Mushrooms are known for their health benefits and with a savoury umami taste and meaty texture they can be a great alternative to meat in meals. Including a variety of different mushrooms in your diet is as important as including more fruit and vegetables. Mushrooms are often regarded as vegetables but they are not. They are not even plants! All mushrooms are fungi and they produce spores, similar to pollen or seeds. Mushrooms typically live in soil or wood. Compounds in mushrooms help the … [Read more...]
Lion’s Mane Mushroom & Walnut Loaf Recipe
I have previously posted on Growing Lion’s Mane Mushrooms and the Lion’s Mane Crab Cakes that I made from them. I’ve just had my second harvest and decided to try this Mushroom & Nut Loaf recipe using the Lion’s Mane Mushrooms. It is really delicious although is a little dry so you definitely need a nice gravy or sauce to pour over it. 200g Lion’s Mane Mushroom 200g walnuts 1-2 spring onions 1 large stick celery 1 medium carrot 2 tbsp olive oil 4 cloves garlic 1 tbsp fresh sage … [Read more...]
Lion’s Mane ‘Crab Cakes’ Recipe
Previously I described growing Pekepeke-kiore, the NZ native Lion’s mane mushroom. In this post I share how I cooked this unusual (to me) mushroom, making Lion’s Mane ‘Crab Cakes’. Mushrooms in general have great nutritional benefits. Since my post last week I have heard exciting news from Mushrooms by the Sea to say that they have just got confirmation that their unique cultivation technique has allowed them to produce both Erinacines & Hericenones (the same two dynamic bioactive … [Read more...]
Growing Lion’s Mane Mushrooms
Pekepeke-Kiore is the NZ native Lion’s Mane Mushroom and I had never even heard of it a month ago, let alone contemplated growing it. I have recently become very interested in functional mushrooms and their health-promoting benefits. Hippocrates said “Let food be thy medicine, let medicine be thy food” and I had come across several recipes for using various mushrooms. Most of the favoured mushrooms are only available as powdered supplements here so I was keen to see if there were any … [Read more...]
Mushroom Strudel Recipe
This mushroom strudel recipe is a great centre-piece for a vegetarian meal or to take on a picnic. Eat by itself or enjoy with a side salad. You can easily halve the recipe if you have a smaller amount of mushrooms. If you have lots it is worth making the whole amount and freezing one of the strudels (or even the filling) to use later. The recipe is especially good if you have grown your own mushrooms. 100g butter 4 garlic cloves 2 large brown onions Handful of herbs such as thyme … [Read more...]
Marinated Minted Mushrooms Recipe
In a previous post I shared my experiences of growing button mushrooms at home from a kit. So it is a good follow on to tell you about what I did with the mushrooms I had grown myself. Of course there are the obvious mushrooms on toast, mushroom omelettes and mixed into stir fries, but this extremely simple recipe has to be one of my favourite recipes for button mushrooms: Marinated Minted Mushrooms. The joy of watching tiny mushrooms forming: Marinated Minted Mushrooms Combine 300g … [Read more...]
Growing Mushrooms at home
Ages ago I tried growing Oyster Mushrooms and found it quite easy and satisfying. I do prefer button mushrooms or brown 'flats' though so this year I decided to grow them instead. The kit was from the same company so I was quite surprised to find the process seemingly much more complicated and taking a much longer period of time - there were pages and pages of instructions that were a bit daunting. There are 2 separate incubation stages: firstly to get the mushroom spawn established in the … [Read more...]
Pasta with Mushrooms and Broad Beans
Last year I wrote about how my broad beans had turned into triffids and had started to take over the garden. Earlier this year I proudly showed how I had tamed the broad beans in this winter's veggie garden and had them growing straight upwards using garden stakes and string. Well I gloated too soon. Now I am having to use a ladder to pick my broad beans! And they have burst out of the string and are leaning all over my raspberries. But I can't really complain as they are producing lots of … [Read more...]
Easy Mushroom Soup
I had a nice big handful of oyster mushrooms that I had grown using my mushroom growing kit and wanted to make a mushroom soup that wasn't just the standard cream of mushroom soup. 250g mushrooms (oyster, button or a mix of whatever you have) 2 tbsp oil (I used lime flavoured avocado oil) 1 litre vegetable stock 2 cloves garlic 1 tbsp miso paste Salt and pepper to taste Handful of herbs e.g. parsley and thyme Chop mushrooms into small pieces. Heat oil in a saucepan. … [Read more...]
Growing Oyster Mushrooms
My family gave me a mushroom growing kit for my birthday. The kit was from Mushroom Gourmet and was for Oyster Mushrooms but they also have a kit for Button Mushrooms. It comes with everything you need except the mushroom spawn. A few days before you want to start growing, you simply email or txt the supplied number giving the voucher number from your kit and they send the spawn to you. First you soak the straw in water for 2-3 days and then let it drain for an hour. Make a hole in the … [Read more...]