Teriyaki Mushroom Bowls

These savory, Japanese-inspired teriyaki mushrooms with rice are a quick and easy vegetarian weeknight dinner. They're light, healthy and filling, plus one-pan!

We have an ongoing love for mushrooms. We must eat them several times a week, now that I think about it. They're so versatile and easy to pair with all sorts of different flavors.

Plus, when you're vegan or vegetarian, or just trying to eat a few more meatless meals a week, mushrooms are one of the best vegetable substitutes for meat. They're naturally full of umami and have such a meaty texture.

Another great thing about 'shrooms is how easy they are to cook. It's honestly pretty difficult to overcook mushrooms, as long as you don't use too high heat and avoid charring.

You can cook this tasty veggie on the grill, in the oven, on the stove, the possibilities are endless!

Scroll down for more of our favorite easy weeknight meals starring mushrooms.

What is Teriyaki?

Teriyaki is a Japanese cooking style. It includes as savory glaze made with soy sauce, Japanese rice wine (mirin), and some kind of sweetener. It also relies on high heat, usually from a broiler or grill, to get that delightful caramelization.

For our vegan teriyaki mushroom bowls, we used the same Japanese technique. We just made some flavor additions to our teriyaki glaze.

How to Make Homemade Teriyaki Sauce

We started with the basics for our teriyaki glaze.

Ingredients

• Soy sauce, a must-have for saltiness and flavor in Japanese cooking. We like low-sodium tamari, which is gluten-free.
• Japanese rice vinegar brings some acid without any real alcohol taste. You should be able to find this easily in the Asian section of your grocery store.
• White miso paste is another must-have ingredient in my home. Pair it with mushrooms, and you get a serious umami bomb.
• Brown sugar helps this glaze get nice and sticky.
• Garlic and ginger are the flavor enhancers that really stand out in your plant-based teriyaki mushroom bowls. To avoid any big chunks of garlic or ginger in your teriyaki sauce, I strongly recommend grating them on a microplane. If you don't have a microplane, of course, a very fine mince will also work.
• Finally, red chili flakes bring a punch of spice. Feel free to use as many or as little chili as you'd like for this recipe.

Instructions

Once you have all of the ingredients, this homemade sauce comes together quite quickly. You'll just bring everything to a low simmer in a small sauce pan. It's done as soon as the sugar dissolves and the sauce is thick and smooth.

If you boil it a little too long and loose too much liquid, you can always add a tablespoon or two of water to get back that volume before you coat the vegetables.

While you're making the teriyaki glaze, have the portobello mushrooms roasting. You want them to release as much liquid as possible before you coat them with the sauce.

Once they've shrunk down a bit, paint both sides of the mushrooms with your hot teriyaki glaze. Finally, pop them back in the oven to caramelize for another 10 minutes or so.

We added broccolini at this point too. It rounds out this easy dinner with some brightness and green, plus it doesn't add much more work.

The mushrooms are done when they're sticky and caramelized. The broccolini, when it's fork-tender.

We love to eat these teriyaki mushrooms over white or brown rice. But another grain, like quinoa, millet, or even a legume like lentils, would be delicious too.

Now all that's left to do is to assemble bowls with the grain of your choice, vegan teriyaki mushrooms and broccolini and a sprinkle of sliced scallions for garnish. Yum!

Optional Additions

If you want to pump up the protein in this plant-based dinner, you have options.

• Crispy pan-fried tofu would add tasty crunch to these mushroom bowls
• Or, double the recipe for the teriyaki glaze and brush it on seitan. You can pan-sear it until warm, or toss it in the oven with the veggies for the last 10 minutes.
• For non-vegetarians, chicken thighs would work with the teriyaki sauce.
• And for non-vegans, why not top your teriyaki mushroom bowl with a fried egg?

We love bowl dinners for how easy they are to mix-and-match. Plus, meals like these easy teriyaki mushroom bowls are fantastic for meal prep. They keep well in the fridge, so why not double the recipe and enjoy this healthy plant-based meal for lunch all week long?

More Easy Dinners with Mushrooms

• Sheet Pan Portobello Fajitas
• Vegan Mushroom Shawarma
• Creamy Dairy-Free Mushroom Alfredo
• Stuffed Mushrooms
• Spaghetti Squash Casserole with Wild Mushrooms

Do you have a favorite way to cook with mushrooms? Please share! Leave us a comment below.

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