Vegan garlic mushrooms are super easy to make, are absolutely delicious and only need four ingredients too. They make perfect garlic mushrooms on toast, or served as part of a big breakfast. They can even be turned into creamy garlic mushrooms with the simple addition of oat cream.

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Keep reading to find out how to make vegan garlic mushrooms in 15 minutes...
🌟 Why this recipe works
- Super simple – with just four ingredients and 15 minutes, this is probably one of the simplest recipes on our website! Perfect for novice cooks and seasoned pros alike.
- It’s trustworthy – we’ve made this recipe hundreds of times. Whether it’s for a quick weekend breakfast, where the mushrooms are served on toast, or a big full English style breakfast, it stands the test of time.
- Four ingredients - you'll need just four ingredients (plus salt and pepper). That means there’s minimal chance anything will go wrong.
- Meaty Mushrooms – we specifically use chestnut mushrooms in this recipe because they keep their bite. We find chestnut mushrooms to be the most ‘meaty’, so they’re great for a recipe like this – where mushrooms are put front and centre of the dish. We talk about other types of mushrooms that could be used below.
🍽 Equipment needed
These vegan garlic mushrooms are super simple to make so you don’t need any fancy equipment. You’ll just need a large sauté or frying pan, a spatula for stirring and maybe a garlic press if you don’t want to chop the garlic using a knife.
Top tip: using a large pan will mean that the mushrooms aren’t overcrowded – they need enough space to fry, and if they’re packed in some of them might only steam.
📋 Ingredient notes
Here is an overview of the ingredients and instructions to make this recipe. Please head to the bottom of the page for the full ingredients list, instructions and notes.
- Chestnut mushrooms – we recommend using chestnut mushrooms to make these vegan garlic mushrooms. They’re a really satisfying mushroom. By this, we mean that they keep their bite when sauteed, and are very meaty. We also find them to be umami-rich, and so we find the flavour of chestnut mushrooms to pair well with the vegan butter, better than other types of mushrooms. White mushrooms, while it is true that they taste great, often lose their meatiness when cooked and risk becoming slimy as they seem to hold more water than chestnut mushrooms (anecdotally). That being said, the recipe will work with portobello, portobellini or oyster mushrooms too. Plus, check out this list of amazing oyster mushroom recipes.
- Vegan butter – we chose to use vegan butter rather than olive oil because we find it more flavorful when paired with mushrooms and garlic. Garlic butter is just classic. Alternatively, you could use olive oil or vegan margarine.
- Chives – chives take this recipe to the next level! They’re part of the onion family, but offer a herby, onion-y flavour that’s delicate rather than overpowering.
- Garlic – an absolutely essential ingredient for this recipe! We’ve finely sliced the garlic rather than mincing or crushing it. That means there’s lovely slices of garlic running throughout the finished dish. If you don’t have fresh garlic, use frozen garlic or alternatively ‘lazy garlic’ paste!
🔪 Step-by-step instructions
1. First of all, chop the mushrooms into quarters, slice the garlic and finely chop the chives.
2. Put the vegan butter in a large saute or frying pan and allow it to melt over a medium heat.
3. Pop the garlic in and let it bubble in the melted butter until fragrant. Garlic burns easily, but this shouldn’t be a problem as the heat is on medium, and you should keep it moving in the pan with a spatula.
4. Add the mushrooms and cook until they start to release water. Stir them well so that they get a nice coating of vegan butter and garlic. Let the vegan garlic mushrooms cook for around 5-7 minutes, until most of the water has been released and cooked off. If you don’t want to wait for it all to cook-off, you could just drain the water away!
5. Sprinkle in the chives and stir well.
6. Season with salt and pepper. If the vegan butter is salty, you may not want to add much (or any) salt so be sure to taste it first! Serve on toasted sourdough or crusty wholemeal bread, and enjoy!
👩🍳 Expert tips
- How to prepare chestnut mushrooms – we recommend wiping the mushrooms rather than washing them with water. This is because mushrooms take on water very easily, and as they already contain a lot of water, we don’t want to add any more to this recipe. We recommend the same for this delicious mushroom bhaji recipe.
- Mushrooms release water when they’re cooked. However, we don’t want the end result to be watery! To counter this, keep the mushrooms cooking until most of the water has evaporated, or drain the water off once the mushrooms are cooked.
- Add vegan cream! If you add vegan cream to the vegan garlic mushrooms, you’ll have deliciously creamy vegan mushrooms instead! Add 100ml of oat or soya cream – it’s delicious.
- Chop the mushrooms into quarters (or chunks) instead of slices. They remain meatier this way. When they’re sliced they don’t retain as much bite. We think that part of the beauty of this recipe is the texture of the mushrooms, when sliced, that element of the recipe is taken away.
- Mushrooms are absorbent – for this reason, they will absorb the butter. Keep the heat on medium and keep the mushrooms moving to prevent burning. If it starts to look a bit too dry, add another 1-2 teaspoons of vegan butter.
💭 FAQs
As this vegan garlic mushroom recipe is super easy to make, there are some simple variations you can make. Try adding oat cream (or other vegan cream) to make a creamy vegan version. Instead of chives, you could substitute spring onions or leeks, or even shallots. If you don’t have vegan butter, you can use olive oil.
We recommend chestnut mushrooms because we think they’re the meatiest and generally, the tastiest. You could alternatively use oyster mushrooms, portobello or portobellini mushrooms.
Technically, yes these mushrooms can be frozen but we don’t recommend it. That’s because mushrooms don’t hold their texture when reheated from frozen. When chestnut mushrooms are reheated after freezing we find them to go leathery and limp. For this reason, we recommend that they are eaten fresh!
They will keep in the fridge for two days. However, to follow on from the advice above, we recommend that they are eaten when they have been freshly cooked for best results and the most enjoyment.
🍛 What to serve it with:
These mushrooms are great served by themselves on buttered sourdough or freshly baked bread from the bakery, or as part of a bigger breakfast. It's great with:
- Silken Tofu Scramble (just like scrambled eggs!)
- Homemade Baked Beans
- As part of a Breakfast Burrito
- Baked Breakfast Potatoes
- Authentic Lebanese Hummus
🍞 More vegan breakfast ideas
If you liked this vegan breakfast, try these out next:
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📖 Recipe
Vegan Garlic Mushrooms in 15 minutes
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoon vegan butter vegan butter
- 4 cloves garlic – sliced
- 450 g chestnut mushrooms – quartered
- 2 tablespoon fresh chives – chopped
- Salt and pepper – to taste
Instructions
- Pop the vegan butter in a large sauté or frying pan over a medium heat.3 tablespoon vegan butter
- Once the butter has melted, add the garlic in and let it bubble until fragrant. Keep it moving with a spatula and be careful not to burn it.4 cloves garlic
- Add the mushrooms and cook until they start to release water. Stir well so they get a nice coating of vegan butter and garlic.450 g chestnut mushrooms
- Cook for around 5-7 minutes, until most of the water has been released and cooked off. Alternatively, if you don’t want to wait for it all to cook-off, you could just drain some of the water away!
- Sprinkle in the chives and stir.2 tablespoon fresh chives
- Season with salt and pepper. If the vegan butter is salty, you may not want to add much (or any) salt so be sure to taste it first! Serve on toasted sourdough or as part of a big breakfast or full English. Enjoy!Salt and pepper
Notes
- This recipe keeps in the fridge for two days, but is best eaten fresh.
- We don’t recommend freezing as the quality of the dish will not remain when reheated, however it can be frozen. Mushrooms go limp and leathery after freezing.
- Try adding 100ml of vegan cream (oat or soya-based) to make a creamy version of this dish!
- We recommend chestnut mushrooms as they’re ‘meaty’ but this recipe works well with portobello, portobellini or oyster mushrooms.
- We recommend wiping the mushrooms rather than washing with water, as mushrooms absorb water, which we don’t want for this recipe.
Kevin
Very tasty!