Questions from You

Questions from You: Can you eat mushrooms raw?

Q: Is that true you should not eat raw mushrooms?

A: All fresh Canadian mushrooms, that you have purchased at your grocery store or local market are safe to eat raw or cooked. Whites, crimini, enokis and portabellas can be eaten raw with dips or in salads. You may want to removed the stem from criminis and portabellas as they can sometimes be hard to chew. You should also trim the bottom of the enokis, and give all mushrooms a quick rinse in cold water before use. The more exotic mushrooms like shiitake, oyster and king oyster are best when eaten cooked. It is a matter of taste and texture; these mushrooms have a better mouthfeel and flavour when cooked.

Lastly there are many other health related reasons to include raw or cooked fresh mushroom in your diet which include Boosting Immunity, Managing Weight, and Breast & Prostate Cancer.

~~~~
What’s your favourite way to enjoy mushrooms? Raw? Sauteed? BBQ’d?
…

in All About Mushrooms / Mushrooms / Questions from You 0 comments

Questions from You: What is the GI of the mushrooms?

Q: What affects do mushrooms have on my blood glucose levels?

A: The Glycaemic Index (GI) is used to measure the effect of carbohydrate-containing foods on bloog sugar levels. Mushrooms have so little carbohydrate that the GI of mushrooms is close to zero. What this means is, eating mushrooms has no real effect on blood glucose levels. So, if you have to watch what you eat because of diabetes then mushrooms fit very neatly into your diet. As mushrooms are very low in salt and fat, and contain no cholesterol, they also fits into the diet of people with high cholesterol, high blood pressure and the weight watcher.
…

in All About Mushrooms / Health and Nutrition / Nutrition and Wellness / Questions from You 0 comments

Questions From You: Which is better? Canned or Fresh?

Q: Which is better, canned or fresh mushrooms?

A: If you were asking for my personal opinion there wouldn’t be any hesitation: FRESH! But for the sake of comparison, let’s take a look at canned and fresh mushrooms….

Nutrition
Let’s compare one can (132g) of white mushrooms to 132g of fresh white mushrooms:

Canned mushrooms have 33 calories, 0g of Fat, 561mg of Sodium, 7g of carbohydrates, 3g of dietary fiber, 3g of sugar, and 2g of protein.

Fresh white Canadian mushrooms have 29 calories, 0g of Fat, 7mg of Sodium, 4g of carbohydrates, 1g of Dietary Fiber, 2g of sugar and 4g of protein.

When compared, fresh mushrooms come out as the obvious winner. The fresh mushrooms contain less calories, sodium, carbohydrates and sugar, and are higher in protein.

100g of fresh white mushrooms are also a good source of riboflavin, niacin, copper, pantothenic acid and selenium. They are also the only vegetable that has Vitamin D.

Location
Next time you are out buying canned mushrooms, take a glance at the label. Where does it say they are from? Most often canned mushrooms are from China.

Fresh mushrooms that are sold here in Canada, are grown here in Canada. So you are buying a locally grown product and supporting your local farming communities. Just check the package for the “Product of Canada” sticker.

Once again, the obvious winner is Fresh!

Taste
For the taste test portion of the competition, I am not sure there is even competition to be had…. do you prefer the clean, crisp taste of a fresh mushroom, or the rubbery, slimy texture of canned?

Fresh!

~~~~
What do you think? Do you prefer Fresh or Canned Mushrooms?

in All About Mushrooms / Questions from You 0 comments

Questions from You: Remove the Stems?

Q. Do the stems of button mushrooms need to be trimmed before use. Is there any reason to do this?

A. Great question! The stems of button mushroom do not need to be trimmed before you use them. They are trimmed at the farm before being placed in the trays or bulk boxes. Basically the only prep required is a quick rinse under cold water and a pat down with paper towels.

There are other varieties however that should have the stems removed before use (only because they don’t have a pleasant texture), and they are shiitake and portabellas. Mushrooms that need the stems trimmed before use include enoki and oysters.

posted by Brittany

in All About Mushrooms / Questions from You 0 comments
Provencal Poached Salmon Dinner

Questions from You: Morel Mushrooms

Q: “I’ve been lucky enough to get some morel mushrooms! Aside from sauteing them in butter, do you have any recipes for preparing them?”

A: We currently do not have any recipes that are specific to morel mushrooms, but what is great about the recipes in the Mushrooms Canada Recipe Library is that most of them call for just “fresh mushrooms.” This means that you can use any variety of fresh mushroom you happen to have on hand; including morels!

The beauty of cooking with fresh mushrooms is that you can use whatever variety you like in a recipe. By switching up the type, your meals take on a different flavour and texture profile, making it taste new each time you prepare it.

Here are a few recipes I would suggest trying with fresh morel mushrooms:
– Easy Mushroom Ravioli with Four Cheese Sauce
– French Mushroom Duxelles
– Provencal Poached Salmon Dinner (include your morels in a mixture of white and criminis)

Cheers!

– Brittany

in All About Mushrooms / Questions from You 0 comments