A delicious meatless version of the classic chicken paprikash. With only a few ingredients and a creamy luxurious paprika sauce is all you need to create this scrumptious 30 minute recipe!
When you’re not up to spending hours over the stove, this classic meatless mushroom paprikash pasta is what you need!! It’s so delicious, loving the caramelized cremini mushrooms as they add so much flavour to this dish. The baby spinach added at the end creates flavour, colour and is a nutritional benefit!
INGREDIENTS
- Pasta: for this recipe, choose farfalle, tagliatelle or egg noodles
- Extra virgin olive oil should be a good quality evoo
- Unsalted butter is what I prefer to manage the salt content in a recipe
- Cremini mushrooms or baby bella mushrooms are my all time favourite for recipes like this, when caramelized, they are so flavourful, earthy and they manage to stay firm once caramelized.
- Onion and Garlic are the perfect base for this recipe
- Hungarian sweet pepper is the best and most recommended paprika to use when cooking Hungarian dishes
- Seasoning: salt and pepper
- Flour will help to thicken the sauce
- Vegetable broth is needed to start the sauce process
- Spinach and baby spinach will add flavour and nutritional component
- Parsley is what you want to garnish this dish with
We have made this recipe several times when we want a meatless meal. Since I love the chicken, beef or veal paprikash dish, we will often incorporate them into other recipes or dishes.
WHY MAKE THIS DISH...
- I may be bias, but it is soooo delicious!! You will not be disappointed!
- Cooked in under 30 minutes
- An easy weeknight meal that every will love!
- Only need a few ingredients
- A perfect Monday Meatless dish!
HOW TO MAKE THIS DELICIOUS RECIPE
Start with cooking the pasta: bring medium sauce pot of water to a boil for the pasta, add ½ teaspoon of salt. Cook until al dente according to the package instructions.
Using a skillet or cast iron pan, add olive oil and butter, then add mushroom and sauté until golden and caramelized, turning over once halfway through, about 6-7 minutes. Add onions and sauté for another 3 minutes, then add garlic and cook for another minute. Stir in paprika, pepper and flour, combine well. Pour in the vegetable broth and simmer for about 3-4 minutes, until it starts to thicken.
Once the sauce has thickened, add the reserved pasta water and spinach, simmer for a minute until spinach is wilted. Add the sour cream in a small bowl and take some of the sauce and stir it in with the sour cream. You don’t want the sour cream to be cold when adding it to the skillet as it may curdle.
Time to create a creamy texture on this dish: on low-medium heat, add the sour cream mixture and mix it in thoroughly. Allow to simmer for about a minute. Stir in the pasta and coat well with the sauce.
Garnish with parsley. Enjoy!
COOKING TIPS
Choice of pasta is something you have to consider for any pasta recipe. When your recipe has a creamy sauce, you want the sauce to adhere to the pasta and coat well. Choose farfalle as I did or tagliatelle, egg noodles or if you have homemade Hungarian dumplings on hand, as I often do that would work too!
When adding paprika to a Hungarian dish. The Hungarians will use sweet or hot paprika in their recipes. The sweet paprika is rich and adds a robust flavour to our dishes. I highly recommend using it for this dish to get the true authentic flavour.
Once the sauce has started to thicken, I like adding some reserved pasta water as it binds the liquids and helps to coat the pasta. When adding sour cream, it is important to reduce the heat and add some of the started sauce to the sour cream. Stir the sauce into the sour cream to warm it up. This will avoid the sauce from curdling. Pour it into the skillet/pan and increase the heat to a light boil. Once it’s blended and creamy, then add your pasta.
Hungarians have always used sour cream in many of their recipes. However, you can replace it with Greek yogurt. The difference is sour cream is made with cream and yogurt is made with milk
STORING
Since this dish is meatless but it has dairy, I suggest to store it in the refrigerator for up to 4 days. You can freeze this as well, by adding it to a freezer-safe container for up to 2 months.
Hungarian Mushroom Paprikash (Gombás Paprikás)
Equipment
- skillet or cast iron pan
- medium sauce pot
Ingredients
- 4-5 oz pasta (farfalle, tagliatelle or egg noodes)
- 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tbsp unsalted butter
- 5 oz cremini mushrooms, sliced
- 1/2 medium onion, chopped
- 1 garlic, minced
- 1½ tsp Hungarian sweet paprika
- 1/4 tsp pepper
- 2 tsp flour
- 1/2 cup vegetable broth
- 4 tbsp reserved pasta water
- 2 handfuls baby spinach
- 1 tbsp sour cream
- 1/2 tsp Himalayan salt
- parsley, garnishing
Instructions
- Bring medium sauce pot of water to a boil for the pasta, add ½ teaspoon of salt. Cook until al dente according to the package instructions.
- Add olive oil and butter to skillet or cast iron pan, then add mushroom and sauté until golden and caramelized, turning over once halfway through, about 6-7 minutes. Add onions and sauté for another 3 minutes, then add garlic and cook for another minute. Stir in paprika, pepper and flour, combine well. Pour in the vegetable broth and simmer for about 3-4 minutes, until it starts to thicken.
- Once the sauce has thickened, add the reserved pasta water and spinach, simmer for a minute until spinach is wilted. Add the sour cream in a small bowl and take some of the sauce and stir it in with the sour cream. You don't want the sour cream to be cold when adding it to the skillet as it may curdle.
- On low-medium heat, add the sour cream mixture and mix it in thoroughly. Allow to simmer for about a minute. Stir in the pasta and coat well with the sauce.
- Garnish with parsley. Enjoy!
