Today I must share with you a hidden treasure of food. Something you probably have in your kitchen and eat often, however I must tell you about the amazing benefits and powers this food has. I don’t understand why we all don’t eat it for breakfast lunch and dinner! Then I will share and inspire you to make this delicious healing mushroom soup.
Recently I have been diving into herbal medicine and learning how the amazing everyday herbs we buy and eat, can be so beneficial to us and help our bodies in so many ways. It’s pretty amazing how herbal medicine works to heal the body as a whole, and helps balance and harmonize everything so it works as it is designed to.
One of the herbs/plants that most impressed me was mushrooms and medicinal mushrooms. I have heard of them before, and eat them regularly as I love the taste, however I never understood or realized the power these fungi have. I will share with you today a bit about mushrooms as it is mind blowing and everyone should be eating them!
What are mushrooms?
First let’s start by understanding what are mushrooms? They are an edible fungi, from the Agaricus family. There are actually 140,000 different types of fungi in the world, however only a small amount (about 100 species) are edible, the rest are poisonous. They are organisms without chlorophyll that grow by extracting nutrients from decaying plants and animals matter.
Some of the types that we can find easily and consume are Cremini, shitake, reishi, chaga, portobello, maitake, oyster, button, white.
Health Benefits of Mushrooms
Mushrooms are rich in vitamins and minerals. They contain polysaccharides called beta-glucans which help modulate the immune system. This means that they either calm or boost your immune system based on what it needs. If you think about this, it’s pretty amazing as it is helping the body regulate itself to be strong and fight off whatever issue it is dealing with. Aside from modulating the immune system, mushrooms are also have anti-vial, antibiotic, antioxidant and anti-cancer properties.
Mushrooms are high in selenium and copper, they can help lower cholesterol, lower blood sugar, improve bone health and help lower blood pressure. They are very lean and contain no fat, low carbs and high in fiber.
Many people like mushrooms and use them in their cooking, however some complain about the texture of the mushroom and stay away from them. To help with that you can buy mushroom powders and add them to a smoothie, or soup, or make a tea. Another great trick is to boil them in your stock or soup and them remove them before eating. By boiling them in water/stock the mushrooms release their medicinal powers to still give you lots of goodness without eating them.
I hope I have inspired you to add mushrooms to everything, as they are so amazing. If your still not convinced check out this Ted Talks on how mushroom can save the world! Here is a delicious quick and easy healing mushroom soup incorporating tons of mushrooms and a few other ingredients. Hope you enjoy, Happy Cooking!
Ingredients
3-4 boxes of mushrooms (variety of types) – cremini, portobello, oyster, shitake
1 large onion
3 stalks of celery
1 tbsp avocado oil
4 cloves of garlic
1 tbsp fresh thyme
32oz of organic vegetable stock
1 cup almond milk
3 tbsp arrowroot powder
salt and pepper to taste
Directions
Chop onion and garlic and allow to sit for 10 min. In the meantime wash up all the mushrooms and strain.
Heat up oil in pot and add onions. Saute until translucent, then add garlic.
Add in mushrooms and thyme and mix well.
While mushrooms are cooking, take a small bowl and add 1 cup of vegetable stock to it. Pour in the 3 tbsp of arrowroot powder and mix well. This is a slur done to thicken up the soup. It’s important to do it with room temperature stock so it does not clump up.
Pour this mixture into the soup, add rest of veggie stock, nut milk and mix well. If mixture is too thick, add 1 cup of water. If you want it thicker, you can remove some of the mushroom pieces and use an immersion blender to blend the soup, then add mushroom piece back.
Let simmer for 15-20 minutes and serve.
Check out more healing recipes like this one:
Recipe: Healing Mushroom Soup
Healing Mushroom Soup
Powerful healing and deliciousness from this healing mushroom soup. So easy to make, vegan and hearty to keep you happy all day long.
Ingredients
- 3-4 boxes of mushrooms (variety of types) – cremini, portobello, oyster, shitake
- 1 large onion
- 3 stalks of celery
- 1 tbsp avocado oil
- 4 cloves of garlic
- 1 tbsp fresh thyme
- 32oz of organic vegetable stock
- 1 cup almond milk
- 3 tbsp arrowroot powder
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Chop onion and garlic and allow to sit for 10 min. In the meantime wash up all the mushrooms and strain.
- Heat up oil in pot and add onions. Saute until translucent, then add garlic.
- Add in mushrooms and thyme and mix well.
- While mushrooms are cooking, take a small bowl and add 1 cup of vegetable stock to it. Pour in the 3 tbsp of arrowroot powder and mix well. This is a slur done to thicken up the soup. It’s important to do it with room temperature stock so it does not clump up.
- Pour this mixture into the soup, add rest of veggie stock, nut milk and mix well. If mixture is too thick, add 1 cup of water. If you want it thicker, you can remove some of the mushroom pieces and use an immersion blender to blend the soup, then add mushroom piece back.
- Let simmer for 15-20 minutes and serve.
Notes
Try to use many different types of mushrooms as you can find.
Nutrition Information
Yield 8 Serving Size 1Amount Per Serving Calories 53Total Fat 3gSaturated Fat 0gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 2gCholesterol 3mgSodium 406mgCarbohydrates 7gNet Carbohydrates 0gFiber 1gSugar 3gSugar Alcohols 0gProtein 2g
Nutrition calculator is not 100% accurate as it is computer generated.