vegan mushroom soup

Amazing, amazing vegan “cream” of mushroom soup…and the mushrooms are MORELS and DRYAD’S SADDLES! It doesn’t get better than this!

yellow morels

Vegan Cream of Wild Mushroom Soup

vegan, gluten-free, soy-free

In a pot with water, boil:

• 3 potatoes, peeled, chopped
• 2 carrots, chopped
• 3 stalks celery, chopped
• 1/2 onion, chopped
• 4 cloves garlic
• 5 button mushrooms (optional)
• salt
• pepper
• paprika

Boil until POTATOES and CARROTS are tender. Remove from heat.

Add CASHEWS and blend well. (We used our vitamix, but any blender should be fine.)

In a pan with olive oil:

saute chopped MORELS with salt.

In another pan with olive oil:

saute chopped DRYAD’S SADDLE with salt.

Dryad's Saddle

(I sauteed in them in two separate pans because later in the season dryad’s can become bitter, and in case this had happened, I didn’t want to ruin the batch of morels!!! But they were just fine.)

Return now creamy broth to pot and adjust seasonings: SALT, PEPPER, PAPRIKA  to taste.

Add sauteed mushrooms and enjoy.

PLEASE MAKE 100% CERTAIN OF IDENTITY OF ALL WILD MUSHROOMS USED!

~ Melissa

Food Under Foot

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Yum-mazing Morel and Mashed Potato Muffins

As stipulated in the 5th annual Morel Recipe Challenge, this recipe had to be baked. And what better way to bake than with muffin tins?

These Morel Muffins came out AMAZING. I have never baked anything in muffin tins, not even muffins. We only have the tins around to sort buttons and mix paint. But after today I may actually use them for savory recipes! I’m definitely making these again!

Dried Morels from Marx Foods

I used the wonderful dried morels sent to me by Marx Foods. To reconstitute them I simply poured boiling water over them, covered the bowl with a dish and let stand about 20 minutes. I then used that morel soak water to cook the potatoes, so make sure to save it! (You could also cook the quinoa in it…just make sure to use it, yum!) You could also use fresh morels in this recipe.

4 medium potatoes, peeled, cubed and boiled/steamed in the morel soak water. Then mashed. Add extra water when cooking if necessary and mash the potatoes and the cook water together at the end. You will need 1 1/2 cups mashed potatoes for this recipe.

And I added garlic mustard because, well, it’s that time of year and I love using wild ingredients! But you can either omit this altogether or substitute arugula or chives. I picked some garlic mustard leaves, washed and dried them then chopped them very fine and small.

garlic mustard

Yum-mazing Morel and Mashed Potato Muffins

An original gluten-free dairy-free vegetarian recipe by Melissa Sokulski for the 5th Annual Morel Recipe Challenge

You will need a muffin tin for this recipe.

• 2 oz dried morels, reconstituted as above and chopped. You could also use one cup of chopped fresh morels.
• 1 medium onion, chopped (it will be about 1 cup chopped onions)
• 2 cloves garlic, pressed
• 2 Tbsp olive oil or butter, to saute morels, onions and garlic, plus a bit more to oil muffin tins
• 1 1/2 cups mashed potatoes (see above)
• 1 1/2 cups cooked quinoa
• 1/2 cup flour, plus a bit more to flour muffin tins (I used a mix of almond meal and buckwheat flour to keep the recipe gluten free, but you can use whatever flour you like.)
• 2 eggs
• 2 Tbsp chopped garlic mustard (you can also use arugula, or chives, or omit, see note above)
• 1 Tbsp brown mustard
• salt
• pepper
• nutmeg

Tip: I made this recipe gluten-free and dairy-free so my family could eat it. However, I KNOW it would be DIVINE with your favorite cheese grated and mixed into the batter!

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Oil muffin tin with olive oil and sprinkle with flour to make it easier to remove “muffins” after cooking.
3. Reconstitute dried morels (if using dried) by covering dried morels with boiled water. Cover bowl and let sit at least 20 minutes, until mushrooms are soft and able to cut. SAVE soak water to cook potatoes or quinoa.
4. Boil (in morel soak water) and mash potatoes. Add salt and pepper to taste.
5. Boil 1/2 cup quinoa in 1 cup water (or morel soak water) for 15 minutes until quinoa is soft and water has been absorbed.
6. Saute chopped morels, onions, and garlic in olive oil (or butter) for at least 10 minutes, until onions are translucent. Add salt and pepper to taste.
7. Mix sauteed morel mixture with mashed potatoes, quinoa, and all other ingredients.
8. Divide mixture evenly into the 12 muffin cups.
9. Bake at 375 for 30 minutes.
10. Remove from oven and let cool at least 5 minutes to help it set and make the muffins easier to remove.

Enjoy!!!

Festive foraging,

~ Melissa Sokulski

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Morel season is finally upon us!  The official start of my 2013 mushrooming season began when I found these tiny gray/white morels last weekend:

Or did it start even before that, when I signed up to participate in the 5th annual Morel Recipe Challenge and I received my 2 oz of dried morels in the mail:

Dried morels and instructions from Marx Foods

I am still working on my recipe for this challenge…it must be something baked and I do have some ideas….it is due by Sunday so stay tuned!

In the meantime I have found a few early morels (in addition to the tiny white ones) and had a very scrumptious dish of sauteed morels, fiddleheads, and nettles with onions and rice.

Sauteing morels and fiddleheads with onions

And remember, if you are looking for morels for the first time, there are a couple of tricky mushrooms out there: false morels. The two main Genuses are Gyrometria and Verpa. The Verpa - especially the Verpa bohemica (or wrinkled thimble cap) - disguise themselves as half free morels so be careful.

Gyrometria, one kind of false morel, not edible

True morels are:

1. 100% hollow inside, all the way from top through the stem. There will be NO cottony stuff in the inside, no folds or chambers, just completely hollow.

You can see how this half-free morel stem is completely hollow. Also, the top of the morel is attached almost at its bottom, not at the tip top.

1. Morels do NOT attach only at the top of the stem like Verpas. The tops (spongy-looking part) of the morel attach to the stem at its base; you can’t pull the spongy part of the mushroom easily off. Even half-free morels attach halfway down the top, not at the tip top like the Verpas.

(I’m sorry I do not have a picture of a verpa, but you can search the web and find some. Here is a good picture from mushroomexpert.com)

Morels must be cooked before eating! This is a general rule for all wild mushrooms.

Enjoy the spring! There is a lot out there in addition to morels right now:

• fiddleheads (please harvest responsibly!!! Preferably from someone who grows them. Only take one or two from each plant, they are so easily destroyed.)
• spring beauty
• garlic mustard
• Japanese knotweed
• stinging nettles
• deadnettles
• dandelion
• chickweed
• onion grass
• ramps
• violets
• wintercress
• cleavers
• burdock
• broad leaf dock
• curly/yellow dock
• ground ivy/creeping charlie

We had a great time on our Frick Park Earth Day walks, by the way. Thanks for coming out to walk with us!

Talk to you soon…and soon there will be a new morel recipe up!

Happy, safe and responsible harvesting to all,

~ Melissa

Wild Edibles Walk

On Sunday, April 21, as part of Frick Park’s new 3-day Earth Day celebration, we will be leading 2 wild edibles walks, at 2 pm and 3 pm.  There will also be wild mushroom walks led by the Western PA Mushroom Club, wildflower walks, lichen/moss walks, spider walks, tree ID walks, bird walks….and MORE! I think it is going to be an amazing time!

The walks are this Sunday, April 21, from 12 noon to 4 pm (walks starting at 12, 1, 2, and 3 pm.) Each walk is 45 minutes long. See the whole flyer here. This is a FREE family-friendly event, so if you are in Pittsburgh, Western PA, Ohio, W. Virginia area make it a point to come by, it’s going to be great fun.

We will be looking for and discussing burdock, dandelions, cleavers, violet, clover, fiddleheads, yellow/curly dock, broad leaf dock, garlic mustard, deadnettles, onion grass, morel mushrooms, dryad saddle mushroom, clover, may apple, mugwort, mullein, chickweed, and I’m sure we’ll even find more! Find out how to cook with these amazing plants and use them medicinally as well.

Hope to see you there!

Frick Environmental Center
2005 Beechwood Boulevard, Squirrel Hill

For more information about the Earth Day events, call 412-422-6538

or visit http://pittsburghpa.gov/citiparks/earth-day

~ Melissa Sokulski of Food Under Foot

Tangy staghorn sumac seasoning is perfect for this Middle Eastern salad

It’s fun dipping into the wild pantry to add zest and flavor to dishes. For this middle Eastern tabouli recipe, I dipped into the pantry not once, but twice. In addition to this tangy sumac seasoning, I stripped some dried mint leaves off a bundle I have hanging in my kitchen and crumbled those in. (Though it will be up soon, mint has not yet appeared in my neck of the woods - Western PA.)

The fun thing about sumac is that even if you missed harvesting it last fall, it’s available all winter. As long as you can find those red bundles on the otherwise bare trees, you can harvest and use sumac, which tastes fresh and lemony and is high in vitamin C.

Sifting Dried Staghorn Sumac

Last fall I dried some sumac clusters, broke them up in the food processor, then sifted out the hard seeds through a strainer. This makes a sour seasoning that is perfect to add to dishes like fatoush, tabouli and hummus.

Today I made raw tabouli salad (without grains), but you could easily add a cup of cooked quinoa, cracked wheat or cous cous to the salad to turn it into a more traditional tabouli. For fatoush, simply add small pieces of toasted pita into the salad.

Raw Tabouli Salad

• 1 tomato, chopped
• 1 cucumber, seeds removed (and saved for smoothies or juices), chopped
• juice of 1/2 lemon
• 1/2 tsp dried sumac seasoning
• bunch of parsley leaves, chopped
• 1 Tbsp dried mint, crumbled and added
• 1 Tbsp (or more, to taste) onion, chopped very small
• 1/2 red pepper, chopped
• salt and pepper to taste
• drizzle olive oil (about 1 Tbsp)

Raw Tabouli Salad

Mix all ingredients and enjoy.

Think happy thoughts….it’s March 1 and spring is sure to be upon us soon. To those of you who have access to maple trees: now is the time to tap them for their wonderful sap. Soon another wild year will be upon us!

Festive foraging,

~ Melissa Sokulski

Stay in touch! Make sure you sign up for our free newsletter (green box in the upper right margin.) Also, visit our sister blog at Birch Center for information on acupuncture, natural wellness and more great healthy recipes.

Want to know what kitchen equipment we love? Check out our recommendations.

One of the things I love doing is taking my favorite recipes and substituting wild edibles. One of the easiest things to substitute for in recipes is greens. Chop greens small and add to soups, salads and stir-fries, or substitute for things like spinach in your favorite recipe.

A good early spring example is my recipe for potato pancakes. Usually there are no greens at all, just potatoes and onions. But potato pancakes recipes are so open and forgiving, nearly anything can be added if cut up small enough: carrots, zucchini, grated cheese, spinach, or of course, wild greens.

I took my favorite potato pancake recipe and while I didn’t totally omit the onions, I added chopped garlic mustard and stinging nettles all available at the end of winter/early spring.

Wild Potato Pancakes, shown here with Japanese Knotweed Apple Juice

What kinds of recipes do you substitute wild edibles into? I would love to hear!

Happy Foraging!

~ Melissa Sokulski

Stay in touch! Make sure you sign up for our free newsletter (green box in the upper right margin.) Also, visit our sister blog at Birch Center for information on acupuncture and natural wellness.

Want to know what kitchen equipment we love? Check out our recommendations.

Coming Soon: Our 2013 Wild Edibles Walk and Workshop Schedule

…which I am excited to say is the best yet!!!

We will have 4 walks a month starting in April (maybe sooner, winter walk anyone?)

Great workshops including:

• Wild Fermentation, Cultured Veggies
• Wild Fermentation, Natural Sodas
• Wild Foods Juices and Smoothies
• Making Tinctures, Vinegars, Oils and Salves
• Wild Tea Tasting
• Sketch-Able Edibles, Nature Journaling
• Wild Ally Workshop
• A Full Wild Ally Course, which includes the wild ally workshop, 2 other workshops of your choice, a pass for 5 wild edibles walks, a sketch-able edibles class and a printed, bound copy of the Wild Ally Workbook.

Melissa from Food Under Foot giving a Wild Green Smoothie Demo At Chalk Hill, PA

We are also planning something new this year: Mushroom Forays, including a morel mushroom foray!

Stay tuned…it’s going to be awesome!

Make sure you sign up for our newsletter (green box in the right margin) and our blog updates (also right column, further down) so you’ll know as soon as the schedule is posted.

Already dreaming of morels,

~ Melissa

As January in Pittsburgh alternates between sunny robin-filled days and temperatures which plummet into the single digits, you’d be surprised what we can find coming up from the ground.

taken near our house in Pittsburgh, January, 2013

In fact, here is a whole salad mix of wild edibles, taken on that same cold, but sunny January day (on a south facing hill on the south side slopes, in Pittsburgh, PA):

Mid winter wild salad mix: onion grass, dandelion, deadnettle, mouse-ear chickweed

I could make a whole salad with those ingredients: dandelion leaves and flowers, onion grass, mouse ear chickweed (Cerastium vulgatum), and deadnettles.

Even when the ground is covered with snow, you can still find bright green chickweed (Stellaria media) finding warm sunny patches from which to flourish.

Chickweed (Stellaria media)

Another cold weather plant you can often find in winter is delicious, sour tasting sheep sorrel (Rumex acetosella), full of anti-cancer nutrients. Canadian nurse Rene Caisse used this herb as one of her four ingredients in her famous anti-cancer formula, Essiac (her name spelled backwards.)

wild sheep sorrel

There are plenty of red sumac clusters on the otherwise naked staghorn sumac trees. These clusters provide a delicious Vitamin C-rich drink which tastes like lemon water when soaked overnight in cold water (boiling water destroys the vitamin C.) Add a little maple syrup or agave nectar and you have a local winter “lemon”-ade!

A walk in the woods may surprise you with oyster mushrooms blooming on a dead tree, or provide you with conifer evergreen needles (pine, fir, hemlock, cedar, or spruce) which boil up to a refreshing cleansing tea. Just make sure to avoid the poisonous YEW (Taxus) needles. The yew tree produces red berries in the fall. They are frequently used as shrubbery. The needles are flat and small, similar to hemlock tree, (Tsuga) but the back of the hemlock needles are silver (and you will still see little cones in the tree), the yew is not. Yew needles are extremely poisonous, and hemlock trees are not. The plants poison hemlock, (Conium maculatum) and water hemlock (Cicuta) are different from the hemlock tree, (Tsuga) and are deadly poisonous.  If you are unsure of evergreen identification it’s best to avoid this altogether for now, though it is fun and worth looking into identifying evergreen conifer trees.

Have fun seeing what you can find out there…I bet you’ll be surprised! And while you’re in the woods, take a minute to look up and listen for birds. Without the leaves on the trees it is a great time for spotting winter birds, especially, chicadees, juncos and woodpeckers.

Downy Woodpecker

Festive foraging,

Melissa