Roasted Mushrooms

Call me crazy, but I’m a little obsessed with culinary mushrooms these days!

If you didn’t already know, I study (w)holistic nutrition at the Wellspring School here in Portland, Oregon. One of the requirements of the program is to partake in a student hosted community event. During this event I have the opportunity to set up a booth to talk about mushrooms!

I’m not a big fan of the word, but if you didn’t know, culinary mushrooms are like a hidden gem of the superfood world! SERIOUSLY. I wouldn’t dream of lying to you!

Here are all the things you’ve ever wanted to know about culinary mushrooms:

• Mushrooms are the fruiting body of the fungi, and there are an estimated 1.5 MILLION different kinds of mushrooms in the world.
• Mushrooms can be classified as culinary, medicinal, inedible and poisonous.
• Mushrooms provide vitamin D.
• Mushrooms are antioxidants.
• Mushrooms are adaptogens. Adaptogens have non-specific duties; they give you what you need in order to function optimally. This might include protecting your body from stress and disease, and boosting your immune system.
• Mushrooms are immunomodulators. This means they can help boost your immune system when necessary to decrease likelihood of getting a cold or flu, help you manage allergies, and help prevent the development of cancer.
• Mushrooms are prebiotics. This means they help feed the good bacteria in your gut!

Since there are over a million different mushrooms, I think it goes without saying that there’s more to mushrooms than the traditional button mushroom. My two favorites are maitake and shiitake.

Maitake mushrooms have an amazing umami flavor that make them oh so delicious in savory baked goods. Maitake’s also help manage weight, high blood sugar, high cholesterol and high blood pressure.

In my humble opinion, Shiitake is like the superstar of the mushroom world. I like them because they’re very common and fairly inexpensive. And not to mention, they contain SEVEN of the nine essential amino acids, which is amazing for a little fungi. Shiitake mushrooms are also great for detoxification, stimulate the immune system to help fight off infections, manage high cholesterol, are anti-inflammatory and improve blood circulation.

And just for fun, have you ever heard of a candy-cap mushroom? I couldn’t find any nutrition information about them during my research, but they are supposed to have a maple syrup flavor. Isn’t that both completely strange and amazing? I want to try baking them into pancakes or desserts!

Lately I’ve been having fun experimenting with mushrooms. Today I have a super basic recipe for you – roasted mushrooms. There are so many fun and creative ways to eat mushrooms, but I think this is a great (and normal) start.

This recipe isn’t mind-blowing by any means. Honestly, it’s barely a recipe. It’s more of a “this is how you do it” kind of thing.

You can roast mushrooms to put on greens, pasta salads or enjoy as a simple side dish. I have a recipe coming in a few days that will incorporate these very mushrooms, so stay tuned for that!

 

Sources:

Babcock, Jillian. “Cremini Mushrooms Benefits, Uses & Recipes.” Dr. Axe, Dr. Axe, 20 July 2017, draxe.com/cremini-mushrooms/.

Bone, Eugenia. Mycophilia: Revelations from the Weird World of Mushrooms. Rodale, 2013.

“Candy Caps 101.” Mad about Mushrooms, www.madaboutmushrooms.com/mad_about_mushrooms/2018/01/candy-caps-101.html.

Furhman, Dr. Joel. “G-BOMBS: Greens, Beans, Onions, Mushrooms, Berries, and Seeds.” ATOUR, www.atour.com/forums/health/15.html.

Halpern, Georges M. Healing Mushrooms: Effective Treatments for Today’s Illnesses. Square One Publishers, 2007.

Isokauppila, Tero. Healing Mushrooms: a Practical and Culinary Guide to Using Adaptogenic Mushrooms for Whole Body Health. Penguin Publishing Group, 2017.