Hi Fungi,
Where to begin? Mushrooms! Neither plant nor animal, these edible wonders belong to their own kingdom called “Fungi.” Technically speaking, they’re more closely related to animals than they are to plants: they breathe in oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide just like humans… which is nothing short of insane.
But we digress! The important question is: why should we eat them? Or, moreover, feed them to our children? For starters, mushrooms are magically nutrient-dense, and loaded with B vitamins, potassium, selenium, copper, vitamin D, a significant amount of protein relative to most vegetables, plus prebiotic fibers and a bunch of antioxidants.
Perhaps more importantly, though, we eat them because they’re DELICIOUS. Some taste uncannily like creatures of the land or sea (lobster mushrooms, for instance), others taste like absolutely nothing (we’re lookin’ at you, white button mushrooms). So while this post is about mushrooms, broadly, the ones you choose will make each of the below recipes taste subtly different. Consider this as a jumping-off point for a new and passionate love affair with mushrooms. With that, we give you recipes for:
Lentil Mushroom Meatless Meatballs
Mushroom Quesadillas
Kale + Mushroom Rice Pilaf
The world is your oyster (mushroom),
Fanny + Greta
If cooking and eating mushrooms isn’t quite enough to satisfy your love for the fungi kingdom—and frankly it shouldn’t be—consider integrating a children’s mushroom sweater from Milk Teeth’s insanely cute line of knitwear into your life. Our kids are living in these cozy little cardigans as the weather turns to fall.
Okay, hear us out. Mushrooms make for great meatballs and a terrific weeknight vegetarian spin on spaghetti and meatballs. A handful of easy ingredients get blitzed, rolled into balls, fried, sauced and bada-bing! They’re delicious ladled over a bowl of noodles—especially our new favorite line of dried protein-rich pasta: Brami Pasta made with wheat and lupini beans—but they’re fantastic with an herby, garlicky yogurt sauce, too. (And great in a school lunch without any sauce! Fanny’s daughter eats them unadorned and, for reasons unknown, calls them “cookies”). The texture is more custardy than chewy and bends toward falafel in all the right ways.
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