winters; you always want to tuck into a nice big bowl of something buttery and creamy but still want to watch the calories.

• Cooking skills required: Chopping
• Equipment/Utensils Required: Pan/Skillet
• Items needed other than the basic stocked items: None!
• Prep Time: 5 mins.
• Cooking Time: 10-15 mins on the stove. 
• Serving Size: One bowl per person.
• Cost per bowl: $1.28

Ingredients

1. White Button Mushrooms: 8-10 medium sized button mushrooms. If you’re very hungry, use the whole pack (~8 oz/220g/15 mushrooms)
2. Marinara/Pasta sauce: About 5 tablespoons
3. Cheese: Any cheese like mozzarella, cheddar; about 2 tablespoons
4. Garlic: 1/2 clove chopped
5. Seasoning: Oregano, All-purpose seasoning, paprika, chili flakes
6. Oil/butter: 1 teaspoon

Method:

1. Heat a small skillet/pan and add about 1 teaspoon of oil or butter.
2. Add chopped garlic to the pan until it becomes soft and a lovely aroma spreads
3. Add the chopped mushrooms to the pan and let them shrink a little bit. Its important to let them shrink or else they will be chewy, even after the sauce is put in. This takes about 5-8 mins.
4. For 8 mushrooms, add about 5 tablespoons of pasta sauce/marinara sauce.
5. Mix the sauce well and let it simmer for about 2-3 mins on medium flame.
6. Add about 2 teaspoons of cheese and seasoning to the dish. Add a little salt to the dish and mix.
7. Eat as is or with a slice of bread on the side.

Calories: 200 – 245 Calories

Accounting for the variety of pasta/marinara sauces and cheeses that can be added to this dish, it has a wide range in terms of calories. The mushrooms account to about 24 calories in the whole dish. The oil and cheese together are about 200 calories and the major contributors of fats and proteins. The sauce is about 42 calories.

Suggestions: This dish is exactly how a red sauce pasta would taste, except it takes lesser time to cook and has lower calories. Since the prep and prep time are less, it’s an extremely easy and addictive dish. It definitely beats eating ready-made, processed, store bought or take away soups. If you like white sauce better than red sauce, the method remains the same. You can also add a tablespoon of milk or cream to the dish, to make it more soup like.

Shopping suggestion: A lot of good, quick dishes can be made using pasta sauces as a base. Invest in a good, high quality nutritious pasta sauce, or even better, make one big batch that lasts you a long time.