There was a time when the only mushrooms Americans ate were on top of pizza. Today, we consume a billion pounds of mushrooms a year. About 95 percent of those white button mushrooms and their cousins, the brown crimini and portobello.
Mushrooms are loaded with vitamin D and they add so much flavor and umami to dishes, many people use them as the centerpiece of a dish -- or they blend chopped
Dried Porcini Mushrooms
into burgers, meatloaf or spaghetti sauce, replacing up to 40 percent of the red meat with tasty mushrooms. I mix strips of portobello mushrooms into my beef stroganoff, too. It adds bulk, while lowering the dish's calories, saturated fat levels and cholesterol.
Michael Marks is the marketing manager for FreshPoint.