Mushroom paprikash, or mushroom goulash, is a flavorful mushroom stew and one of the staples of Hungarian cuisine.
Mushroom goulash is an easy-to-make vegetarian dish, part of the paprikash family. Although it is vegetarian, it has the same strong flavors as its big brother, chicken paprikash. I really urge you to try it; it’s incredible how these complex flavors can develop from such simple ingredients.
Mushroom Goulash in Hungary
Because mushroom goulash is very easy to make and button mushrooms are not only easy to find but also very cheap, this dish is often served as part of low-budget workday menus in Hungarian homes or canteens.
But since it is also a very tasty dish, you can find mushroom paprikash in almost every restaurant that serves Hungarian food.
Make it and try it, and let your kitchen be colored with a dish that can only be compared to the best vegetable curries of Indian cuisine.
Mushroom paprikash is served as a main dish, mostly with galuska. If no galuska is made, you can serve it with any kind of pasta, or even rice.
In the picture below, you can see a unique fusion presentation: mushroom goulash with couscous.
Mushroom Goulash or Mushroom Paprikash?
This dish is called mushroom goulash in English. While this is a reasonable usage in English, in Hungarian, this is simply a paprikash.
Goulash in Hungarian is a thick soup made with meat, or sometimes beans, and root vegetables. Paprikash, on the other hand, contains one main ingredient, is cooked in a thick paprika sauce, and is flavored with sour cream.
This dish is more like a mushroom stew than a soup, and it doesn’t have any root vegetables. It also has one ingredient that you never see in an authentic Hungarian goulash: sour cream. It is definitely a typical paprikash.
So if you want to be authentic when it comes to Hungarian food, please note that this mushroom stew is definitely a mushroom paprikash and not a goulash.
Hungarian name: gombapaprikás.
Mushroom goulash (mushroom paprikash)
Ingredients
- 2 lbs button mushrooms 900 g
- 2 onions medium
- 13 tbsp sour cream 200 ml
- 6 tsp paprika
- ½ tsp ground pepper
- 2 tsp salt
- 2 tbsp flour
- 4 tbsp vegetable oil
- 2 cups water (480 ml)
Instructions
- Chop the onions and slice the mushrooms into 1/4-1/3 inch (5-8 mm) thick slices.
- Sautée the onions in oil over medium heat until golden, for about 8-10 minutes. Lower the heat, add 4 tbsp (60 ml) water and let it simmer.
- Cook the onions for about 30 minutes over low heat, adding 4 tbsp water at a time. (You can skip this step if you have no time, but this will create the nice and thick sauce for the onions.)
- Take off the heat, add paprika and stir.
- Add sliced mushrooms, salt and pepper, stir and let it simmer for 5-10 minutes without adding any liquid.
- Mix sour cream with flour in a bowl, add 4-5 tbsp of mushroom sauce to avoid lumps.
- Pour the sour cream mixture over the mushroom goulash, stir and let it cook for 2 minutes so that the flour thickens the dish.
