Mom with a PREP | Love mushroom flavor but don’t like the texture? Want to find a way to add more umami without adding meat? Try making your own mushroom powder!
Umami – that ubiquitous flavor that no one can really pin down that is best described at a ‘meaty’ flavor. It’s prized in Japanese cooking, it was all the rage in the food world a year or two ago, and STILL has a place in our food storage and everyday cooking. How do you get it without necessarily using beef products? Mushroom powder, that’s how! And I’m going to show you how to do it yourself!
Mushroom powder is simply mushrooms that have been dehydrated and then ground. Because you’re already dehydrating mushrooms for your food storage (aren’t you?), powder is a simple step away.
HOW TO MAKE MUSHROOM POWDER
1. Fill your blender or food processor with dehydrated mushrooms.
2. Process said dehydrated mushrooms on blend until you have come up with a fine powder.
3. Pour powder through a fine, mesh strainer into a funnel into your storage container. (I am really loving these Foodsaver Canisters for things I want to keep vacuum sealed but use everyday!)
4. Reprocess any bits that didn’t grind down well enough and repeat step #3.
5. Store in an airtight container in low light.
**Note, this powder is a fine powder, so be careful when removing your blender top, else you might get a face full (or lung full) of mushroom powder. You can see remnants on my blender photos from me opening the first time to check. I think I might have been able to grow mushrooms in my lungs for a few days !
HOW TO USE MUSHROOM POWDER
My youngest has texture issues with food and loves the flavor of mushroom, but isn’t fond of eating mushrooms. Using mushroom powder in our foods has been a great way to incorporate the boldness of mushroom flavor + their nutritional value without adding the chunky bits he doesn’t like so well.
- Put a tablespoon into your favorite omelet recipe.
- Use to help bring more flavor to soups and stews without adding texture or meat products.
- Sprinkle across a salad for an extra ‘wow’ factor.
- Mix into meatloaf or burger patties to add an extra depth of flavor without necessarily adding bulk or texture.
- Sprinkle in pasta sauces for added depth of flavor.
Be sure not to add your mushroom powder early in the cooking cycle if you are doing long, slow-cooking dishes. You’ll want to add them later. And while some purists think that the trendier, higher priced varieties of mushrooms are better (and their flavor will be more intense), everyday crimini (those little brown ones that look like button mushrooms) work well, too!
Normally, I grab a big sale at a local grocers when I can get these on sale at my rock bottom prices, and I buy a few flats of them. I spend the next few days dehydrating away, and save about 1/2 for dried mushrooms, then powder the rest. In the photo, what is in the blender is about 6 pint containers of crimini mushrooms (what fills my Excalibur dehydrator – give or take a tray), and it blends down into what you see in photo #2, which is just over 1/2 quart. But that powder lasts a LOOONG time because you don’t use huge amounts of it.
How to Store Mushroom Powder
While I still need to do a full video on how to dehydrate and powder mushrooms, I did my first video on how to store mushroom powder – or at least how I do it. I used to just put it in airtight jars and let that be that. I’ve had to change my ways…and here’s how I do it!
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So give it a try and let me know what you think!
Supplies you might need:
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I’m a dehydrating, food powder, making junkie so I am excited to add this to my list of powdered food!
I slice and dehydrate the mushroom caps for cooking. I split the stems and dehydrate them to make mushroom powder. Another warning about mushroom powder. Don’t use too much. It takes a lot of mushroom or stems to make 1 tablespoon. It goes a long way. Because my family hates to eat veggies, I also dehydrate kale, spinach, greens, tomatoes and just about anything out there and make all kinds of powders. I can slip a big spoonful of kale powder into my soups or stews and they never even suspect they are getting some healthy veggies. I use a lot of tomato powder when I cook. There is a never ending list of ways to use dehydrated, powdered veggies. {:0)
We’ve been tramping the hills foraging for wild mushrooms, most of which can be dried. Some of them don’t dry well, they reconstitute poorly, and mushroom powder is a way to make them more usable.
One thing if you forage mushrooms and dry them or powder them though: Make sure you cook them well after reconstituting. Many wild mushrooms must be cooked to avoid digestive upset.
I find that tossing them into any uncooked food that has sufficient liquid to reconstitute them (or adding a bit of water to the dish) and then cooking till the food is done is sufficient to cook the mushrooms, except for a few that need longer cooking times.
When drying Crimini mushrooms is it necessary to slice them first or can I simply clean them and put them in my Excalibur? I get slicing them if I want to dry the slices and then reconstitute, but in this case my goal is to make the mushroom powder.
Thanks!
I’d still slice them. It makes drying so much quicker. I never do them whole.
Can you use dehydrated mushrooms from the local Chinese market?
You can.
Ive read a lot about grit and dried mushrooms but i have not come across anyone giving advise on grit and using dried mushroom to make a powder. Thoughts?
I’m not quite understanding what you mean by grit and mushrooms? Grit from the mushrooms?