Vegan Panko Fried Mushrooms – Crispy Battered Mushrooms with a Creamy Cashew Dipping Sauce #MeatlessMondayNight
Sponsored by Silk
I love the concept of Meatless Monday, so when Silk challenged me to create a meat-free and dairy-free dish for Monday Night Football as part of their Sideline Meat campaign, I was really excited about the possibilities. We often think of watching football games while indulging in heavy snacks like buffalo wings and dips. While those are definitely tasty, it’s nice to change things up a bit. For people like me who are flexitarian, tasty meat-free and dairy-free recipes are a welcome addition to all celebrations.
I was excited to explore the Silk product line as I developed a creative new recipe. Many of us are familiar with Silk’s Soymilk, but they also carry lots of other dairy free products like Almondmilk, Coconutmilk, Cashewmilk and Dairy Free Yogurt Alternatives. There’s truly something for everyone.
One of my favorite game time recipes is Portobello Mushroom Schnitzel, made with a tasty panko-coated batter. They’re crispy, delicious and a huge hit whenever I serve them. I decided to revamp this recipe by creating a vegan “buttermilk” made with Silk Unsweetened Cashewmilk and lemon juice. Cashewmilk is one of my favorite non-dairy milks, but I rarely cook with it so I wanted to give it a try. I used bite-sized, sliced white mushrooms which fried up perfectly crisp. The results were fantastic and I am pleased to have a new recipe that my vegan friends and family can indulge in. When served with a smooth, flavorful cashew dipping sauce, they become seriously indulgent. It’s creamy, decadent, and much lighter than a sour cream or cheese-style dip.
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Vegan Panko Fried Mushrooms
Ingredients
Crispy Panko Mushroom Ingredients
- 3/4 cup Silk Unsweetened Cashew Milk, or more if needed
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 3/4 cup all purpose flour
- 1/2 tablespoon cornstarch
- Heaping 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/4 teaspoon cayenne
- 2 teaspoons hot sauce
- 3-3 1/2 cups panko breadcrumbs
- 8 ounces sliced white mushrooms
- grapeseed oil for frying
Creamy Cashew Dipping Sauce Ingredients
- 3/4 cup Silk Unsweetened Cashew Milk
- 3/4 cup raw, unsalted cashews
- 2 teaspoons lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon fresh parsley, chopped (plus more for garnish if desired)
- 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
NOTES
Instructions
- In a mixing bowl or measuring cup, combine 3/4 cup cashews in 3/4 cup Silk Unsweetened Cashew Milk. Set aside to let the cashews soak while you prepare the other ingredients.
- In a measuring cup, combine 3/4 cup Silk Unsweetened Cashew Milk and lemon juice. Stir until well combined.
- In a mixing bowl whisk together the flour, cornstarch, salt, garlic powder and cayenne.
- Stir in the hot sauce and Silk Unsweetened Cashew Milk/lemon juice mixture until a thick but pourable batter forms. The batter should be thick like pancake batter, but if it appears clumpy or overly thick add more cashew milk until mixture is thin enough for dipping.
- Pour the breadcrumbs onto a plate or sheet tray. Dip the mushroom slices into the batter...
- ...then into the panko to coat. Use one hand for wet dipping and the other for dry, otherwise you’ll end up with lots of clumps in the dry coating ingredients.
- Heat ½ inch of grapeseed oil in a skillet over medium until hot but not smoking. Fry the mushroom slices in batches of 10 pieces for 1 1/2 - 2 1/2 minutes on each side until golden brown and crispy. You may need to add more oil midway through cooking. Drain on paper towels or a wire cooling rack.
- Once the mushrooms have been fried, combine the soaked cashews and cashew milk with the remaining creamy cashew dipping sauce ingredients in a blender. Blend until smooth and well combined.
- Sprinkle fried mushrooms with additional salt to taste, if desired. Serve hot with creamy cashew dipping sauce.
Nutrition
tried this recipe?
Let us know in the comments!
This conversation is sponsored by Silk. The opinions and text are all mine.
Have you tried “frying” these in the air fryer? Would really like to avoid all that oil.
Hi Gail, I don’t have a weight for the fish currently, but next time I make this recipe I will update it with a weight. My site auto-calculates nutrition based on the recipe ingredients. For a more precise calorie measurement, I suggest using one of the many nutrition calculators online to calculate for your specific needs.
Hi Gail.
I do these in my airfryer only. 6-8 mins one side, flip & another 6 or so the other, depending on how big the mushies are. Sometimes a tiny spray of olive oil but mostly oil free. And I use spelt flour not all purpose & they come out perfectly delish!
This is so so good! I made a few modifications with what I had on hand but thank you so much 🙂
Thank you so much for sharing! This is an amazing recipe! Kids will definitely enjoy this and it is so much healthier. This is another way for me to persuade them to eat the healthy type of foods!
Do you have to use the breadcrumbs to make the mushrooms golden and crispy?
Yes, however you can use a gluten free breadcrumb substitute like gluten free panko crumbs if you are concerned about that.
I only have vanilla unsweetened almond milk, will soy milk work also?
Yes it will. 🙂
This is a game changer – Used almond milk and had some fresh chicken of the woods mushrooms. Fried in peanut oil and used bbq sauce for dipping. This will be my go to batter for frying going forward. Quick, easy and tasty. Thank you.
I don’t fry…can these be baked???..after being misted in oil?
has anyone tried?
Do you fry the mushrooms before you dip/breadcrumb them and them fry them?
Hi Georgie, Tori’s assistant Ashley here. No, the mushrooms are coated before frying.
wow, This is SO GOOD! I followed the recipe but I used Field Mushrooms, and cut them up into 1/4 inch slices, they fried in the same amount of time so changing up the mushroom type/size was no problem. I didn’t have any parsley for the cashew dip and I also used Almond Unsweetened instead cashew milk and it turned it great! Delicious. I have to add about another quarter cup or maybe half of that of Cashews to the dip as I wanted it a bit thicker. Also I just used what I had in the cupboards; so I had salted and roasted cashews, not plain, but I just reduced the final amount of seasoning at the end. I used Sriracha as my hot sauce; so good.
Wish I had taken a picture as they were definitely worthy of one. When I make them again I’ll be sure to link the picture to your website/this recipe.
MUST MUST MUST try this! Cannot recommend it enough, it is such a treat, better than restaurant Garlic Breaded Mushrooms.
So glad you like this recipe Sophie! It’s a hidden gem on my site 🙂