Book Review
Just Mushrooms: celebrating the future of food
Just Mushrooms is an absolutely beautiful book on cooking (and much more) with wild mushrooms. This new book is slender but to call it merely a cookbook is a vast understatement, as it is so much more. Truly, it is a concise resource on plant-based mushroom centric recipes for the novice and master alike. This book offers an array of methodologies for cooking mushrooms, not just for flavor but for their healthful benefits. With a focus on the future, whole body health and sustainability take center stage by keeping all recipes plant-based and gluten-free, and featuring mushrooms as the protein. And why not? Mushrooms are approximately 30% protein and offer a great meaty texture.
Mushrooms are the sustainable food source of the future. This book takes you on a tour of all that mushrooms can do for you and the planet by offering a brief treatise on mushrooms, a health benefit section and recipes like you’ve never seen before. Just Mushrooms offers up recipes for dishes like Uramaki Combs Tooth Sushi Roll and a savory holiday Mushroom Gravy! This cookbook gives tips for getting the reluctant mushroom eater on board and offers different serving sizes and recipes for different skill levels. Start with the Lion’s Mane Pudding and work your way up to Thai Curry Patties. In all, 23 recipes provide a foundation of knowledge that will give you everything you need to feel comfortable working with mushrooms. Since you’re going to ask: yes, there are several wonderful recipes for healthy teas. Since you’ve never seen a book like this, I’ll give you one more spoiler: yes, there are even gorgeous desserts! The appendix section of Just Mushrooms offers a brief introduction to the health benefits of mushrooms as a superfood. Just Mushrooms offers a delicious way to take a step towards the future of food and a more sustainable tomorrow. Brava!
— Review by Britt Bunyard
— Originally published in Fungi