Jill Nussinow, The Veggie Queen
I’m thinking that many people, myself included, haven’t thought much about mushrooms and what they are – that is, until I ate my first bite of a porcini (boletus edulis) mushroom that I savored at an upscale Italian restaurant in Los Angeles, where I was then living (twenty years ago). When I heard that you could hunt wild mushrooms in Northern California, I got even more excited since it’s where I was headed and now live.
What does this have to do with nutrition? As it turns out, mushrooms, cultivated or wild, have incredible nutritional qualities that do not exist in other foods. This is because mushrooms are not vegetables – they are fungi. According to mushroom expert, mycologist, Paul Stamets, without fungi we would be buried in dead matter. We need fungi in our environment – to clean things up and help rid us of dead wood, and it’s almost the same internally.
Mushrooms, the fruiting bodies of fungi (in the same way that tomatoes are the fruiting body of the tomato plant), are unique in that they are not animal, vegetable or mineral. They contain some compounds such as chitin (pronounced ki-tin), beta glucans, which is a complex sugar molecule (also found abundantly in oats and is the compound responsible for their cholesterol lowering effect), and glycoproteins that are not readily available elsewhere. These substances may account for some of the health-producing properties of mushrooms and their positive nutrition profile: low in calories, higher in protein than most vegetables, sufficient fiber, a wide array of minerals and plenty of B vitamins.
The fiber chitin is also found in the exoskeletons of crustaceans (which nobody eats, we hope). A few years ago, there was a product on the market called Chitosan, which supposedly helped block the absorption of the fat that you ate. I don’t know if it worked but mushrooms do help fill you up and provide a wealth of culinary possibilities.
Most importantly for me, the taste, and often texture, of mushrooms make them incredibly appealing. The most common mushroom is the white button (agaricus bisporus) mushroom that does not have much flavor but adds body to vegetarian foods. The crimini or brown mushroom contains less water than the white and therefore has better flavor. The portabella is just a bigger crimini and it makes a great “burger” when marinated and baked or grilled. There are also other cultivated “wild”mushrooms such as oyster, shiitake and maitake, to name just a few.
Cooking with Mushrooms
Mushrooms are a great addition to soups, stews, stir-fries, side dishes, veggie burgers and loaves. All the mushroom experts that I’ve spoken with recommend fully cooking your mushrooms to help make them more digestible. The main nutritional components of mushrooms are water soluble and are most easily digested in soups, stews and dishes that use liquid that you consume.
Mushrooms usually contain quite a bit of water and need to be cooked thoroughly. If using mushrooms in a sauté be sure to cook them until they release their liquid and start to brown, which is when the flavor is most predominant. The less flavorful mushrooms, white button, crimini and oyster, are easily combined with other ingredients, while the more flavorful such as shiitake, portabella and porcini (wild mushrooms) can overpower a dish if you use too many.
If you adore the flavor and have access to wild mushrooms (they tend to be more expensive than the others unless you hunt them yourself), use them as you wish. If fresh shiitake, porcini or other wild mushrooms aren’t available, you can use dried. You can add the dried form directly to very soupy, longer-cooked dishes, or you can rehydrate them by pouring boiling water over them and then use them. Save the flavorful soaking water to use in the dish you are cooking, for stock or for other savory dishes.
When buying fresh mushrooms, look for those that are firm, not at all slimy, blemish free and with gills that are mostly closed. Do not store them in plastic as they need to breathe. I store them loosely packed in paper bags in my vegetable drawer for a few days. If they get slimy or develop any mold, throw them away.
There is big debate over cleaning mushrooms. Since they usually grow in wet environments, I wash them well but don’t leave them soaking. Even if they look clean, they often have hidden dirt. And it’s best to purchase organic mushrooms when possible. Finding them in the wild, away from the road, almost ensures that.
Medicinal Benefits
Beyond their taste, mushrooms can be used and eaten for their medicinal qualities. Briefly, studies reveal that oyster mushrooms lower cholesterol, while shiitake and maitake mushrooms help boost your immune system, with shiitake showing promise as a cancer protective agent. I believe that all mushrooms deliver beneficial effects but they must be cooked or processed. Even the standard white button mushroom contains beneficial antioxidants.
Some medicinal mushrooms such as Reishi, Cordyceps and Turkey Tail (coriolus or trametes versicolor) are too tough to be edible. You must take them in supplement form, either as tablets, capsules or as tea or a heat processed liquid tincture. Even my husband, the mushroom hater, takes mushroom capsules for his immune system.
In the winter, I take mushroom products, as well as eating as many as I can hunt or buy, at least once each week. If I feel like I am getting sick with a cold, I will make a broth into which I put shiitake mushrooms, hot peppers, ginger, garlic and lots of greens, such as kale or collards, and then stirring in miso at the end of cooking. After having this restorative broth, I usually feel more energized and often avoid illness from its use. (At least that’s what I like to think.)
One of my former Santa Rosa Junior College students, Noriko Shoji, told me that in her native Japan people eat mushrooms as food and don't really think of them as medicine. "We like shiitake, shimeji (a type of oyster mushroom) and enoki. We eat them because they taste good." And maybe that's reason enough for you to eat them, too.
For more on mushrooms, please read my article What’s Up with the Fungi http://www.theveggiequeen.com/article5.html
Asparagus, Oyster Mushroom and Tofu Stir Fry
Serves 4-6
Get the freshest asparagus you can since it is the star in this dish. Spring is the best time to make this dish. If you can’t find asparagus, then use small broccoli shoots or snow peas instead.
½ pound of tofu, cut into cubes
1 tablespoons tamari or soy sauce
1 tablespoon canola oil
2 medium shallots, chopped fine
2 teaspoons finely minced ginger
1 pound of oyster mushrooms, cut in half or more depending on their size
1 pound of asparagus
½ teaspoon salt
¼ cup vegetable broth
½ teaspoon arrowroot or cornstarch
Finely ground black pepper, to taste
1 teaspoon lemon zest
Lemon juice, to taste
Marinate the tofu in the tamari while you prepare the other ingredients.
Break off the tough ends of the asparagus and cut the asparagus on the diagonal into 1-inch pieces, except for the tips, which you will leave whole.
In a small bowl, combine the broth, arrowroot, pepper and lemon zest.
Heat the oil over medium high heat in a large skillet or wok. Add the shallots and ginger and sauté for a minute, stirring often. Add the mushrooms and sauté for 5 minutes until they are starting to get limp but not yet cooked through. Add the tofu, any unabsorbed tamari and the asparagus. Sauté for 3-4 minutes, stirring occasionally. When the mushrooms have released their liquid and the asparagus is bright green and almost cooked through, give the broth mixture a good stir and then pour into the pan. Stir well to coat all the ingredients. Taste. Add lemon juice, salt or pepper, if necessary.
Serve hot over rice (I love any of Lotus Foods colored, exotic rice), quinoa or rice noodles.
©2009 from The Veggie Queen™: Vegetables Get the Royal Treatment
Jill Nussinow, MS, RD, aka The Veggie Queen™, has been teaching people about the benefits of eating more plant foods and vegetarian cooking for more than 20 years. She is adjunct faculty in the culinary department at Santa Rosa Junior College. She’s the author of The Veggie Queen™: Vegetables Get the Royal Treatment cookbook and stars in the DVD Pressure Cooking: A Fresh Look, Delicious Dishes in Minutes. At this time of year, you can often find her in the woods, looking down while on a hunt for edible mushrooms. You can visit Jill’s website at www.theveggiequeen.com.
Recent Comments