Mushrooms are high in nutrients, have rich flavor, and a wide range of textures. Adding them to your cooking will increase its complexity and depth. Mushrooms can be cooked into wonderful dishes highlighting their qualities but do not need to be the center of your cooking, they certainly aren’t at our house! The nutritional benefits of mushrooms have been used for thousands of years, and researchers over the last 50 years have discovered medicinal mechanisms in mushrooms like cancer fighting, inflammation reduction, and neural regeneration to name a few. We feel like eating mushrooms is imperative for our long term health them but understand not everyone likes them. Don’t like the texture? Just cut them very small and add them close to the end of your cooking. Don’t like the flavor? Try more varieties! There are about 40 mushrooms commonly cultivated and harvested wild that vary in flavor from sweet and subtle umami to bold and earthy and dried or a powdered seasoning is available as well. Below we’ve added a selection of recipes we enjoy and hope you’ll try a few.
Roasting mushrooms :
Set oven to 550 degrees. If you can’t reach that temp, just go as high as you can and add a few minutes to the cook time.
Cut mushrooms to size, I generally cut mine in any shape 1/8”-1/4” thick.
Coat liberally in oil, salt, and pepper.
Set out in sheet pan, single layer and roast for 10 minutes. Then take out, stir up and roast for another 8 minutes. Towards the end of the 8 minutes begin checking the mushrooms. Looking for blackening and curling edges. You want the edges to curl and crisp but not burn. Once done you can add them to pasta, pizza, bread, eggs or whatever. Ours usually don’t make it to the table !
Grilling Mushrooms :
Set your grill to 500-600 degrees, or medium high if yo don’t have a thermometer on it.
Cut your mushrooms in larger strips or shapes to help avoid losing them down the grill top and 1/4”-1/2'“ thick.
Coat liberally with Olive oil, salt, and pepper. Any meat grilling spices work.
Grill 5-8 minutes per side, looking for solid char marks, and you can get some nice cross hatching if you want to.
Once mushrooms are cooked to the doneness you prefer, remove from the heat and enjoy.
You can also grill the mushrooms in a foil puuch and cook like fish. Mix with a little oil, butter, salt, pepper and herbs and cook untill softened. Do not fully seal the pouch as you want the water in the mushrooms to evaporate. Cook for 20-30 minutes.
Sautéed mushrooms :
Set your stove top to medium high heat.
Cut your mushrooms to the size you prefer. I like to cut mine to 1/4”-1/2” thickness.
Once the pan is hot, add the mushrooms into the pan and dry sauté which means using no oil or butter just the mushrooms. The mushrooms will start expelling their water and cooking it off. It takes 8-15 minutes. When there is no more water coming out of the mushrooms it is time to add the butter or oil, and your all done. Eat them as a side, or add them to a sauce or dish.
Oyster mushroom toast :
Dry sauté (no oil or butter) mushrooms 8-15 minutes on medium high heat or until water is released then add butter and cook an additional 2 minutes.
Toast bread to desired crispiness.
Cover top of toasted bread with slice of provolone and melt under broiler, 30 seconds - 2 min, keep your eye on it and look for browning
Add sliced tomato, sautéed mushrooms, and arugula to top. Lightly salt and pepper and enjoy.
Simple sautéed Mushroom Sauce :
You’ll need -
3 tbsp olive oil 6. 1 cup beef broth or chicken broth
3 tbs Butter 7. ½ cup heavy cream
1 lb sliced mushrooms 8. Garlic salt and Black pepper to taste
1 shallot 9. 1 tbsp flour
2 cloves thinly cut garlic
Heat olive oil and butter in medium sauce pan over medium heat.
Sauté mushrooms for 3 minutes.
Add all remaiing ingredients and cook, stirring frequently for 5 minutes or until mushrooms are lightly browned.
Reduce heat to low and simmer until thickened, about 5 minutes. Add garlic salt and pepper to taste.
Mushroom and Walnut Pasta :
You’ll need -
10 oz Tagliatelle or pasta of your choice 6. 4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 lb pioppini or cinnamon cap mushrooms 7. 3/4 cup dry white wine
1 cup yellow onion 8. 8 Basil leaves chopped
1 tbsp butter 9. garlic salt and pepper to taste
1/2 oz walnuts
Prepare the mushrooms by cutting them into bite size pieces
Chop the onion finely and cook in 1 tbsp of olive oil until golden brown
Add the mushrooms and cook for 5 minutes
Add the wine, bring to boil then reduce heat and simmer for 7-10 minutes or until reduced
Prepare pasta according to package
Drain pasta and add to skillet with the mushrooms. Add butter, chopped walnuts, garlic salt and pepper to tase and toss well to coat. Heat on low for 2 minutes
Sprinkle with basil leaves and serve.
Simple Hungarian Mushroom Soup :
You’ll need -
1. 4 Tbsp unsalted butter 9. 3 tbsp flour
2. 2 cups chopped onion 10. 1 tsp salt
3. 2 lbs mushrooms, chopped 11. 2 tsp lemon juice
4 2 tsp dried dill 12. 1/2 cup fresh parsley
5. 1 tbsp paprika 13. 1/2 cup sour cream
6. 1 tbsp soy sauce 14. black pepper to taste
7. 2 cups chicken broth
8. 1 cup milk
Melt the butter in a large pot over medium heat. Sauté the onions in the butter for 5 minutes.
Add the mushrooms and sauté for 5 more minutes.
Stir in the Dill, Paprika, Soy sauce, and Broth and reduce heat to low. Cover and simmer for 15 minutes.
In a separate bowl, whisk the milk and flour together and then pour into the soup and stir well to blend. Cover and simmer for an additional 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Stir in the salt, ground black pepper, lemon juice, rough chopped parsley, and sour cream. Mix together and heat 4 minutes. DO NOT BOIL. Serve immediately.
Oven risotto with roasted mushrooms
What you’ll need - For the mushrooms
3-4 tbsp olive oil
1 lb mushrooms, sliced
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp salt
For the risotto
2 tbsp olive oil 7. 2 tbsp unsalted butter
1 onion 8. zest and jice of one lemon
2 cups arborio rice 9. 1 tsp salt
1 cup dry white wine
5 1/2 cups chicken broth divided
1 cup parmesan
Pre heat oven to 350 degrees.
Prepare the roasted mushrooms by slicing the mushrooms, coating in oil salt and pepper and laying out in a single layer in a rimmed sheet pan.
Heat 2 tbsp olive oil in a dutch oven over medium low heat. Add onion and cook until soft, about 3 minutes.
Add Garlic and Arborio rice and cook until garlic is fragrant and all the rice is completely coated with oil.
When the rice beings to lightly toast, turn up the heat to high and add the wine to deglaze. Sit continuously until no liquid remains.
Add 4 cups chicken broth and bring to a simmer
Put the lid on the risotto pot. Transfer both the dutch oven and mushroom pan to the oven. Risotto on the top rack and mushrooms on the bottom. Bake for 15-20 minutes, until rice is just underdone.
Remove risotto from the oven but leave the mushroom pan to cook longer. Increase the oven heat to 500 degrees and bake another 5 minutes or until mushrooms edges are curling and golden brown.
Place risotto back over a medium low heat. Slow add remaining broth stirring between additions until nice and creamy. Stir in parmesan, butter, lemon zest, lemon juice and salt to taste.
Top with more parmesan and the roasted mushrooms.
Lion’s Mane Crab Cakes
1 lb of Lion’s Mane makes 2-3 crab cakes. Shred your lion’s mane, the smaller thinner strips the better. Bake it at 350 degrees for 10 minutes with no oil or anything else on it. Then use the baked Lion’s Mane as the replacement for crab in ANY pan fried crab cake recipe. We never seem to use the same crab cake recipe twice, there are a hundred out there and they all turn out great!