Marvelous Marinated Mushrooms

Do you love mushrooms?  Do you love easy recipes?  If so, this is a match made in heaven:  You + Marvelous Marinated Mushrooms!

I attended Living Light Culinary Arts Institute back in 2002, and it was one of the most rewarding experiences of my life.  I had been vegan for three years and decided to go 100% raw at the time that I attended LLCAI.  Simply put:  I needed to have options in my diet.  In all honesty, I love salad… especially my Laurie’s Special Salad salad (which is spectacular!)… The truth is, salad every day just wasn’t cutting it for me.  I truly desired healthy, nutritious and delicious food to feed my body.  Living Light Culinary Arts Institute provided me with the exciting and diverse training that helped me to accomplish my goals.

While I attended LLCAI’s Associate Chef’s Training program, I learned so much about food (in general), food preparation, presentation, storage and even the effect that our dietary choices have on our bodies and the environment.  I would highly recommend attending any of their programs/classes to anyone…  LLCAI will change your life… Seriously!

With that said, I feel I must share with you the fact that I adore mushrooms… portabello, porcini, chanterelle, shitake, enoki, reishi, maitake and even plain old white button mushrooms!  The only catch is, I don’t care for raw mushrooms.  It was music to my ears when I heard that I could make raw “cooked” mushrooms.  Thank goodness for creative people inventing easy and delicious recipes!

Marvelous Marinated Mushrooms is based on a recipe from Living Light Culinary Arts Institute.  I do not remember the quantities that I learned eight years ago, so I do it my way now…

Ingredients:

A bunch of mushrooms of your choice – one type or a combination of more than one (portabello, porcini, chanterelle, shitake, enoki, white button)

Nama shoyu/tamari

Extra virgin olive oil

***USE ORGANIC OR WILDCRAFTED INGREDIENTS WHEN AVAILABLE***

 Preparation:

1.  Chop the mushrooms into small cubes and put into a glass bowl.

2.  Drizzle olive oil over the mushrooms (make sure the oil coats all of the mushrooms)  and stir.

3.  Drizzle nama shoyu/tamari over the mushrooms (make sure to coat all of the mushrooms) and stir.

4.  Cover and allow to marinate until the mushrooms are tender, stirring once every hour.  The salt in the nama shoyu/tamari is what “cooks” or tenderizes the mushrooms. 

5.  Once the mushrooms are dark, reduced in size and tender, they’re done.

6.  Enjoy!

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One of my favorite things to do with this recipe — besides eating the mushrooms plain out of the bowl — is to use them as a salad topping.  It gives a salad substance and makes it out-of-this-world delicious!

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A Few Interesting Facts About Mushrooms…

There are over 38,000 types of mushrooms on this planet; some are edible and some are highly toxic.

Mushrooms are full of B vitamins, such as riboflavin and niacin, minerals, such as selenium, copper and potassium, and protein.

Mushrooms have been an essential part of Chinese medicine for centuries.

Mushrooms are commonly used in Japanese, Chinese and European cooking.

Make it an AMAZING day!