The Simple Step To Prevent Soggy Roasted Mushrooms
If one of your go-to vegetables is mushrooms, chances are you know its a vegetable that is made up of and retains a lot of water. So, if you often cook with mushrooms in a pan, the technique you typically hear about first is to avoid crowding them. When mushrooms, and even other types of food, are too crowded in a pan, the temperature of the pan is lowered and the moisture in the mushrooms steams them (via Cooking Clarified). And if you experienced that in the pan, you know you don't want to have the same thing happen when you roast mushrooms.
However, even if you don't overcrowd your mushrooms on a baking sheet, chances are you need another trick to cut down on the overall cook time. When mushrooms roast in the oven, they also release a lot of water which is why you might want to rethink how you are roasting them. While you could use an oven-safe wire rack, there's another simple tip that will allow you to roast the mushrooms faster and keep from having to clean up one more thing.
Try checking on the mushrooms half way through
When you roast mushrooms, you can still simply spread them out on a baking sheet and let them cook. However, according to Real Simple, you should check on the mushrooms after 10 to 20 minutes of roasting. By this time, the mushrooms should have released the majority of their water content. With all of the liquid swimming around the baking sheet, you can tilt the pan over the sink and let the water drain off. Once the water has been drained off from the baking sheet, return the mushrooms to the oven and let them continue to cook until each one is as caramelized or browned as you would like. According to Real Simple, this should reduce your cook time by as much as 10 minutes.
So, instead of waiting longer for the excess water to evaporate in the oven, you can remove it altogether and cut the time down. Using this trick, you can make meals come together faster and avoid some of the hassle of messing up a wire rack.