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

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.

(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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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!

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.

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

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.

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Wait, is Thanksgiving next week…already?!? How exciting!
We can get all sorts of wild edibles on our Thanksgiving table, from mushroom to plant…but in our case we are going to let the wild turkeys roam (we are vegetarian foragers!)
So lets have a vegan gluten-free wild Thanksgiving!

I’ve been seeing lots of prime edibles:

• Burdock root
• Burdock leaf stalk
• Dandelion leaves and root
• Sassafras and Spicebush twigs and root
• acorns
• black walnuts
• hickory nut
• garlic mustard
• dead nettles
• nettles
• creeping charlie/ground ivy
• hen of the woods
• blewit mushrooms
• abortive entaloma (mushroom)
• bears tooth or lion’s mane

…so many possibilities!!!

And what about Vegan Gluten-Free Entrees and sides for the Thanksgiving table?

Try stuffed squash, like the delicata squash above with a wild mushroom stuffing with acorn flour biscuits, burdock leaf stalks in gravy and white bean and nettle soup. For a dessert drink: dandelion root coffee pumpkin latte.

Recipe for Wild Mushroom Stuffed Squash

• Delicata (or your favorite stuffing squash: butternut, acorn) - cut in half lengthwise, seeds scooped out AND SAVED FOR ROASTING!
• 2 cups cooked brown rice
• 2 cups wild mushrooms, chopped (I used hen of the woods)
• 1 cup chopped onions
• 2 cloves chopped garlic
• 1 cup chopped celery
• 1/4 cup seeds (I used sunflower seeds and pepitas which are shelled pumpkin seeds)
• Optional: 2 cups chopped greens such as nettles, deadnettles, dandelion greens or spinach
• 2 Tbsp gluten-free tamari
• 1 Tbsp dried sage
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• 1 tsp dried basil
• salt and pepper
• olive oil

To Prepare Squash and Roast Seeds

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Slice squash in half lengthwise and scoop out seeds.
3. Clean seeds and place on baking tray. Drizzle with olive oil and salts and mix thoroughly.
4. Rub oil on the cut side of the squash and place face down onto cooking tray.
5. Place Squash and seeds in oven.
6. After 15 minutes remove seeds and mix again so they cook evenly. Replace in oven and cook 10 to 15 minutes more until done.
7. Check squash: depending on size/thickness it should take about 40 to 60 minutes to cook. It’s done when it is soft when the top is pressed.
8. Remove from oven, flip right side up and allow to cool.

To Make Stuffing:

1. In pan on stove, saute wild mushrooms in olive oil for at least 15 minutes, until thoroughly cooked. Remove from heat.
2. Saute onion in olive oil with sea salt until translucent.
3. Add garlic, mushrooms, celery and spices and saute at least 5 minutes more.
4. If using greens, add them now and saute until wilted.
5. Add seeds and saute another couple minutes.
6. Add cooked rice and tamari and mix while heating through.
7. Taste and season with salt and pepper as necessary.

Fill Squash with stuffing and serve.

I’ll continue planning our Thanksgiving table and keep you updated.

I made a recipe for White Bean Nettle Soup which I will share with you soon as well.

What other things can you think of for the wild table?

Please add your comments below.

Enjoy the fall!!

~ Melissa

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I cannot believe this is the final week of the share! These 20 weeks have expanded my horizons so much, I have to thank each and every one of you for participating. I hope you’ve enjoyed the edibles and newsletters, and had fun preparing meals with such common/uncommon foods!!

In this week’s share you will find:

• chicken mushroom (lots and lots of young mushrooms! Cook before eating and enjoy!!)
• oyster mushroom (cook before eating)
• spicebush berries * NEW - these are best used as seasoning or flavoring. Some people dry them and use in place of nutmeg. You can also preserve them by flavoring alcohol - like vodka - with them
• sumac
• hawthorn
• crabapples *NEW
• quickweed

Spice bush berries

Spice bush berries are used for flavoring. They are often dried (they will turn brown) and used in place of nutmeg. Their flavor can also be preserved in alcohol, but putting them in a jar with vodka. This is my first time using them. I have some in the dehydrator and some in the fridge which I think I will boil into a tea and perhaps ferment into a soda. I will keep you posted, of course!

Making the sumac into a spice: air dry the sumac for about a week. Strip the “seeds” from the stem and pulse in food processor. Push through sieve to separate out the hard seeds.

This makes a delicious lemony spice. You can use this as is or to make a middle eastern spice blend known as za’atar.

To make za’atar combine some of the sumac spice with sesame seeds, salt, oregano and thyme. There are many variations out there so you can search the web (or your cabinets) and experiment!

Share member Trish made some delicious Buffalo style “chicken wings” with the chicken mushrooms. She sliced the chicken mushroom into strips, breaded and fried it, and then used the secret recipe I shared with her (from my high school days at working at a popular fried chicken chain…this secret recipe is legit!)

Mild sauce: 3 parts butter to 1 part tobasco

Medium sauce: 2 parts butter to 2 parts tobasco

Hot sauce: 1 part butter : 3 parts tobasco

The fried chicken establishment used to mix up the sauce in a big plastic tub, put the cooked wings in and shake to coat. Sooooo gooooood.

So Trish used the secret sauce for her own chicken mushroom hot strips and she reports…..YUM!

I cannot wait to try it.

Crab Apples and Hawthorns: they don’t look the best but, oh, I’ve made some of the yummiest things with them!

Do you have any “ginger bug” left for making fermented sodas? If so, get it out, wake it up (by leaving it out overnight covered with cloth, and feeding with a bit of sugar and ginger), and make this wonderful hawthorn crab apple soda! (If not you may want to make a ginger but! Put 3 cups water in a glass jar and add 2 Tbsp chopped ginger with skin and 2 Tbsp sugar. Cover and leave on counter for a day or two. After that add 2 tsp chopped ginger with skin and 2 tsp sugar every day, stirring 2 -3x day for 5 - 7 days until it’s fizzy and tastes like ginger ale. Now it’s ready to use! If you don’t use it right away put a lid on it and store in fridge until ready.

I put crabapples and hawthorns in a pot with about 1/2 gallon (a bit less) of water and about 1/2 cup or so of sugar and boiled about 20 minutes. Strain, saving the fruit as well as the juice, but separately. When the juice cools to room temp add a cup of the ginger bug (It’s ok if ginger gets in.) Cover with cloth and let it sit out overnight up to a day or two. It will get fizzy and delicious! Store in glass bottles in fridge but be careful: it will keep fermenting even in the fridge and will build up pressure in the bottle. I use plastic corks which get blown off every now and then in the fridge (better that then the bottle exploding, to be sure!)

Now to the cooked fruit: I mashed that through a sieve to separate out the seeds (which you don’t want to eat) and skins. I added a little more sugar to taste and some pumpkin pie spice and reheated. Then I put it in canning jars. It makes the most delicious “apple butter” ever!! The hawthorns and crab apples have so much natural pectin that it really sets up nicely.

Enjoy!

And thanks again, so much. Tomorrow I’ll be posting the list of all 70 wild edibles we enjoyed this spring and summer! Please stay tuned!

To see all 20 of the CSF newsletters, just follow the link.

Love and all things wild,

Melissa and Dave

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Here is a delicious recipe using the wild Chicken Mushroom, or Sulfur Shelf (Laetiporus sulfureus). This is one of my favorite wild mushrooms. It tastes delicious once cooked (it must always be cooked!) and is fun to find. Bright yellow/orange, this shelf mushroom grows on dead wood (occasionally you’ll find it growing on live wood). It has no gills on its underside - this is very important! A gilled yellow mushroom growing on wood could be the poisonous Jack O’Lantern. The Chicken mushroom is a polypore, so its underside is made up of very tiny pores which you would actually need a magnifying glass to see. Just make sure there are no gills!

As I was “plating” this recipe for photographing, the word “fricassee” popped into my head. I wanted to call it “Chicken Mushroom Fricassee,” but truth be told, I wasn’t 100% sure what “fricassee” meant. So I looked it up and here is what it said on wikipedia:

“Fricassee is a catch-all term used to describe a stewed dish typically made with poultry, but other types of white meat can be substituted. It is cut into pieces and then stewed in gravy, which is then thickened with butter and cream or milk (see white gravy). It often includes other ingredients and vegetables.”

So in a way: perfect! (and in another way…I replaced chicken with chicken mushroom, and my butter/cream gravy is made with cashew cream, making the whole recipe vegan and gluten-free, and my “white” gravy was orange due to the carrot…so again, perfect! )

Cashew Cream sauce

• 1/4 cup cashews
• 1 - 2 cloves garlic
• 2 Tbsp onion
• 1 carrot (optional, it will turn sauce orange)
• 1/2 tomato
• juice from 1 lemon
• 2 Tbsp wheat-free tamari
• water to cover, and possibly more if needed as blending, should end up being a thick sauce
• 3 Tbsp nutritional yeast (optional, adds a bit of cheesy flavor)

Blend all ingredients in vitamix or high powered blender until smooth.

Other ingredients:

• chicken mushroom, sliced (as much as you want and can find!) we used about a pound or so
• 1 onion, sliced
• 1 - 2 Tbsp olive oil (to saute onion and mushroom)
• 1 tsp dried rosemary
• 1 tsp dried basil
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• pinch cayenne (optional)
• extra water if necessary
• extra gluten free tamari if necessary

Saute sliced chicken mushroom and onion in olive oil for at least 15 minutes, adding water to steam if pan becomes too dry.

Add cashew cream sauce, mix and heat through. Add spices. Sauce will thicken, add more water and/or tamari (for saltiness) if necessary. If you’ve added more water continue to mix and heat until sauce regains thick consistency.

Serve over brown rice or noodles.

Very yum!!!

~ Melissa Sokulski

Food Under Foot

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What an exciting share we have for you this week!! (Do I say that every week??)

Even though it has been dryer than dry here in Western PA, Dave and his eagle eyes spotted some young fresh chicken mushroom for you! We also have some other amazing things this week:

• Chicken Mushroom *NEW
• Sassafras saplings *NEW
• Staghorn Sumac *NEW
• Purslane
• Lambs Quarters
• Day Lily Buds

Holy Amazing Batman!! (Yes, the new batman movie was filmed in Pittsburgh! Warning - this links to a violent/intense trailer…Batman isn’t the lovable character he once was! But Hines Ward is in this trailer.)

Like most wild mushrooms, The Chicken Mushroom MUST BE COOKED BEFORE EATING!!

In general, you can use it in place of chicken in any recipe. I like to chop it, saute it in butter, and eat it with eggs. Or make “chicken salad” with it, by taking the chopped cooked pieces of the mushroom as I would chopped cooked chicken, and mix with mayonnaise, celery, onion, and mustard.

Here is a recipe for Chicken Mushroom Satay from The 3 Foragers that I am extremely eager to try!

Always remember to use caution when trying any new food, but especially mushrooms (they have complex proteins that may be entirely new for your body to digest). Sample a little (cooked!!) at first and make sure you feel ok. This is always a good rule to follow for any new food.

Wildman Steve Brill also has some great information and recipes for Chicken Mushroom, check him out. Here is his video about chicken mushroom - very informative!

The sassafras sapling makes a delicious tea - just boiled in water. You can boil the whole small sapling: roots, stem, leaves and all.  You can decide whether you want to sweeten it with honey or not.

The last new ingredient, staghorn sumac, also makes an excellent drink. Just soak the entire “blossom” in cold water overnight, and you will have a lemony, vitamin C-rich drink akin to lemonade. Again, you may want to sweeten it or enjoy as is.  Here I take you through how to make this sumac-ade,  step by step. You can also dry the red “berries” and then use them as a lemony spice (used in Middle Eastern cooking.)

The purslane and lambsquarters give you excellent greens to work with again this week. Again we must thank Erin for the amazing purslane! Her urban homestead is for sale!! If you want to have too much purslane to know what to do with - and end up calling me to get some Check out their incredibly beautiful property, right across the street from Garden Dreams Urban Farm and Nursery.

The lambs quarters stalk is getting thick, so I recommend just using the leaves at this point. They can be eaten raw or cooked - use just like spinach.

And this may be your last week for day lily buds, so enjoy them fully! If you’ve had your fill for now, simply dehydrate the buds and use them later in soups. It’s what they do in Asia and it adds a great flavor!

This morning I sauteed the chicken mushroom in a little butter, then added onion and garlic and a handful of day lily buds (which only need a quick saute), some gluten-free tamari and mirin and served over a bed of brown basmati rice. Yummmm!

Lots of love,

Melissa

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While searching the area for mulberry trees which still had viable berries for our share yesterday, we passed some yellow dock plants where the seeds were already brown. Striking out with the mulberries we collected these for our share.

This morning I decide to make some biscuits using the seeds. Instead of our usual neutral-sweet biscuit on which we like to drizzle honey, I decided to make these savory, with jalapeno cheese and onions.

After stripping the seeds from the stalk, I added about half a cup of seeds to my vitamix, along with 1 1/2 cups of buckwheat.  I grinded the mixture into flour. (You could probably use a regular blender or coffee grinder to do the same.)

I poured the flour into a large bowl and added a teaspoon of sea salt and 1 Tbsp baking powder and mixed well.

Then I added 1/2 chopped onion and 3/4 cup grated jalapeno cheese (cheddar would do, or to make vegan try daiya cheese), 2 Tbsp olive oil, and about 1/2 cup (or less) rice milk (slowly as you mix, you don’t want to much milk. It should just hold together.)

I dropped in small rounded balls onto a greased cookie sheet and placed in a preheated 425 degree oven for 14 minutes.

They are simply heavenly. Savory and delicious. Yum.

Love and yellow dock seeds,

Melissa

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This week’s share:

• morels
• garlic mustard
• red clover flowers and leaves (new this week!)
• violet leaves and flowers (violet leaves are new!)
• black locust flowers (new this week!)
• apple mint (new this week!)
• lemon balm
• burdock stalks
• nettles
• chickweed

Yeeehaaa!  The sweet smell of flowers is in the air. You may have noticed the black locust trees in bloom - either by sight or smell. These delicious flowers are the only part of the tree that is edible. They smell magnificent and taste like honey. I enjoy them as a snack as is (raw) and added to a smoothie. One Food Under Foot follower emailed to tell me she enjoys them tempura style! My favorite fermented soda ever was made with black locust flowers! See newsletter 3 for info on making the ginger bug starter. Then pour boiling water over the locust flowers, add some sugar, when it cools to room temperature strain and add some of the ginger bug starter. Cover and let sit a couple days for a fizzy fermented healthy beverage.

Red Clover flowers and leaves are also new this week! I never realized how amazing red clover flowers smell until I had them all the table dividing them into shares this week. Wow - yum!

These are gorgeous large blooms! One thing you’ll notice about these flowers are the oval leaves underneath the flower in sets of three. There is a look-alike to clover (which is not yet blooming, but it will be soon) called Crown Vetch and you definitely do not want to eat it! Crown Vetch contains high amounts of nitro-compounds that can cause heart attacks. Not only is it unsafe for humans but for horses as well (ruminants such as cows can safely eat it). Crown Vetch was planted all along Pennsylvania highways and is extremely common and invasive. Vetch leaves are very different from clover, however. Clover leaves occur in sets of three, vetch leaves are in pairs: 15 to 25 pairs of oblong leaflets. The picture below shows white crown vetch, which could be mistaken for white clover, but there is also purple, which is similar in color to red clover.

Ideas for Red Clover include:

• Raw in Salads
• Saute in stir fry
• tempura style!
• pull petals out and add to cookie or pancake batter
• smoothies (of course)
• soup
• dried - blossoms can be dried and used to make a tea which balances hormones (mainly women)
• dried - blossoms can be dried and ground into flour (mix with regular flour in recipes…adds protein!)
• fermented soda - see week 3 newsletter for information on making a ginger bug starter. Then add the starter to sweetened red clover tea to make a naturally fermented soda.

Violet Leaves are new also, though you have gotten the flowers before. This little mix is great in salads or smoothies. Violet leaves and flowers are both very high in vitamin C.

I believe apple mint is new to your share as well. Doesn’t it smell just like apples? Mmmmm. You can dry this mint to save and have later as tea, or make tea with it now or add to salads or dishes which call for mint. It’s great in smoothies! I love adding apple mint to smoothies almost as much as I love adding lemon balm (also in your share) along with other greens such as chickweed.

This may be the last week for morels! We have been out there looking high and low for you, every chance we get! Phew! Many people have reported this is a slow year for morels but we have done ok. Just multiply what you have gotten in your share ten times - not too bad! I hope you have enjoyed them! And who knows…maybe it’s been “slow” because they are not even fully out yet - it’s only the beginning of May! We will still be out there scoping the forests and hills for morels until at least mid-May, so hope is not lost for a banner amount in your share! *Remember to always cook wild mushrooms before eating!*

Some tips for this week’s share:

• try using garlic mustard leaves in place of lettuce on sandwiches and burgers
• if garlic mustard or any green gets wilty, soaking in ice water revives (thanks Rhonda!)
• If you find yourself with too many greens, remember you can dry them or freeze them
• a great way to save garlic mustard is turning it to pesto and freezing the pesto in ice cube trays
• you don’t need to peel the burdock stalks if you cook them: just boil them and they will get soft and the bitterness goes away
• remember to always cook wild mushrooms before eating!

Here are links to some recipes we’ve posted previously using things that are in your share. (All recipes are vegetarian and gluten-free!)

• Garlic Mustard Pesto
• Potato Pancakes with nettles and garlic mustard
• Burdock stalks in gravy
• Morel Frittata
• Nettles and Broccoli Quiche
• Morel Potato Kugel
• Leah’s Chickweed Crepes
• Homemade Nettle Pasta
• Nettle Potato Soup
• Making Fermented Sodas (including the ginger bug starter)

And remember you can search our blog (search box upper left) or  check back to previous newsletters for ideas.

Enjoy this week’s share!!

~ Melissa Sokulski