Do you see what I see? These stuffed mushroom “eyeballs” are sure to freak out your party guests this Halloween. And they’ll tickle the tastebuds, too.
I created this recipe to be SUPER easy, but also to look impressive on the table. My family ate the entire plate that night! Yes, they’re THAT good.
If you’d rather just get the quick-and-dirty, here’s the vid short on how to make these gross gourmet bites.
See? Told you they were easy.
But if you like seeing the recipe in front of you (I always do), here are the ingredients and steps:
Ingredients:
- 1/2 c. sausage
- 2 small containers button mushrooms (about 12–14 mushrooms)
- 8 oz. savory-flavored cream cheese (or plain), softened 1/4 tsp. black pepper
- 1 jar cocktail onions (for the “sclera”)
- Sliced black olives (for the “pupil”)
- Dash of pepper
- Drizzle of tomato or tapatio/hot sauce (for the “capillaries”)
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 375 F.
- While oven is preheating, brown sausage in a frying pan.
- While sausage is browning, wash mushrooms and cut out stems.
- Cut stems into small pieces and set aside.
- Add cream cheese to a medium-size bowl.
- Add the mushroom stems and pepper to the cream cheese and stir the ingredients until distributed.
- Spoon the mixture into the mushrooms and smooth over the top with the back of a spoon.
- Cut a cocktail onion in half horizontally so you have 2 even halves.
- Carefully remove the outermost layer or two of onion. Use your fingers; these come off easily.
- Place one outer layer onion cup into one mushroom eye and push down gently until level with the rest of the mixture.
- Inside this cup, place one black olive slice.
- Repeat the above 2 steps for all mushroom “eyes,” slicing more onions as y9ou need them and placing each completed eye into a baking dish as you finish.
- Drizzle a tiny amount of marianara or tapatio/hot sauce around the “whites” of each “eye” to look like capillaries.
- Put pan into oven and bake for 20-25 minutes.
- Remove pan from oven and let the eyes “sit” for 10 minutes, then spoon them into a serving dish and serve to guests.
Keep watching this space — I’ll have one more savory “eyes” recipe to come in plenty of time for Halloweeen!
Stay spooky,
Melvira
