How To Enjoy the Health Benefits of Mushrooms If You Don’t Like Mushrooms!

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People always bang on about the numerous health benefits of mushrooms. These humble fungi are believed to help with a host of common health concerns, such as:

Lowering your risk of cancer through antioxidants
Reduce your daily sodium intake
Lower blood pressure
Lower cholesterol
Improve brain health
Improve gut health
Boost your immune system

We could keep going on, and mushrooms present these benefits because they’re full of important nutrients and minerals. They’re high in antioxidants, polysaccharides, minerals, vitamins and neurotropics. In many ways, they’re the original superfood – but they come with one distinct problem.

Mushrooms are one of the most hated foods in the world. Some people love them, though a lot of you despise them. That’s why you’ve clicked on this post, isn’t it? You’re looking for ways to enjoy the health benefits of mushrooms when you don’t like mushrooms! It sounds like an impossible task, but with a few cooking hacks and fun supplement choices, you’ll soon enjoy all the advantages of various mushrooms.

Try Gummy Mushroom Supplements

The gummy supplement world has exploded in popularity, which is great news for mushroom haters. It’s now possible to find mushroom gummies that bring all the goodness of mushrooms to a small gummy supplement. Instead of needing to eat mushrooms and deal with the horrible taste and texture (in your opinion, of course), you can pop a gummy in your mouth and get all the same health benefits.

These gummies are made from different mushroom blends and could carry an advantage over eating actual mushrooms. Most supplement companies will use very high-quality mushrooms that you’re unlikely to ever find in the grocery store – like Lion’s Mane and Reishi. These mushrooms are proven to have excellent health benefits and are sometimes combined with other ingredients like L-Theanine and Huperzine A.

It’s one of the easiest and most convenient ways of ingesting mushrooms without dealing with the taste. Simply keep your gummies at your desk or in your bag and take one a day!

Drink Mushroom Coffee

Do you like starting your day with a morning coffee? If so, one supplement could change your routine and give you the wonderful benefits of mushrooms. You may have heard of the mushroom coffee trend – it went crazy on social media at the latter end of 2023/start of 2024. Influencers were shouting out brands of mushroom coffee, but what exactly is it?

To be fair, it’s pretty self-explanatory. Mushroom coffee combines ground mushrooms with ground coffee to create the ultimate drink. You enjoy the health benefits of caffeine and mushrooms, which are believed to lead to increased focus without a caffeine crash. This “coffee” can be spooned into a cup and topped up with hot water and milk, just like a normal instant coffee.

This makes it a wildly convenient option for morning coffee drinkers. One small change to your routine will let you get a dose of mushrooms in your day. It can be the equivalent of eating a portion of mushrooms, only minus the slimy texture. Also, because it’s mixed with ground coffee, there’s no distinct mushroom aftertaste. It adds a slight earthiness that suits the drink because of the natural bitterness from the coffee.

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Grate Mushrooms into Mince

There are two main reasons people don’t like mushrooms:

Some of you think they taste funny
Others think they feel weird in their mouth

To be fair, both the texture and taste of mushrooms are a bit odd and take some getting used to. If you want to try and get more of this food into your diet, then you need to think of ways to address both of these problems.

Grating mushrooms is the best solution! You grate them finely to remove the texture element and then mix them into mince. This can be minced beef or vegan mince – whatever you prefer. Combine this with some chopped tomatoes and basil to make a lovely ragu. You won’t notice the mushrooms are there as they almost melt into the sauce and mix with the chunks of mince.

Do you prefer a more Mexican-themed meal? Use the grated mushrooms and mince to create a chili. Combine it with the right spices, add some beans, and you’ve got a flavorful meal full of mushrooms – but minus their taste and texture. Add in a few squares of dark chocolate for an even richer flavor and enjoy the health benefits of chocolate at the same time!

You could try to blend mushrooms up in a small food blender, but you need to ensure you don’t turn them into a paste. If you’re great with a knife, then feel free to chop the mushrooms as finely as you can – though grating them tends to be the easiest option to get them as small as possible.

Try Fable Mushrooms

Another option is to look for mushroom products that take mushrooms and turn them into something completely different. Fable mushrooms are perhaps the best example of this. Full disclosure: this is not an advert for the brand; they’re simply the only ones doing something like this!

Fable mushrooms are made from shiitake mushrooms and combined with natural ingredients to turn them into a product that looks absolutely nothing like a mushroom. The result is something more akin to pulled pork or beef. It cooks amazingly and shreds beautifully – there’s none of the normal mushroom texture here at all.

Add a few spices to the Fable mushrooms – or mix them into sauces – and they take on so much flavor. You’ll genuinely never be able to tell that you’re eating mushrooms if someone served you these in a restaurant. Buy them for home cooking and enjoy mushrooms without it feeling like you’re eating them.

Look, we’ve all got different food preferences, and no one will begrudge you from disliking mushrooms. It’s a common food hell, but that doesn’t mean you have to miss out on the health benefits. Mushrooms have loads of great advantages and will be a welcome addition to any diet – try the ideas in this post to experience these benefits for the first time!

*This article is based on personal suggestions and/or experiences and is for informational purposes only. This should not be used as professional advice. Please consult a professional where applicable.