Month: February 2021

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I know another recipe with mushrooms, but please stick with me for one more(for now). When I bought the mushrooms for my stroganoff it made me hungry for another dish with them so I bought extra and with winter not stopping anytime soon or at least for me I thought I’d make this soup. Most of this recipe comes from a book I got years ago “Herbs for Health and Healing” by Kathi Keville, it’s a great informational book with helpful recipes that give you a great way to live a healthier life all with the benefits of herbs. `

This recipe calls for Shiitake mushrooms but I used Crimini/cremini also known as “baby bellas” work just as well in my book and are a little cheaper. They still have some vitamins but these great mushrooms have a significant amount of beneficial bacteria that help you out in your gut improving your digestive tract and immune system.

The benefits of this mushroom are so amazing but combine it with barley and it really is a healthy hearty soup that also warms you up. Barley is a whole grain so it does have clean proteins, vitamins and minerals but it also has soluble and insoluble fiber again hello happy gut and lower blood sugar.

With just two major ingredients this is hardy cheap soup making it easy on the bank account. This also makes a good amount, yay great for left overs and doesn’t take much time. The longest amount of time is the cooking of the barley and that is around 45 minutes but if you wanted to do it ahead then it would take around 30 minutes prep and cook time.

Mushroom Barley Soup:

1 cup Barley

5 cup of Veggie Broth

1/2 cup of White Onion chopped

4-5 cloves of Garlic diced

1/2 pound of mushrooms cut

1-2 Tablespoon of Olive Oil

Black Pepper and Salt per taste

In a large pot put 1 cup cleaned barley and 2 1/2 cups of veggie broth cover and simmer on low about 45 minutes. While the barley is cooking wash and cut up mushrooms, chop onions and dice garlic. In a frying pan add olive oil, onions, garlic sauté

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then add washed chopped mushrooms to pan to sauté the mushrooms

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When the barley is cooked add the sautéed mushroom, onion and garlic to the pan with the barley add remaining 2 1/2 of broth. Cook on a low simmer for about 20 minutes.

Serve and enjoy.

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I really enjoy stroganoff but since I don’t eat meat I like to try new ways of enjoying this dish. Todays recipe serves about four and is with three different types of mushrooms, so if mushrooms aren’t your thing you may substitute them.  I would love to hear what you used or how you liked it.

But….

do you realize the health benefits in these little fungi? Mushrooms help strengthen your immune system for starters and at this time we need all the help we can get. They are about 90 percent water and we all know how great it is eating veggies or fruit with high amounts of water but did you know the different types of mushrooms can provide different benefits like one Portabella can contain more potassium than a single banana or the Button mushroom has high vitamin D, copper and zinc just to name a few or Shiitake has been shown to protect the heart, good for digestion, energy and weight loss plus move over high end creams for skin because this mushroom fights against free radicals due to the great antioxidant compounds which also helps with stress in the body. Nothing is better for me than eating your way to a healthier and happier self.

Maybe mushrooms aren’t your thing but you might want to take another look and try them again in a new way or at least you may have a different perspective on them.

Mushroom Stroganoff:

Mushrooms – Button, Shiitake, Portobello (  The amount is up to you but I use a LARGE hand full of each kind cut up in bite size pieces)

4-5 cloves of garlic diced

1/2 diced onion

1/2 Cup of plain Greek yogurt

2 Cup of veggie Broth

Cornstarch or flour ( about 1/4 cup of flour or about 2 tablespoon of cornstarch)

1-2 Tablespoon of Nutritional Yeast

Salt, Pepper and parsley to taste

Egg Noodles cooked according to package directions

In sauce pan sauté mushrooms, onion and garlic for about 5 minutes. While they are sautéing add you nutritional yeast, flour/cornstarch to veggie broth and stir then add to the sautéed mushroom mixture stirring continuously so as to make sure not to get lumps, continue stirring until broth becomes gravy then add Greek yogurt and seasonings. Serve over cooked egg noodles.

This is such a fast dinner and if you are a fan of mushrooms, a very tasty one.